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U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS: MEN'S MARATHONNovember 3, 2007Ryan HallDathan RitzenheinBrian SellNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: We have the 2008 U.S. Olympic Men's Marathon team here. Again, we'll ask each of the athletes to make a brief comment and then we'll open it up for questions. We'll start with the champion, Ryan Hall. RYAN HALL: Today was a dream come true for me. I've been dreaming about this moment for ten years. The greatest moment is my heart and my thoughts are with Ryan Shay. I'm thrilled about the day the Lord gave me and I'm proud to be a part of this Olympic team, and I was thinking about the Olympics when I was out there running that last lap and what that's going to be like and the type of fitness that that's going to take. I'm really excited to be a part of this team. I thank all of you for celebrating this with us. THE MODERATOR: Let me just interrupt. We will have an update. We'll give you information about Ryan Shay who had dropped out of the race. We are gathering the information and we'll get that to you as soon as possible. Dathan? DATHAN RITZENHEIN: What an amazing event today. It was incredible out there. I've never seen a crowd like that other than running the marathon last year. Just kept building and building every time we came around. When we first came through there was a lot of people, but every lap, it just got crazy after that. I couldn't even hear myself think at points in the race. I'm so excited and happy because this was a training session full of obstacles and a lot of those -- it was a lot harder than my training last time, just I had a lot of interruptions and things, and I'm just so happy with how things came out. We have an amazing team, and it was incredible. My hat's off to Ryan. That time is incredible on that course. It was a very, very difficult course. An incredible job by both these guys. It was awesome. THE MODERATOR: Brian? BRIAN SELL: It has been 13 years in the making for me. This is one of the greatest days of my life, aside from probably the birth of my daughter. I'll tell you, the future of distance running looks great for these guys. These guys made it look amazing. They're tough in the marathon and they're still young, so the future looks bright. Q. Brian, tell us about your philosophy. You and Kyle sort of hooked up early on and were running along and then a move was made at seven miles and then it sort of broke up. What was your original plan, and then was there an adjustment during the day? BRIAN SELL: Yeah, the original plan was just kind of let the field determine the pace the first couple miles. It was supposed to be three to six, and we were out in 11 flat, two miles, I just knew that I had to keep it honest to have a chance at all. I just kind of went with it. Honestly, I was just trying to run right around 5:00 flat, and I didn't have too many miles above 5:00 flat, and that just tells you how fast these guys were running out front. They were just rolling, and I was just lucky to pick up the carnage from these two (laughter). Q. Dathan, it looked like you were trying when it came over and talked to Kalin and Addison. Can you describe that moment and what you might have said? DATHAN RITZENHEIN: It's a very emotional experience for me. I had a very difficult last time around the Olympics, and there's no lock in making the team for me in track. So this was just incredible for me because, I mean, it was an emotional release is one of the main things. We put so much effort into this that it's difficult to express how it feels after two hours plus of that effort and seeing the fruits of all the labor. It was the first time that my daughter has got to see me race. It was just an amazing experience for me. Q. Any of you guys, talk about the weather, how it affected you. You guys are all kind of known as more or less strength runners. RYAN HALL: I thought the weather was actually really good. I didn't feel the wind too much out there, especially in the park. It was pretty protected. It was much cooler than my experience at London. So I thought it was really great conditions to get out there and run. Being in the lead I didn't really feel too much wind out there. So I thought it was a great day to run. Q. Dathan, if you make the team in the 10,000 meters do you have any sense of what you would do? DATHAN RITZENHEIN: Originally I said I would do the 10-K, but I don't know. I think it was a really good effort today on that course, and with the way things went for me, I think I can do things a lot better and keep learning. My rate of improvement, the learning curve is still pretty big. So I think that -- I don't know. Today I want to do the marathon (laughter). I can't tell you that for sure. Today I'm leaning towards the marathon, I guess. Q. Ryan, at 16 and three quarters miles you just went, made a huge move and kept going. Was that planned or did you just feel at that point this was the time to go? RYAN HALL: It wasn't planned. My coach gave me a lot of freedom. He said just play it out based on how you're feeling. Really what happened is I saw Khalid coming on the big screen with two laps to go (laughter), and I didn't want to have Khalid around. He's a dangerous runner. I just decided to press a little bit, see how guys responded in the pack, and really wasn't trying to make that decisive of a move. When I got by myself I was just thinking this is like every training run I've done up in Mammoth. I was picturing me on Green Church Road, me and Sarah, Sarah on the bike encouraging me along, so I just rode with it. Q. Alan Culpepper was just in here telling us that there's something to be said for fresh legs and naivete. I wonder if the two of you could comment on that. DATHAN RITZENHEIN: I would say I was naieve last year when I ran. I don't think I was this year. Fresh legs? Maybe young legs, but I think I had a longer track season than pretty much anybody, so I don't know if I had fresh legs going into it. To tell you the truth, I was beaten up a little bit for the early part of the training. I had a great last five weeks, but I didn't have fresh legs in September, that's for sure. RYAN HALL: I think there is some merit to that comment. Hopefully with Dathan and I moving up to the marathon what seems to be at an early age, hopefully we'll encourage some younger guys to try out the event. I feel you are able to train hard at a younger age and I respond better to nagging injuries. You don't get banged up as much. So I feel like young guys can really run great marathons. But historically in the U.S. no one has tried since Salazar and all those guys. Hopefully some guys will start trying out some marathons. Q. Can you just talk about how you felt going into the race in terms of your -- were you very relaxed, were you nervous? What was your preparation like last night? And also, when you did make your move, it looked like you were running so free and easy over the last miles. Was there any struggle and were you surprised at how easy it was? RYAN HALL: I was a little bit surprised. When you start off at 5:30 pace and then you get down into the 4:30s, picking it up is harder than going out hard and just staying at that pace. That was kind of a more difficult way to run, negative splits like that. I was surprised with how easy some of those splits came when I was looking down at my watch seeing how fast I was running. It's kind of similar to Houston. Like last night, in my experiences leaving California, we had to change all our flights up because of all the fires in Southern California, so we ended up going out to SFO, and that night there was an earthquake, so there was all this crazy travel stuff, which is exactly like Houston when we got snowed in in Big Bear and slid off into the ditch. And then last night didn't get much sleep, had to get up really early, went to bed with a splitting headache. So there's a lot of similarities between this race and Houston. Feeling really good, really fresh, trained really hard for this race. Coach gave me phenomenal workouts to do. He got me ready. I felt like I was very well prepared out there. Q. Alan Culpepper said he's blown away by your time and that he thinks you can run two to three minutes faster on a different course. What do you say? RYAN HALL: You know, it's tough to say. I didn't expect to run that fast on this course. But I was really thinking about the second half of the race. I didn't really care how fast we came through at the halfway point, but I wanted to close the second half fast. So I was a little bit surprised by the time in the splits. I thought it would be run a little bit slower than it was. But I think it was a good run for me. Q. Brian, could you talk a little bit about how maybe this validates your being up there and a little bit about how long (inaudible)? BRIAN SELL: I guess the proof is in the pudding for me. You know, I'm probably a minute and something slower than these guys for the two-mile in high school. I'm just happy. I hope every kid out there that's not the state champ or the distract champ or whatever looks at it and says, hey, I can do this, put the work in. That would be great. This is the happiest ending that I could think of. Q. Brian, can you talk about chasing down Dan Browne? He had a calf cramp, stopped and stretched it out. A, did you see that, and B, you had so many family members and fans and cheering section out there, were they keeping you apprised of where you were in standing during the race? BRIAN SELL: No, not really. I didn't know that Dan stopped at all really. I was just trying to keep it relaxed until that last lap and then try to attack. Like I said before, my mile pace was right around 5:00 flat or just under, so I was happy. That was the goal. And when I saw him with a lap to go, I just didn't want to go too hard and kill myself because that's a long loop around there. I'm just happy I timed it right. Q. Looked like in the last mile or so you were kind of giving thumbs up, waving, fingers up. How fast could you have gone if you really pushed it, and when did you figure, "I've got this race"? When did you know? RYAN HALL: I was trying to not let myself get too emotional too early, but you know, I saw myself achieving my goal the last lap and knew that if I stayed within myself I would be okay. And then the last mile I knew, I knew unless something happened I was going to be okay. I think I can run considerably faster. I felt really good out there. There's definitely some more gears in there. But I'll get to test those in Beijing. Q. Ryan, what's your opinion about the strength of a competition like this, first of all, because of one day before, considering you will be the possible, or probable winner of tomorrow's competition? I'll say for sure. Your shape is wonderful (laughter). RYAN HALL: You know, I understand why the two races have to be separate, and this is good practice, running a championship-style race. I'm a guy who loves time trials. I love to just go sit on a rabbit, fall asleep and get on a fast course and try and roll out. But this was a really good experience for me, knowing that I can train for a course that maybe doesn't even suit me the best, and I can train for a championship-style race and do really well because historically I like to just go out and pound out by myself, but I need to learn to run with people. I practiced that in London a little bit. Today was a really big breakthrough for me because I tend to be more of a time trial style runner, and Beijing may or may not be like that, so this was a really good practice for me. Q. Dathan, a year ago, compare your feelings a year ago today, and when did you know you were on the team? DATHAN RITZENHEIN: With about -- I mean, with about 800 meters to go, I felt pretty confident (laughter). I had some trouble the last lap. I felt like I was on the verge of cramping up every time, like every time I stepped. I was a little nervous that -- like I was feeling great energy-wise, which was my problem last year was the energy. But I was feeling great. Then every few steps my calves I thought were going to go, and so I knew with 800 to go that I think I can crawl in if I have to at this point. But really it wasn't until the end. I knew I had a pretty good lead on third place and fourth place, but you're never really sure at that point. So I took one look behind me to make sure. I was a little nervous from 21 to 25. I was like, these little cramps are not good. Q. Obviously we're still waiting for an update, but how well do you guys know Ryan Shay? Could you just talk about him as a person and how well you know him and what kind of guy he is. THE MODERATOR: I think the guys would rather not talk about it at this point. RYAN HALL: I'll just say that I'm really good friends with Alicia and Craig. We were past teammates. This is sport, and this is fun, but my thoughts and prayers just go out to them and their family. I think it's a sad thing. My thoughts just go out to him. THE MODERATOR: Mary Wittenberg, president and CEO of the New York Road Runners. MARY WITTENBERG: We have absolutely tragic news confirmed, that Ryan Shay passed away today. Approximately at the five and a half mile point he went down less than 30 minutes into the race, had immediate medical attention, was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital. We ask that you join us in sending our very deepest condolences to Alicia, to Ryan's family, to the Notre Dame running community and the Notre Dame family. It's certainly not the way any of us expected any part of today to go, and we just extend our deepest condolences to the family. Q. Brian, when did you know you had your third slot on the team locked up? You had a 2:05 guy behind you chasing? BRIAN SELL: I honestly never knew. I never wanted to really think about it until I crossed the finish line. So I tried to go as hard as I could until the end. Q. I just wonder about how much faster or how much slower this course is than say a flat course like London or Berlin or Chicago? What time value would you give it, a minute, two minutes, three minutes? DATHAN RITZENHEIN: I've never ran a fast course, so I don't know. I would say if you look at course records, probably two, three minutes maybe. THE MODERATOR: I'd like to again thank our three athletes, the 2008 U.S. Men's Marathon team. We wish them the best of luck moving forward. End of FastScripts |
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