Race like Ritz

It is the night before the FHSAA Class 1A State Track meet, and all season long I have been trying to get my athletes to approach racing like Ritz. Often times, I have to remind myself that I am not the one competing anymore. In the interest of full disclosure I never competed past the District meet during my high school years of track and field. Admittedly, I get a little jealous of these young guns this time of year, and how I wish I was blessed with both the genetic lottery and work ethic of Ritz.

For those of you who don't know, Ritz is the shorthand name for the one and only Dathan Ritzenhein. He is my favorite athlete running today because of his unbelievable capacity for hard work. He could have called it quits many times after bouts with stress fractures, complications, and other injuries both collegiality and professionally. He is one of the "Big Three" who is credited with revitalizing American distance running in December of 2000 at the Footlocker XC Championships (read about that here). He won the NCAA XC championships when he competed for Mark Wetmore at the University of Colorado. In the summer of 2009, he broke the American Record in the 5000 meters going under the 13:00 barrier for the first time. No American had done that since Bob Kennedy. After Ritz did so, it was as if people believed it could be done again--they just needed someone to break the seal. Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky, Bernard Lagat, and Galen Rupp all followed suit soon after Ritz.

More recently, Dathan just missed qualifying for the US Olympic Marathon team in January finishing 4th after being dropped by the three leaders earlier in the race... He came all the way back to watch 3rd place cross the line just a few seconds ahead of him. That has to be one of the worst feelings in the world. Now, he has rededicated himself to the track where I think he belongs. He looked good a few weeks ago at Stanford taking the win in the 25 lapper, and I know he will continue to build on that as we move closer and closer to the Olympic Trials in Eugene this summer.

His fast times are not why I want young runners to look up to him. It is because of the way he attacks races--all races. It doesn't matter the distance. 5000m, 10000m, half marathon, marathon. Road, track, indoors, outdoors. If he is in the race you're going to know it. The only other American like that is Ryan Hall who made the race during the 2011 Boston Marathon happen because of his front running tactics. Like Hall, Ritz isn't scared. He wants to race. If the race goes out fast so what? You can't do anything about it--you just have to go. This is how I feel distance running was 40 years ago. Distance didn't matter; surface didn't matter. If you were a 5k specialist and the race was a ten miler on the road so be it. Shorter versus Bachelor versus Lindgren versus Pre versus Young versus Rodgers versus Kardong versus Salazar (now I am just listing some American greats, but what these guys had in common was none of them cared what the distance was... they just wanted to kick your butt or die trying).

During championship meets like the one tomorrow night, I make a single pledge to my kids: I will not call a single split. I tell them just get out there and race. Be smart, be patient, bump elbows, get tangled up, don't let any gaps open up. Be like Ritz: RACE.



For more on Dathan Ritzenhein you can read his blog at http://dathanritzenhein.competitor.com and he is on Twitter @djritzenhein