Ritz Pulls Out of Chicago Shamrock Shuffle with "Leg Strain"

critics critics the world is full of critics! He has to make the best decision for himself. I am sure his coach and doctors and himself knows whats best for him not a bunch of posters on running websites! Get off his ASS!

I am of the generation that had its competitive time in the 1970s and 80s,and this is typical of the generational theme that says "we were tougher in my day." Let's get off Ritz. To this gentleman's argument, if Ritz were racing in the marathon in the 1970s, he might not have the Nike "gadgets," whatever that might refer to, or the financial support, but he'd also have been a world class marathoner with times three minutes slower than what he ran ihn Chicago last year.

Bill Rodgers was a great competitor in his day, and he could run road races week after week and keep getting paid by outkicking guys because he ran in a different competitive era. Frank Shorter, another legend from that era, was ranked No. 1 in the world more than once and had a lifetime PR of 2:10:30. As others in this thread have pointed out, if Ritz goes to Chicago at 98% fitness, he gets his doors blown off, he risks further injury and the loss of an entire season. He's not in the middle of college cross country season. It's unreasonable to expect the guy to put a Band-Aid on it and suck it up for the team. It's 2013, Not 1973, he's proven himself a tough competitor in world class competitions, and I'm not going to second guess the guy.

Ritz just had a terrific race at the NYC Half. If he's not doing the Shuffle, I'm sure his reasons are valid. It's part of his agreement with the Chicago Marathon people and he doesn't take it lightly.

Chronologically or otherwise, many of you are mere children.

race on that and you get a long term vacation. but that being said, he'd have been better off health wise running world xc than NYC, because road half marathons are not easy to recover from and he'd have a silver medal to show for it.

Same boat as ritz...

Retardalert. wrote:

Distance is not relevant F'tard. Even if it was a 400 a strained muscle is relevant if not more so.

Ok I guess I was just mad at him opting out of World XC and wasn't thinking about what a "strain" entailed, I was "retarded" and read it as a pulled muscle so my bad.

But he's older and more fragile, I would like to see him retire if he's going to get injured as often as he does. I don't think it's right to take appearance fees if you don't race.

Uuusjfjdjd wrote:

I would like to see more Americans in the big road races, like Cherry Blossom, etc. Organizers should skew prize money to the top american finishers with time bonuses. It might hel ,our depth. It would get names out to the masses.

I.e., "It might help our depth if we didn't have to race foreigners."

Good luck with that.

collegiate runner wrote:

But he's older and more fragile, I would like to see him retire if he's going to get injured as often as he does. I don't think it's right to take appearance fees if you don't race.

He doesn't get the appearance fee if he doesn't appear. That's why it's called an appearance fee.

But more importantly, why on earth do you want him to retire just because he has injury problems? I truly don't understand -- it's like you're taking his injury as a personal insult. If you don't find his career interesting or satisfying to follow anymore, then stop paying attention to it! It's like me saying "I don't find ballet interesting, therefore I'd like to see all ballet dancers banned from performing."

viva italia wrote:

Uuusjfjdjd wrote:

I would like to see more Americans in the big road races, like Cherry Blossom, etc. Organizers should skew prize money to the top american finishers with time bonuses. It might hel ,our depth. It would get names out to the masses.

I.e., "It might help our depth if we didn't have to race foreigners."

Good luck with that.

Not what I said. Its dishonest to put it in quotes, A$$hole. More like - it might help our depth if more US runners could make money at races and stay in the sport. We obviously can give prize money to INTL athletes but put more emphasis on the Americans.

hold the phone wrote:

He doesn't get the appearance fee if he doesn't appear. That's why it's called an appearance fee.

But more importantly, why on earth do you want him to retire just because he has injury problems? I truly don't understand -- it's like you're taking his injury as a personal insult. If you don't find his career interesting or satisfying to follow anymore, then stop paying attention to it! It's like me saying "I don't find ballet interesting, therefore I'd like to see all ballet dancers banned from performing."

He still gets some type of money though, doesn't he? To answer your question I'm tired of our sport throwing money at washed up guys. It's not helping the sport at all. I'm a believer in getting the money that you deserve. I'm not saying that Ritz should be a poor guy on the street, but he shouldn't be making $150,000+ IF he does (which is in my view living extravagantly) because he simply hasn't done so hot in the past couple years.

Maybe I'm an idiot or just a jerk. Who knows.

Bottom line is that Ritz, strained muscle and all, could crush any one of you at any distance any time, so chill out. Smart business decision.

i agree. Nobody here knows his situation better than himself and his coach. He has bigger fish to fry this year and needs to be healthy. Us championships worlk championships and chicago in the fall i am sure is where his focus lies. It will take everything he has to make the worlds team at 10k. We may have 3 guys run sub 2720 this year so he cant take that race lightly. Never smart to race if something is not feeling right

Kite fight wrote:

former fan of ritz wrote:

Ritz used to be one of my favorite runners but the amount of times he has dropped out of a race in the past 3 years is insane.

why does Meb get a pass on all the races he pulls out of each year

I'll see your Meb and raise you Ryan Hall.

SMJO wrote:

Meb has also done things that Ritz never will so anything he does from now on is just gravy.

You mean like run 8:11, 12:56, and 60:00?

No like silver medal, marathon major champion, Olympic trials champion. Things that involve competing.

esfdsafsdfasfadsf wrote:

SMJO wrote:

Meb has also done things that Ritz never will so anything he does from now on is just gravy.

You mean like run 8:11, 12:56, and 60:00?

I must add that runners in general get hurt often. Whether its something as small as leg soreness to stress fractures and everything in between. If your training at a high level for yourself, you will get hurt. Some and most jnjuries you can train through, but Its not just Ritz. I remember a great runner one time saying, "running hurts, its painful."

I'm not about to start bashing Ritz for this... better safe than sorry

trello wrote:

No like silver medal, marathon major champion, Olympic trials champion. Things that involve competing.

esfdsafsdfasfadsf wrote:

You mean like run 8:11, 12:56, and 60:00?

Oh, so you mean like WJXC bronze and HM WC bronze?

When it comes to a list of accomplishments, especially in Championship style racing, Meb outranks just about every U.S runner right now, except for Lagat & maybe a few others. Meb runs as "fast" as "B" or "C" list Kenyans, yet always performs when it counts.

However, this isn't a conversation about Meb.

it's a conversation about how incredibly injury prone Ritz is. I personally don't see him making the World team at 10k this year, same with Tegenkamp.