Will Bairu beat Ritz?

So you guys are saying Ritz will run 2:08, breaking his London PR by over a minute on the five burroughs course, after a mediocre half-marathon and injuries for the past year no less, and meanwhile has a shot at beating everyone in one of the better fields NYC has ever had, only excepting the greatest marathoner of all time?

I'm still sticking with my 2:10 / 2:11 guesses for Ritz / Bairu. And those would be impressive.

Really? 2:11 at the Olympics on a hot day isn't special?

Graeme McDowell wrote:

fast pace for up to an hour...after that he hasn't shown anything special. ...blah blah blah

Why do people think Tadese couldn't pull it together for a fast marathon? His credentials are obviously 10 times better than Ritz's, and after the first London marathon it was World Record pace so yea that might kill him but for the second one they came through half in 63.

bairu won't finish within 5 minutes of ritz, you heard it here first

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ken bob wrote:

ritz IS a better distance runner than hall, has been since high school. He also trains better (my opinion) and is tougher. Go watch footlocker nats from their hs years on youtube. Who cares who won at trials. And yes, ritz's hs dominance is relevant here because the marathon is probably a better fit for him than the 5k was back in hs.

wait, so disregard the latest matchup 2 years ago(other than olympics themselves) in the actual distance of topic, and pay attention to the HIGH SCHOOL races 10 YEARS ago in A 5K?? cause thats relavent ya tard. if we based crap off high school, alan webb would have the world record in the mile, Matt withrow woulb be going sub 13:00 and right around 27:00 for the 10k(destroys rupp in last 200 at FL). Hell, if you base it off college, which is closer to the current, BAIRU OWNS RITZ.(2ncaa cross titles). not actually saying bairus better, but it proves my point nicely

easylegalese wrote:

bairu won't finish within 5 minutes of ritz, you heard it here first

No, he won't.

Bairu 2:07:50

Ritz 2:13:00, or DNF

Canadian harrier wrote:

easylegalese wrote:

bairu won't finish within 5 minutes of ritz, you heard it here first

No, he won't.

Bairu 2:07:50

Ritz 2:13:00, or DNF

You do realize, you disagree with his statement and then predict times that will support his statement? easylegalese never specified whether Ritz would finish ahead of Bairu, just that Bairu would not be within 5 minutes of Ritz...

Ritz and Bairu will be near each other 1-2 minutes. Neither will be up there for the win though. There are simply too many Kenyans and Ethiopians who are way better.

Funny, someone on here mixes in Hall in the debate, the OP was asking about Ritz 'n Bairu.

Someone on here also referred to 5000m as being related to 'speed'. 5000m is primarily an aerobic event.

Odd that another person on here thinks that high school records directly relate to what these guys do after another decade of training.

10,000m pb's do not always translate, see bottom half of article for a few examples.

http://www.flotrack.org/articles/view/2855-simon-bairu-ing-new-york-city-marathon

I think Ritz vs. Bairu will be an interesting race within a race. While I like both these guys, their chances of winning are pretty slim.The men's field is stacked. Kwambai to win, Meb 2nd, Haile DNF. Hopefully Bairu can take down the (shamefully slow) Canadian record and go sub-2:10.

Bairu has never run a marathon. That alone means, all else equal, that Ritz should win.

Why is nobody giving the americans a chance? No one expected Meb to win last year except him and it was enough.

just from watching the two run Baire seems to be a lot lighter on his feet, this could matter in a longer run like the marathon.

Pepsitwist wrote:

Canadian harrier wrote:

No, he won't.

Bairu 2:07:50

Ritz 2:13:00, or DNF

You do realize, you disagree with his statement and then predict times that will support his statement? easylegalese never specified whether Ritz would finish ahead of Bairu, just that Bairu would not be within 5 minutes of Ritz...

Saying "No, he won't" does not imply disagreement with the previous poster. The previous poster said "bairu won't finish...". This was agreed to with "No, he won't".

Really, the English language is not such a difficult thing.

Please note that I could have started my post with "You do realize..." but I recognize that this phrase was old before it ever got started and is only used by the ignorant and arrogant.

I say Tim rolls 'em both up.

cocakula wrote:

Ritz will run AT LEAST sub 2:09

OH YEA! Just like in London right??

oh wait.....

As for Bairu keep in mind that training seems to do a very good job of debuting athletes at new distances, not forcing them into things early - see Solinsky's 10k or Jager's 5k as examples. You know if Bairu's moving to the marathon he's ready to roll. I'll say 2:07-08 range. Ritz most likely in the 2:08-09 range if the injury, poor training, etc, etc, rumors are true, 2:06-07 if he's 100%.

ritz was 10x better than hall in high school therefore he is a better runner. And withrow WOULD be running those times today but he got a career ending groin injury. We will know who was right after the 2012 and 2016 olympic games (as far as hall vs ritz).

I hope Ritz destroys him completely. Go USA