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Lead Stories: Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Dathan Ritzenehin:
Back To Boulder
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 14)

Posted September 25th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Dathan Ritzenhein

Section: Elite Athlete Blogs, Dathan Ritzenhein

Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Dathan Ritzenhein! Check back every other Tuesday for Ritz’s latest entry at http://dathanritzenhein.thefinalsprint.com/ as he prepares to represent the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics!

It is nice to be back in Eugene. The other day I was counting the number of days that I had been home from late July and mid September and it was only like eight days. It is a little bittersweet though because we won’t be here for long. We are going to be here until October 1st then we are back on the road again. We will be going to Boulder for a couple weeks of altitude training and some catching up with our best friends.

We moved from Boulder originally because with all the injuries we wanted to find softer surfaces and get to sea level because it was hard for me to recover there and to do the long tempo workouts that I have found to be essential for the marathon. But the one thing about altitude that I really miss is that it is really easy to get into shape. After taking a break and just running very easy it will be very good for me to get back into shape because I think this is the most out of shape I have been in the last four years. The body needs that sometimes but I hate being out of shape.
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Barringer Breaks Own Collegiate Record, Looks Towards Olympic Trials

Posted June 28th, 2008 at 2:15 PM by Cheryl Lowe

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Interviews, College

Image details: AT&T USA Outdoor Track And Field Championships - Day 1 served by picapp.com

Jenny Barringer, a cross country and track star at the University of Colorado at Boulder, won the preliminary and final races in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase event at the 2008 NCAA National Championship Track and Field meet on June 13 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Barringer, 21, also managed to break her own collegiate record, finishing the finals race on June 13 in a wicked fast 9 minutes and 29.20 seconds. When Barringer ran the race up front and alone since the gun start, she did not know that she was on pace for the 2nd fastest ever 3,000-meter steeplechase run by an American woman, and that she missed the US record by only a few tenths of a second. Lisa Galaviz set the US record of 9:28.75 in Belgium last year.

“I wanted to win, take home another national championship and set the collegiate record,” said Barringer about her 2008 performance. The collegiate record time to beat was 9:38, and Barringer’s coach, Mark Wetmore, had a finishing time of 9:41 down on paper. “It was a realistic pace with a kick, within range of the record,” stated Barringer, who will be a senior this fall.
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Ryan Hall: The Team
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 11)

Posted June 7th, 2008 at 11:30 AM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Ryan Hall as he begins his quest for Olympic gold! Check back every other Friday for Ryan’s latest entry at http://ryanhall.thefinalsprint.com/

Eleven weeks to go. I go back and forth between thinking I have too much time before the games, and then feeling like there is not enough time. Eleven weeks sometimes feels like a long time to train at the intensity that I am now daily putting forth, but then when I think to myself that in two months I will be heading out to Beijing, I wish I could sneak in a few more weeks at altitude before then. I have found that it is usually a good sign to feel like I wish I had one or two more weeks of training. It is a sign that I am still fresh, still hungry, and still moving forward. Contrast this with my first marathon run at the 2007 London Marathon when I had been hanging on for a month after training for what seemed like an eternity.

Today I will be repeating the same workout I ran two weeks ago before I left for Bolder Boulder—a ten mile tempo run. Last time out it didn’t go so well. Waking up to snow was my second sign that I was going to have a tough day, with the first sign being my cranky ankle that had been bothering me after doing an hour and a half run on a rocky—yet beautiful—single track trail in Big Bear. So between my cranky ankle, snow falling, and being out there all by myself without my shuffle (which I forgot at home) I set myself up for a long day. Let’s not get too much into the specifics; we can just leave it at that I went out slow and came back even slower. Not to mention picking up my bottles off the ground didn’t seem to speed things up any. I left for Boulder concerned.
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New Time Bonuses Spice Up Bolder Boulder 10-K

Posted March 11th, 2008 at 11:30 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Road Racing

Organizers of the DICK’S Sporting Goods BolderBOULDER 10-K announced yesterday that they would cease to run the professional athletes on a separate criterium course used since 1998, and had beefed up their athlete compensation package with generous time bonuses.

Dubbed the International Team Challenge when it was debuted in 1998 and introduced team scoring as a major component of the race, the BolderBOULDER ran separate single gender races for the professional men and women on a criterium course after the conclusion of the massive citizens race which remained on the event’s traditional point-to-point course. For the 2008 edition of the race, scheduled for Memorial Day, May 26, the pros will be back on the traditional course with the masses competing for a $110,600 prize purse based on international team scoring PLUS the new time bonuses.
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Flanagan & Ritzenhein Dominate U.S. XC Champs

Posted February 16th, 2008 at 8:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

Shalane Flanagan and Dathan Ritzenhein each brought their “A” game to Mission Bay Park here today, running away with their first long-course U.S. Cross Country titles in commanding fashion.

Flanagan, who struggled with the high altitude in Boulder at last year’s championships where she was soundly beaten by Deena Kastor, jumped quickly to a five second lead after 2 km of the 8 km race, and expanded it with each lap. She was unrelenting, pressing all the way to the finish line to win by a whopping 70 seconds in 25:26.

“I had a blast,” said a beaming Flanagan who liked the grass course and the warm conditions. She added: “If we could have venues like this I would be coming every single year.”
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Flanagan Enters U.S. XC Championships as Favorite

Posted February 15th, 2008 at 4:21 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, Track & Field

At last year’s U.S. Cross Country Championships in Boulder, Colo., Shalane Flanagan had high hopes for victory. Her main rival, Deena Kastor, was in the midst of heavy training for the Boston Marathon, and Flanagan had been flying on the track, just setting an American indoor record for 3000m: 8:33.25.

But Boulder’s mile-high altitude played to Kastor’s favor (she was one of the few athletes who actually came down from a higher altitude to race in Boulder), and Flanagan was soundly beaten by about about a minute over the 8 km course.

“Boulder was really tough for me,” said Flanagan recalling the race on a teleconference today. “I felt really ill afterwards. Maybe it was altitude or just the effort of the race. There were a couple times on the course when I literally considered throwing myself off the course. I was completely exhausted and it took me a few days to recover.”
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Dick’s Sporting Goods
Named Title Sponsor of BolderBOULDER 10K

Posted October 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results

Dick’s Sporting Goods, the largest full-line sporting goods retailer in the United States, and the BolderBOULDER, the second largest road race in the nation, have announced a 5-year agreement making Dick’s Sporting Goods the race’s title sponsor.

“We at Dick’s Sporting Goods are both proud and excited to become the title sponsor of the BolderBOULDER, which we consider to be one of the premier athletic events in the country,” said Jeffrey R. Hennion, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Dick’s Sporting Goods. “This sponsorship ensures that our brand message will be represented to over 50,000 race participants annually as we continue to add stores throughout the state of Colorado.”

The BolderBOULDER, the nation’s largest timed race, is held annually on Memorial Day. The race attracts over 50,000 runners, walkers and wheelchair racers, and draws the top professional runners from around the world to compete for one of the largest non-marathon prize purses in road racing.
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TFS News Briefs: 10/10/07

Posted October 10th, 2007 at 7:00 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, Drugs In Sports, TFS News Briefs

USOC seeks medals from Jones’ relay-mates
Now that Marion Jones has returned her Olympic medals in the wake of her doping admission, the United States Olympic Committee has also asked Marion Jones’ relay teammates to return their medals and promised a “completely clean” U.S. squad in 2008. The USOC request, Jones’ admission and the IOC’s pending decision on how to redistribute the medals has caused a fury of editorials, objections and controversy.
Here is a sampling of related articles and opinion pieces:
Jones’ relay teammate wants to keep bronze medal — Canadian Press
Time to target coaches, doctors and agents — Guardian (Steve Cram)
Ottey to pick up extra medal — Yahoo! Sports
Jones could’ve broken open sports scam — Seattle Times

Culpepper aims to repeat at U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
Alan Culpepper, a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team, is looking to replicate his success at the Nov. 3 Trials in NYC. In regards to the new loop-course, Culpepper said, “I was fairly shocked when I saw the course; it (the hilly Central Park course) is going to be hard. I am doing more race-pace effort on hilly terrain this time.”
Read more at: [Daily Camera]
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Video: Preview the Highly-Anticipated Third Season of chasingKIMbia

Posted September 20th, 2007 at 6:30 AM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics

40K at Magnolia. Ugali and Chicken. Table Mountain. CNN and Fox News. Trips to Wal*Mart. Yep, it’s that time of year again. Welcome to Season Three of chasingKIMBIA; a video blogumentary detailing the lifestyle and training of some of the world’s best marathoners.

The Chicago and New York City Marathons are fast approaching, and the athletes have been getting fast. Season Three kicks off next Monday from Boulder. You’ll meet some new athletes this season, like Christopher Cheboiboch, who has a PR of 2:08 and has finished second in both New York and Boston. You’ll also see some old faces, like Baba (New York) and James Koskei (Chicago).

But the biggest change this year will be the addition of an American to the group. Fasil Bizuneh is an up-and-coming American marathoner. His half-marathon PR of 1:02:20 came in the US Championships where he finished second to Ryan Hall, and ahead of Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi and he’s been training with the guys in Boulder since the end of August in preparation for the November 3rd US Olympic Marathon Trials in NYC.

Play the video trailer below for a sneak-peak of chasingKIMBIA’s highly-anticipated third season!

Click To Play

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New ‘Chasing Glory’ Pre-Marathon Trials Video

Posted September 20th, 2007 at 5:07 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics

As part of the New York Road Runners’ unprecedented promotional and media build-up to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon race on Saturday, November 3, “Chasing Glory,” a seven-week series of web videos offering exclusive athlete and coach interviews and insight will premiere today on the NYRR website, it was announced by NYRR president and CEO Mary Wittenberg.

Leading Olympic Trials contenders Dathan Ritzenhein, Abdi Abdirahman, Alan Culpepper, Meb Keflezighi, Brian Sell, and Ryan Hall, along with top coaches Brad Hudson, Keith and Kevin Hanson, and Terrence Mahon will be among those featured in the weekly videos. Other segments will highlight behind-the-scenes footage of the challenging Olympic Trials course in Central Park, facts and figures about the race, and a glimpse of how the USA’s runners compare with those of the rest of the world.

The five- to seven-minute videos will be launched every Tuesday and Thursday from September 17 to October 26. The videos are produced by videographer Matt Taylor, whose other credits include “Chasing Kimbia” and “Chasing Tradition.” The videos will be supplemented by three text-based commentaries each week, written in conjunction with television analyst Toni Reavis.
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