At age 36, Ritz wants to win the Boston Marathon next Monday

I hope he wins but that would be April Fool's joke.

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper

Trying hard to be like Gary Cooper

Super-Duper

I might be American, but I'm rooting for the Japanese 100%. Go Yuki!!!

Weather forecast favors Yuki.

Imo anything below 2:10 should make him very happy

I would be happy if ANY American can run under 2:10, since any given weekend some random East African runs a 2:04/5. Good thing there are Olympics.

Oh.

1/10

Or same score you got in freshman comp.

rojo wrote:

He seems to know the odds of a win are small (but I'd certainly say higher than Yuki's last year) [/quote]

I hope you're really just desperately hyping this article and aren't actually this dumb.

Nothing would make me happier than to see Ritz run a great race and compete for the win, even if victory is unlikely. And I understand the appeal of being competitive in big city marathons...but why couldn't he just be the guy who consistently crushes it from 10k to 1/2 marathon? And in cross country? I can't remember a single instance of Ritz running poorly in one of those events (although I'm sure there are examples), but his marathon training always seems to lead to injury and disappointing marathon performances (with 1-2 memorable exceptions). It's not like his marathon performances have been consistently terrible or anything, but they have almost always been beneath the expectations incumbent upon his limitless talent. 13 years now of trying to be a marathoner...I can't help but wonder what his career could have been like if he hadn't made that stupid distance his main focus.

That said, Ritz - we love you. Go out there and make us all proud.

Meb won Boston when he was almost 39, but Ritz has cramping demons to overcome in order to have a solid race. But at Boston the elite field is not that deep. As was the case last year, if a few top guys drop and conditions are not good, it can really open up the race.

tarckstar wrote:

Imo anything below 2:10 should make him very happy

I would be happy if ANY American can run under 2:10, since any given weekend some random East African runs a 2:04/5. Good thing there are Olympics.

You know anything about marathoning? Any given weekend your random east african is running a heavily paced, flat course for a 2:04. They will never do that in the Olympics no matter how many are running.

A few years back Ritz moved up steadily and took the lead and then inexplicably backed off and basically used the "saving himself for Zurich " clause.

I'd be interested to see what they did for an 8 week build up. And what the NOLA non-buildup buildup looked like. Is his training public beyond what was in the Competitor article.

As someone who was in high school at the same time I keep pulling for Ritz, he makes me hold out hope that there may still be some PRs in my legs. Go Ritz.

Last of the big 3 to be running. Hall and Webb...long retired.

lotta gray hair there Ritz...

who?

Even w/o the possible bad weather, I don't see him faster than 2:14 or DNF. I do wish him the best but he doesn't have good track record of late and he is now past his prime.

Wow. What happened to him? He wasn't like this with NOP and that was only a couple of years ago. Is professional running this stressful or the training saps all the life juice out you? I am 13 years old than him and barely have any greying hair.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

If he is serious, he likely found a way to

Please ban this idiot.