Posted: May 21, 2007

Athletics (RWire): Ritzenhein Wins Healthy Kidney 10K and $20,000 Central Park Record Bonus

By Jeff Watson, Running USA wire NEW YORK - (May 19, 2007) - With a grimace of exertion that quickly flipped into a full-fledged smiled, American Dathan Ritzenhein took a deep breath, pumped both fists in the air and broke the finishing tape on Saturday at the 3rd Healthy Kidney 10K as the fastest man to ever run 10K or 6.2 miles in New York City's Central Park. In his first race in over three months, the 24-year-old Ritzenhein used an unrelenting opening pace and two downhill surges in the final miles to snag a new Central Park course record of 28 minutes, 8 seconds and perhaps more impressively score a 17-second upset victory over pre-race favorite and two-time defending champion Craig Mottram of Australia. "I'm just thrilled," Ritzenhein said. "For me to get back on track like this is so important to jump-start my season." Ritzenhein's winning time eclipsed the old Central Park 10K record of 28:10 set by Kenyan Paul Koech in 1997 and produced a $20,000 record bonus for Ritzenhein who donated his $7500 first place prize to the National Kidney Foundation. "I really wasn't paying too much attention to the clock out there because the record really wasn't that important for me today," said the 2004 Olympian. "But it is now because that is a pretty nice chunk of change." Saturday's victory over Mottram, 26, was likely one of the biggest in Ritzenhein's career in which he rose to national prominence after winning the Foot Locker National High School Cross Country Championships in both 1999 and 2000. Since that time, Ritzenhein has won an NCAA cross country title, set the U.S. collegiate 10,000 meter record and represented the United States at the Athens Olympic Games, but has also been hampered by several injuries including a mild one suffered after the USA Cross Country Championships this past February. Since sustaining his most recent injury, Ritzenhein has moved to Eugene, Ore. from his long-time base of Boulder, Colo. and spent up to 130 miles a week on a special underwater treadmill through much of the late winter and early spring as he recuperated. He is now confident that he has learned his limits and that the significant base he built up in training for the ING New York City Marathon this past fall will help him prove that he belongs in the lead group of U.S. professional runners. "I don't think I ever left," Ritzenhein said. "Maybe I didn't fulfill people's expectations, perhaps expectations I didn't necessarily want, but you have to come to terms with it. I have had a lot of difficult times, but I have bounced back from disappointment a lot. It's fuel for me." Ritzenhein's record-setting run began under cool conditions and partly cloudy skies as a field of 20 pro runners assembled by the New York Road Runner's Club and 5,400 plus runners set off for a clockwise loop around Central Park. By the race's halfway mark, Ritz and Mottram were running shoulder-to-shoulder in front of a tightly grouped pack of five runners that also included Kenyan Richard Kiplagat and Ethiopians Demesse Tefera and Chala Lemi. As they reached the northeast corner of the park and started their journey south toward the finish line, Ritzenhein began to exert his authority and ratcheted up the pace on a long gradual uphill. This move strung the field into a single file and Tefera, Lemi and Kiplagat soon fell off the pace to finish third, fourth and fifth respectively. Together at the front through a fourth mile of 4:38, the stage was set for a duel between Mottram and Ritzenhein over the final miles. In what many suspected was a move to break the favored Aussie's kick, the Michigan native struck first using a long downhill to open up his stride and build a lead of five seconds at the 4.5 mile mark, but refusing to give up his title that easily, Mottram hung tough and used the subsequent uphill on the course to catch back up to Ritz and the pair crossed the five-mile point together with a quick 4:20. After allowing Mottram to stick with him for a few meters, Ritz struck a knockout blow surging on another downhill and building another five-second lead on Mottram who was showing the first signs of stress in the whole race. "The strange thing is that you have got to concentrate the whole time," Mottram said. "I had a lapse in a little bit of concentration, and just before five miles, I got annoyed at myself and probably worked a little too hard up that hill to get back on. I got back on, but I had used everything I had to get there, and that was it. I was done." With Mottram broken, Ritzenhein began his race against the clock and the course record. "Once I got down to the flat I saw the clock at six miles and I thought I could really hammer home right now," Ritzenhein recounted. "I knew I had it then, I just felt amazing." 3rd Healthy Kidney 10K - New York, NY, Saturday, May 19, 2007 1) Dathan Ritzenhein (USA / OR), 28:08*, $27,500 2) Craig Mottram (AUS), 28:25, $5000 3) Demesse Tefera (ETH), 28:31, $3000 4) Chala Lemi (ETH), 28:38, $2000 5) Richard Kiplagat (KEN), 28:41, $1000 6) Matt Gonzales (USA / NM), 28:50, $750 7) Martin Fagan (IRL), 28:54, $500 8) Andrew Letherby (AUS), 29:16, $250 9) Michael Aish (NZL), 29:23 10) Patrick Gildea (USA / TN), 29:29 *Central Park record (previous record 28:10, Paul Koech (KEN), 1997) Complete results and race photos at: NYRR.org. Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director (805) 696-6232; Fax = (805) 659-0016 Ryan@RunningUSA.org www.RunningUSA.org. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest