For his sub 13 Ritz hits the bell at 11:55.9-11:56.0
He finishes officially in 12:56.27 so about a 60 sec lap. Bekele Hit the bell in 11:52.8 and finished in 12:52.2 or so. That's a 59.8 last lap. Ritz displayed excellent finishing speed for the level he ran at.
I love the pain on ritz’s face after. And the fact he was sucking wind. Shows how hard he pushed. Contrast that with bekele who didn’t seem tired. Ritz remains my favorite runner ever.
Forty-five up arrows for your post? Really? You must be driving from library to library giving yourself up arrows. What does 12:56.xx 5000m have to do with a big kick? It is relative. Let's compare Ritz' pure speed to other sub-13:15 5000m men. Does Ritz have a f.a.t. sub-50 400m? Okay. Fine. Most future elite 3000m to Marathon athletes in U.S. never sprinted an official 400m. Does Ritz have a sub-51 400m on a relay leg? No harm. At most U.S. high school T&F meets, 3200m is raced immediately prior to 4x400m relay. Does Ritz have a sub-1:50 800m p.b? Okay. Fine. Ritz was a high school 1600m & 3200m guy, he didn't race 800m. Did Ritz race a sub-1:51 800m in high school or college on a relay leg? Okay. Fine. You are telling me Ritz wasn't in top five in high school or college, 800m at either school. Surely if Ritz was a big kicker he has a sub-3:42 or sub-4 one mile? No? Okay. So, in conclusion Ritz is and was a nice guy. Ritz was a very good runner but relative to his 3000m to Marathon peers, Ritz was not a big kicker.
Wow, her father was an American Record holder, her mom was an NCAA D1 Nationals qualifier multiple times. Her dad is a current world class coach with several national record holders. I can't believe she somehow managed to be a decent runner with a kick despite all those cards stacked against her.
Love Ritz but that one AR race doesn't make him a kicker.
Are we really going with "that one time that Bekele was commanding the race from the front running 20 seconds slower than his PR, Ritz almost beat him" (while Bekele looked fresh and Ritz looked flattened after the race)?
At the elite level I'd call a 5k kick 55 or better. 60 is only a slight increase in pace. He did have a fantastic last mile drive but it's not the same thing.
Colorado doesn't have an official indoor season, so there have been very few track meets. That was her first time running the mile and it was on an indoor track at well over 6000 feet. Pretty solid first attempt at the distance and converts to sub 5.
I hope she enjoys her running journey. I'm sure she will be under a microscope because of her dad and subject to a lot of scrutiny, like most HS standouts...
A 5k is 12.5 laps you dunces. Of course he runs 1 minute in the last lap because in order to break 13 in the first place you have to run 1 minute per lap. 12:59/12.5=1:02 it's not rocket science.
Ritz never broke 4:00 foot the mile so he obviously couldn’t run 1 minute pace