24 Hour Later Update on Ritz: 'I do love the marathon but I think I love being good better'

Not good wrote:
The unspoken fact is that he got into the marathon for the money when he ran NYC the first time. He will continue to chase the marathon because that is where he is paid the most. It's perfectly acceptable to have this motivation. He has a life and family to think of. I just wish he would cite the money rather than the "mystique." It's not as if he will be any more competitive on the world stage in the 5k or 10k.

There is nothing wrong with Ritz focusing on the track and perhaps running New York once a year just to pad his income. Unlike the other 4 marathon majors, New York gets far and away the most media attention, Ritz continues to be a curiosity among those who follow the sport. He may not receive 250K appearance $$$ but I'm sure he will receive at least 100-150k to run New York each time he decides to run. If he breaks the american 5K or 10K records that will only add to the intrigue and will perhaps increase his appearance fees for marathons.

Zat0pek wrote:
BOTTOM LINE: Ritz had (1) two different coaches who (2) got nearly identical results from Ritz in (3) six marathons (4) run on five different courses (5) over the span of five-plus years. That's a good enough data sample to examine objectively and say pretty definitively, "Nope, that boy just ain't the same runner at the marathon that he is from 5,000 to the half-marathon and cross. Time to go back and dance with the distances that brung ya."

Maybe. We all know his career has been riddled with injury, so those 5 data points are broken up by periods of significant training time lost. So if his career is to proceed how it has been so far, I would agree, maybe we'll see 2-3 more marathons that have been preceded by 2-3 more injuries and an insufficient build-up and we'll get 2-3 more 2:10's and 2:11's.

But if he ever puts together 2 years of uninterrupted training, I think your 5 data points are going to be useless and we'll see his true potential at 26.2 miles. Granted, that's a big IF.

24 Hour Later Update on Ritz: "I do love the marathon but I think I love being good better"

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