What I like about Ritz running for Hansons is that they show up at races like Boston and the club national XC (Lexington, KY this year) and race as a team. Running in this country needs more serious club competitions—races that are like college conference, regional, and national meets where the team score is paramount. Kevin and Keith know this and I like them and appreciate them for this. They have modeled their club after the Greater Boston Track Club on a national level. We need lots of clubs at all levels so every runner out of college has a team to join.
If we have runners training hard to make their club team—even to be 8th runner— #7 trains harder, so does #6 and so on. The team that finishes 50th in Club Nationals chases #49 and fears #51.
Our GBTC runners (I'm the coach) have jobs or serious grad school but train together, train hard, and race hard. An additional 5000 runners like them all around the country will be like the rising tide that lifts all boats.
So congratulations to Ritz and Hansons and thank you.
Tom