Ritz Would Not Have Won NCAA Cross Country Champs On Monday

good thing he isn't training for 10k cross country

This has more to do with Ritz's lack of fitness, due to previous injuries I guess. What is G. Matui training for? Do you think G. Matui just MIGHT have been able to dispose of Lalang by a minute or so?

I guess I ate too much. I meant G. Mutai, not Matui...

Troll, if you have ever trained for a marathon, then you would know that you don't just jump in a 5k and run a blazing time right in the middle of the training segment. It was part of a workout. Lots of great marathoners put up mediocre times while training.

I am not a troll. I am sick of this kind of foggy excuse making. Ritz is NOT going to be able to deal with the big boys. He will NOT make the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon. You apparently cannot see the writing on the wall, and I don't mean the wall that Ritz will hit at mile 22. The great marathoners like Mutai can hop in a 5k road race and run 13:20 any time in their training.

I don't really understand the point of your posts. Of course Ritz wouldn't have won NCAAs this year. He's coming off a long series of injuries and hasn't really done any race-specific training. And of course Mutai could have won NCAA XC. He won the Kenyan XC trials by 44 seconds. So yes, Mutai is better than Ritz. What an incredibly banal insight. Good job.

chauncey wrote:

I don't really understand the point of your posts.

You aren't very bright, are you? The point is that Ritz is NOT going to be able to make the U.S. team for London in the marathon. IF you cannot win NCAA cross country this year, you are not in a good position to make the U.S. Olympic marathon team, especially if you haven't shown you run well in marathons relative to other distances.

Ryan Hall, a sub 2:05 marathoner, would not, at this point in his training, have been able even to beat Chris Derrick at NCAA X-C. Do you think he will not make the team?

Montesquieu wrote:

Ryan Hall, a sub 2:05 marathoner, would not, at this point in his training, have been able even to beat Chris Derrick at NCAA X-C.

First of all, you lose all credibility by referring to Ryan Hall as a sub 2:05 marathoner. Ryan Hall would have probably beaten Lalang and certainly could have beaten Derrick.

hall wouldn't have won he's not doing the 10k xc specific training

DaysThatWere wrote:

hall wouldn't have won he's not doing the 10k xc specific training

We don't know that Hall wouldn't have won, but we do know that Hall has shown that he can run the marathon better than shorter distances and Ritz has not shown that.

Actually, it's vastly more probable that Hall would have eaten dust than anything else. Look at every race less than a half-marathon that he has run in the last three years and he shows no evidence whatsoever of being able to beat Derrick, especially when in the midst of marathon training. About me not having any credibility because I called Hall a sub 2:05 marathoner, well since he did run a sub 2:05, it scarcely seemed credible to say anything else. Now, the conditions at Boston were, to say the least, favorable to fast times, but the course is 26 m 385 y, and he broke 2:05. But why be catty--would it have made any difference if I had just said he was a 2:06 marathoner? You are correct, though: Hall has proven (except at the Olympics) to be a better marathoner than Ritz, and Ritz has proven to be better on the track than Hall. But nothing follows from that other than that Hall is favored over Ritz in the Trials. Here's Ritz's "track" record: every time he has attempted to make an Olympic or World team (in 10,000, World X-C, and Marathon), he has succeeded. What other American long distance runner has such a record? None. This makes me pretty confident he'll make the marathon team for London.

Jesse was indeed a friend wrote:

DaysThatWere wrote:

hall wouldn't have won he's not doing the 10k xc specific training

We don't know that Hall wouldn't have won, but we do know that Hall has shown that he can run the marathon better than shorter distances and Ritz has not shown that.

Montesquieu wrote:

Actually, it's vastly more probable that Hall would have eaten dust than anything else. Look at every race less than a half-marathon that he has run in the last three years and he shows no evidence whatsoever of being able to beat Derrick, especially when in the midst of marathon training.

So a solo 43:26 doesn't indicate to you the potential to beat Chris Derrick? Wow, that is some opinion you must have of Derrick.

Jesse was indeed a friend wrote:

He will NOT make the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon. You apparently cannot see the writing on the wall, and I don't mean the wall that Ritz will hit at mile 22. The great marathoners like Mutai can hop in a 5k road race and run 13:20 any time in their training.

To make the U.S. Olympic team, you don't have to be as good as Mutai.

Ritz will face no one at the trials who can hop in a road race at any time and run 13:20.

Jesse was indeed a friend wrote:

I am not a troll. I am sick of this kind of foggy excuse making. Ritz is NOT going to be able to deal with the big boys. He will NOT make the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon. You apparently cannot see the writing on the wall, and I don't mean the wall that Ritz will hit at mile 22. The great marathoners like Mutai can hop in a 5k road race and run 13:20 any time in their training.

Good thing Mutai isn't showing up at olympic marathon trials....

adsfasdfasdfasdf wrote:

Jesse was indeed a friend wrote:

I am not a troll. I am sick of this kind of foggy excuse making. Ritz is NOT going to be able to deal with the big boys. He will NOT make the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon. You apparently cannot see the writing on the wall, and I don't mean the wall that Ritz will hit at mile 22. The great marathoners like Mutai can hop in a 5k road race and run 13:20 any time in their training.

Good thing Mutai isn't showing up at olympic marathon trials....

So you're parroting the previous poster. Well, to address both of you, 13:49 at this juncture is not a good sign. Of course Mutai is not going to be at the trials, but even 2:10 marathoners should be able to run 13:30, and Ritz cannot do it, so it does not look good for him.

Ritz was faster at 5000m in high school than he was today, so this is NOT a good sign. Sorry if this is difficult to understand for the morons.

I would also like to make clear that I am NOT bashing Ritz, who apparently has had injury problems. He WON'T make the team in the marathon, but perhaps he'd have a shot at making the team on the track, as he'd have more time to play with.

Jesse was indeed a friend wrote:

He WON'T make the team in the marathon, but perhaps he'd have a shot at making the team on the track, as he'd have more time to play with.

bookmarking this thread so when he makes the team you'll be shown to be the moron that you truly are (again) and hopefully return to the bridge from whence you came.

bookmarker wrote:

Jesse was indeed a friend wrote:

He WON'T make the team in the marathon, but perhaps he'd have a shot at making the team on the track, as he'd have more time to play with.

bookmarking this thread so when he makes the team you'll be shown to be the moron that you truly are (again) and hopefully return to the bridge from whence you came.

Actually, if you were not stupid you'd recognize that my superior intellect is not deleteriously impacted by an erroneous prediction...but of course the prediction won't prove to be erroneous.