Runners World Takes It To Ritz: "All the money in the world can't buy a faster marathon"

I hope Ritz had some issue like injury/cramp otherwise I'm kinda disappointed.

Well, you know...the author of that article was waiting around in the press room for Ritz to come in and talk...and he didn't come. So the guy didn't have much else to write about.

The author of that article comes across as a real jack ass

Holmes was training in New Mexico, then flying to the coast to do his MP runs, then goes and runs a 2:12. What a waste of resources!

awesome. I'm glad this journalist wrote that. Ritz needs to grow some balls and find his own motivation. That way he could actually face the press confernece instead of waiting for Salazar to tell him how to think positively.

Being from the old school, I sometimes wonder about all the reliance on "science" and gadgets. It does seem to work for some and not for others.

Bill Rodgers ran in the 2:09s eating junk food, just out there putting in the miles. No Alter G or all that other crap. True, he did not have the times Ritz has posted in the 5 and 10K, however, he certainly ran faster marathons.

The pace for the first half did not seem that crazy, so I'm not sure what did him in.

12 days before a marathon should you really be trying out some experimental thing? I would also have imagined something like this would be more useful (assuming it works. Thats a big if) during training instead of the day before the race.

big apple wrote:

Opening paragraph:

As the saying goes, all the money in the world can’t buy happiness. It can’t buy love. And for Dathan Ritzenhein, it couldn’t buy a faster marathon.

Nike has dumped dollar after dollar into the Ritz project, including high-tech gait analysis, custom footbeds, and coach Alberto Salazar overseeing form tinkering. Earlier in the week, Nike flew in a "cryosauna" to New York for their flagship American athlete to get one last dousing of liquid nitrogen. But when it comes down to it, it only matters how fast you run and how well you place.

http://newyorkmarathon.runnersworld.com/2010/11/ritzenhein-still-waiting-for-breakout-marathon.html

Didn't know about the cryosauna.

cocakula wrote:

The author of that article comes across as a real jack ass

Sounds likes the stuff that is regularly posted here.

Its just like rocky four. Ritz is the russian and Geb is rocky. But seriously, I dont think Ritz has his full heart set on the marathon. He doesnt get in that consistent year round training specifically for the marathon that is needed to really perform.

cocakula wrote:

The author of that article comes across as a real jack ass

Sounds like a real sports article. Maybe he didn't get the memo that running is not a real sport and he should treat all the participants like winners.

canadian wrote:

Being from the old school, I sometimes wonder about all the reliance on "science" and gadgets. It does seem to work for some and not for others.

Bill Rodgers ran in the 2:09s eating junk food, just out there putting in the miles. No Alter G or all that other crap. True, he did not have the times Ritz has posted in the 5 and 10K, however, he certainly ran faster marathons.

The pace for the first half did not seem that crazy, so I'm not sure what did him in.

this guy runs 12:56 and his coach tells him the marathon is his future, total BS, stick with the 5km/10km, is money the real issue?

When did Runners World become a credible source?

When's the last time Ritz ran a marathon.

Two years ago????

I ran 7 marathons my fastest year.

He's not running enough marathons to be a true marathon runner.

I see no reason to avoid running at least one marathon every two months.

If he can't run then don't run, but if he can run he should run.

And what were the times of Bill Rodgers first 5 marathons?

Why is it that EVERY one of Salazar's athletes are better suited for something other than the marathon. The original Oregon Project was supposed to be a marathon project and he ended up taking them all in a different direction because "THE MARATHON WAS NOT THEIR BEST EVENT".

Sorry folks but the coach is the problem not EVERYONE of his athletes.

Ritz has a family and Mary Whit threw a bunch of cash at him and for the good of his family and their future he took it. This can be the only reasonable explanation for coming off of an injury and trying to get ready for a marathon in such a short amount of time. It really made no sense for him to run NYC this year. His re-debut didn't go much better than his debut. This was his 5th marathon, generally athletes don't continue to improve in the marathon. culpepper debuted in 2:09:41 and never improved...Ritz has yet to even match that time. He's not a marathoner, those tests at Nike that showed he had some sort of genetic advantage that pointed to the marathon as being his best event were wrong. He lacks endurance, needs more consistent training and more long runs and not these marathon pace tempos that have come into vogue. He's a long long way from the 2:05 he has talked about.

Me thinks the boy needs a new coach...Al has tried coaching these lads and to no avail, they come up short...I know of a fella that produces winners, only problem is all the good runners are cocky as s*&$ and they go off training themselves...now their bigger losers..

I've seen runners on here who trained "old school" and they got ripped for "not respecting their talent" (if they eat junk food, they don't care enough, if they run really high mileage, it's junk mileage, if they weren't fast in HS, they're not talented, will never win, and shouldn't keep running full-time, etc).

Now the runners who do everything they can to run fast get mocked for being supported and not "old school enough."

Can we admit that we're going to rip these guys no matter what? If Ritz moved to Boston to trudge through the snow and started racing every two weeks, would he be cool enough then?

The cash point is valid. If he made anywhere near the reported $200,000 just to run in 2006 and anywhere near that to run yesterday, who would pass up cash like that?

Bill Rodgers was amazing for his time. The competition just wasn't there and things have changed. I remember Tom Fleming saying he ran ran 2:12 at Boston (1975) and got third and how absurd it was. At the time, he was right.

Overall, this board has too many haters. The marathon is a finicky event and things don't always go as planned. It has been suggested that he stick with the track, yet who told Haile to do that? What about if KB moves up to the marathon? It was just over 2 years ago that Haile ran 2:03:59 and I am fairly confident in saying that his track speed helped. Why Dathan has had a couple bad ones is beside me. His 2:10 in London and the 2:12 are both puzzling, kinda.

The only problem that I have is he should be doing what Alberto did back in 1981. He got on 4:53 pace very quickly and pretty much maintained it for the better part of the race, going through halfway in just over 1:04.

My point is if Dathan wants to run 2:08 pace (or 2:07), then after things get settled down, get on that pace and you won't have to worry about leading alone because others will be right beside him. Then if he can't maintain, regardless of his place, he's got to look at some other way.

If he ran the 20 mile workout that I heard about, he should have no problem running close to even splits in a race. If 50 guys are ahead of you or behind you, who cares if his goal is to run a certain time. As far as winning it with a field like that, well, everything would have to go perfect and some top guys are going to have to have an off day.

If he's racing for the win and trying it off of a slow early pace, then he's not going to make it with 5 guys running 3 miles in sub 4:30 pace at 16 miles into the marathon. Two or three of those guys are going to be on that day. Alberto went through the halfway over a minute faster than they did yesterday in very good conditions, why? Well, they have no one to blame but themselves. Is there too much money on the line? Are they playing cat and mouse too much and afraid to go for it?

Dathan needs to run his own race and not be afraid to keep an honest pace and not worry about the others. Hell, I wathced him in highschool throw caution to the wind race after race, even in the heat at track meets.

Trust me, he's at least a 2:07 marathoner, at the very least and maybe faster. It just hasn't happened yet.

Heck, Greg Meyer went 2:09 flat at Boston in 83' and a lot of you guys don't think Dathan can run 2:08. Look at Greg's pr's compared to Dathan's. It's not even close.