I had thought it a little strange to run a half marathon that close to New York. Apparently his workouts have been going great, so they no longer feel he needs another race to be in top shape.
I had thought it a little strange to run a half marathon that close to New York. Apparently his workouts have been going great, so they no longer feel he needs another race to be in top shape.
I've never heard of not racing due to good training.
Hall was too weak to do Chicago, yet Ritz is above the Denver half, which he committed to doing?!
It is odd phrasing in his statement--things have been going really well, so unfortunately I have to take the prudent step of not doing this race.
read between the lines. ritz had no intention of running denver. he has a deal with rnr and they used his name to get the final push to sell it out then withdrew him.
RnR Denver sold out 2 weeks Before Ritz announced he was running.
road rashed wrote:
read between the lines. ritz had no intention of running denver. he has a deal with rnr and they used his name to get the final push to sell it out then withdrew him.
I am not doubting what you posted but do you really think the an rnr event needs elites to sell out? Probably 75% of the registered runners do not know who Ritz is. Just saying.
I think it has more to do with the fact that he doesn't think he 'needs' to run the half to gauge his fitness before NY. Maybe he got all the feedback he and his coach needs from the workouts. As fragile as he seems to be, I wouldn't risk a race that has no meaning this close to a marathon.
Why do these guys sign up for races then pull out, uninjured?
Couldn't handle the pressure of this prediction contest -
I know what's coming...you guys that run 20 minute 5Ks have no idea what elite runners go through...yada yada yada.
Guess what? If I say I'm gonna do something, I do it.
These guys....they're flakes.
Why aren't people calling him a quitter, mocking his personal beliefs, or calling for a coaching change?
Oh wait, thats only reserved for Hall.
Does anyone even know what Dathan's "personal beliefs" are? We know that Hall is a Christian, as well as Solinsky, Jager and Meb. Everyone else is a mystery, though I think Adam Goucher is an atheist.
runfastpleasenowsir wrote:
Why aren't people calling him a quitter, mocking his personal beliefs, or calling for a coaching change?
Oh wait, thats only reserved for Hall.
because he dropped out of a meaningless tune-up, not an american record attempt, he keeps his personal beliefs personal, and he has been extremely successful and shown rapid improvement under his current coach
'swe333t wrote:
runfastpleasenowsir wrote:Why aren't people calling him a quitter, mocking his personal beliefs, or calling for a coaching change?
Oh wait, thats only reserved for Hall.
because he dropped out of a meaningless tune-up, not an american record attempt, he keeps his personal beliefs personal, and he has been extremely successful and shown rapid improvement under his current coach
you win, my heart.
Too bad Ritz doesn't have as many pairs of balls as Michael Wardian. Did you know he won the Hartford Marathon 6 days after running 2:21?
Ummm.... wrote:
Guess what? If I say I'm gonna do something, I do it.
Guess what? Nobody cares what you do.
I might have something todo with racing at altitude.
See Jorge Tores comments.
That's not the point.
The point is, why publicly say you are going to do X race, when you have no real intention of running X race?
He could have easily anticipated good training; isn't that what elites expect from their training?
Since he must have expected his training to go well and therefore not needed the Denver race, there was no point in making an announcement that he was racing in Denver. Racing in Denver was a hedge against his training going poorly, and shouldn't have been announced.
It really doesn't matter, but IMO, people should try to do what they say they are going to do. Otherwise, what the hell is the point to saying anything?
All I can conclude is Ritz is just mouthing off like a teenage girl.
Ritz told the Denver Post it was because race organizers couldn't assemble a strong enough field on short notice:
Ritz was just 3rd at the Great North Run. Who did he think they would get to race Denver RnR? Torres maybe, but he had to have known that he'd likely be solo the whole way when he committed (just as Culpepper was in 2006). Not buying the "not a strong enough field" excuse.