sloop john b wrote:
Sagarin wrote:Dathan disagrees.
http://www.mlive.com/sports/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/08/dathan_ritzenhein_encouraged_b.htmlOf course he disagrees. What do you expect him to say? "We'll it's over for me, I think I'm just gonna stick to coaching full time." Athletes are always going to give themselves the benefit of the doubt to increase the hope that they aren't done (look at the twitter feed and recent interviews with Chris Solinsky). But sorry to say folks, he's DONE.
Read it again. He wasn't going to push it with the possibility of blowing up and isn't expecting to be anywhere near his PR pace in Philly, but he expects a solid result if it's not too hot, hence my earlier "1:02ish" comment. Still not great, but a return to form and a gateway to a Fall marathon as he states in the article. Let's not proclaim him done just yet. It's only been 10 months since he ran 2:09 at Chicago and about 15 months since he ran 13:09 for 5,000, almost beating Rupp.
He's been injured and in a major life transition. I still think he has some fire left for a couple more years. He won't break 13:00 or 27:00 or 1:00:00, but he might still have a great marathon and an Olympic team left in those legs.