Wow, I can't even believe it. Twelve minutes and fifty- six seconds over five thousand meters. That was Dathan Ritzenhein's time in the 5k at the Weltklasse Zurich Meet in Zurich, Switzerland. Obviously, this is old news, he set the American Record on Friday, but I still can't get my head around going that fast. If you have the chance, watch the race again on Flotrack; I know I will be several more times. That was a simply beautiful race, just an absolute art form. According to Flotrack, He is the 3rd fastest non-african and the 3rd American to break 13 mins in the 5000 meter event.
I forgot what I was going to post. Oh, yeah, Friday- Saturday- Sunday of running, and the Red Sox and Rays. So Friday was a nice easy 30 minutes; I wanted to go somewhat hard because I did a half hour easy the day before. It was a little tough getting up to speed, but once I did it was easy. I zigzagged around the neighbourhoods, so I have no idea how far I went. At one point, I ran through a couple streets that were torn up for probably a mile or so. It was all dirt, and it was at a slight incline, so it was my Magnolia Road (see Running With the Buffaloes.) That's probably as close to a trail as I'll ever get this year. Saturday was a 10 miler, felt really good, I just flew through it. I believe I ran 8:20 somethings; so the speedwork is paying off a little bit. I was stiff the first mile, mile and a half, but that was because I ran at 9:00 the night before and got up at 7:00 to do this one, but I ran through that. Yesterday was only five. Its funny how five miles seems really short.
Did anyone catch Paul Byrd's start the other day against the Jays? 6 innings 3 hits, 3 walks, 1K. He had one rough patch when he walked I think two guys in a row, but he got out of that jam via strikeout. Other than that, he looked like an ace; he made Theo Epstien look really, really smart. Honestly, we couldn't ask for anything better from a fifth starter, he completely out dueled Roy Halladay. Tito pulled him after only 76 pitches in favor of Manny Delcarmen, which was a little odd, but it worked out in the end. Also, the Rays traded left handed phenom Scott Kazmir to the Angels. Anahiem had all kinds of holes in their rotation, and Kazmir goes a long way to help them. Bad news for the Red Sox, who always seem to end up playing the Angels in the first round of the playoffs. Needless to say, this makes the Angels a frontrunner for the World Series.
Ritz's run was amazing. For a sec or two, I thought he might have a chance to get close to Bekele. That would have been unthinkable if you has asked me before the race.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the whole meet is available on universalsports.com free of charge. I also would think the commentary would be better than the flotrack fellows.