PUBLISHED 11/03/2006
Dathan Ritzenhein, the 2004 Olympian at 10,000 meters who's making his marathon debut in New York at age 23, recalled yesterday "when I first thought about doing this last winter, it seemed so far away and the whole fall almost seemed like it was something that was never going to happen. And then the last three weeks, it's just been a crawl. It's been so exciting to get here. Everything's gone as well as it could possibly have gone. I don't know of anything I could have done better.... Surprisingly, New York has had some of the best debuts for Americans, and hopefully I can step up and continue that tradition."
About his satisfying third place finish at the Great North Run, a half-marathon won by Hendrick Ramaala in Newcastle, England last month, Ritzenhein said "the first time you've done something, you always think you're ready, but you don't really know until the experience comes. And I know it's going to be the same thing on Sunday. I have this perception in my head of what the race is going to be like, but I'm sure at mile 23, 24, that may be out the window.
"I actually remember watching Meb's race on TV in 2002 (Keflezighi, the2004 Olympic silver medalist, made his marathon debut in New York City that year) and I think he's absolutely right. The more patient you can be, the better. For me, I think that's one thing I definitely took away as a learning experience from Newcastle. I do run better if I can be competitive up in the race. Of course, I'll have to be smart. This is unchartered waters for me, but at the same time, I feel like I'm done everything I could possibly do right, and if I didn't give myself a shot to do something special, that would be a mistake and it would kind of be a waste of all the training that I've put in."
