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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 5, 2011

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

RICHARD FINN: We welcome you to our inaugural Dash to the Finish Line 5K. Part of the ING New York City Marathon weekend. I'm going to ask Mary Wittenberg, our president and CEO to say a few words about the atmosphere and what it was like out there, and then we have Chris Thompson, Aaron Braun, and Dathan Ritzenhein. Mary?
MARY WITTENBERG: Thanks. Four years ago really was in many ways the beginning of this idea. We hosted the Olympic trials, and when it became clear we were going to have that opportunity, we said, we really want to have America's best and many of the world's best here the day before the marathon.
I think this was a really spirited open to a big weekend, and now I think we've got a dynamic duo of two events.
It was a lot of fun to have the 5K, because we had a chance not only to host marathoners like Dathan, marathoners and track runners like Dathan, but to welcome some of our younger runners who we're already recruiting for the future.
I've got to say it was a heck of a race out there, and these guys and the women behind them, I think, absolutely christened this first Dash in fine fashion and gave us a heck of a race for the gun.
RICHARD FINN: Chris Thompson, official time 13:53, wow, we have Aaron Braun at 13:53 also, and Dathan Ritzenhein at 13:56. And, again, we'll have this distributed in just a few minutes. Chris, if you want to say a few words about today's race and what it was like.
CHRIS THOMPSON: Yeah, I'll be honest, that couple of seconds was a lot in my career. To actually win is pretty incredible.
It was so cold to start. The first half of the race I pretty much spent just trying to keep warm and keep my lungs warm. I didn't know what to expect. And Dathan kept the pace really honest. I was just hanging in.
I went through waves of feeling good and feeling bad. With 800 to go, I thought okay, there is three of us and I've got something. And fortunately Aaron, with a hundred to go, went right, I went to his left, he looked at me and went, oh, shit, and I just went.
It was just like I, to be honest, I spent the whole race just hanging in. When I actually managed to get to the front, I was a bit shocked. I was just glad the finish line was there when I did it.
I had a few British folks in the home strait which was nice. But I can't help but think there are going to be honestly ten times as many people at the marathon. I'm looking forward to watching that tomorrow, and maybe, maybe doing it next year. I don't know, we'll see.
But it was pretty amazing and to actually win it didn't enter my mind, so it was pretty exciting.
MARY WITTENBERG: In a tradition we began with Dathan in 2005, 2006, Chris will be one of our special invited athletes to our, what we call our lead vehicle ride, but it's our recruiting ride.
CHRIS THOMPSON: The pampering ride, the enticing ride.
RICHARD FINN: Aaron, a couple words?
AARON BRAUN: Yeah, I was really excited about this race. You know, with Ritz and Tegenkamp, it was such a loaded field that I knew that this could be a real spring launch into my track season next year. So I wanted to put a lot of emphasis, but not too much pressure, just work on some things. It was cold, windy.
Ritz took it -- like it felt like we were running a lot faster than what the splits were saying. It's a pretty tough course, and I was thinking the same thing Chris was, like 800 to go. And I was just hanging in there, hanging in there.
Right around 300 meters I had a surge of adrenaline, thought that I could go for it, thought that I had pulled away. I didn't know that he was right behind me. And I made one of those high school mistakes of looking one direction, and I think I looked twice to the right instead of once right, once left, looked both ways.
CHRIS THOMPSON: Great cross code there.
AARON BRAUN: Yeah, so bad mistake, but hopefully I'll learn from it in the future.
MARY WITTENBERG: You could not see it, but from the gun, the whole pack was together. But by about half a mile to go, Dathan just pushed, pushed, pushed, and then at about a mile and a half on Sixth Avenue, started trying to break the pack and did begin to break the pack open as we hit mile two, had it down to a couple of these guys.
RICHARD FINN: We've waited 12 months to see somebody back in action, so we welcome him back and certainly back to New York. Dathan, welcome. And how was it like out there running again or racing again?
DATHAN RITZENHEIN: Thanks, Richard. Yeah, I've just been waiting for this day for a while now. I kind of feel like this is good for me. I can finally move on. I kind of can pick up where I left off.
Symbolically this race is important for me after such a long, hard year. I felt okay. I was kind of tired. That is the fastest I've really gone in a while, so that was, for me, it was just awesome to be back out there. That feeling of competing again, I miss that so much.
So to be able to come back here and do it again on this weekend, it was important for me, because I have a huge crush on this race. This race is --
MARY WITTENBERG: It's mutual.
DATHAN RITZENHEIN: -- it's like an obsession with me here. Other than maybe the Olympics, this is like -- my focal obsession is one day hit it out of the park here.
Just to be able to come back here and be part of this weekend and be back racing again, I'm just so thankful to be back here.
RICHARD FINN: I think, as Mary said, I think it's mutual. We're glad you're back.

Q. You mentioned the cold. For all of you, if you have any thoughts on this, for such a short race how does that affect your preparation when it's so cold?
CHRIS THOMPSON: It's pretty difficult, it feels like, to get off the mark. A 5K is pretty quick from the go, and I wasn't sure if someone was going to make it honest at the beginning or not. So you just try to get warm. So the first 800 to a mile, there is a little bit of thinking of warming up as we're going.
But Dathan made it pretty honest. I was next to him in the beginning, but it was -- it wasn't easy, but it's the same for everyone. So it's not a negative mindset; it's just it almost helps break the race up into stages.
It was like the first half was get warm, and then it was with the strings and stuff, it kept it fairly warm in a way because there wasn't too much breeze. It was nice. It kind of gave us something to think about, I guess.

Q. On a warmer, less windy day is this a 13:30 course?
DATHAN RITZENHEIN: It's a pretty hard course, especially where the hills are. I think that kind of gets really hard there. I was actually expecting the first mile to be a little flatter and then the second mile to be a little more uphill.
But definitely, going north, the wind was right in your face going down Sixth Avenue. If the wind was right, it would be a little bit better and if it was warmer. But it's still a tough course.
MARY WITTENBERG: It's New York.

Q. Chris, you just said at the beginning that you are used to coming in second place. I know you're used to coming in second place behind Mo usually. Now you're training with Mo. You're in Oregon with him. What are your thoughts on that?
CHRIS THOMPSON: I don't actually train with him. He's based in Portland and I'm in Eugene. It's a different group. But I've been there since 2009 at the Track Club with Mark Rowland who is back there, the coach.
It's been good. Me and my girlfriend have been there for a couple of years. To be honest, I came over here in pieces. I was pretty broken and beaten up, and I've been slowly piecing together a career which I never thought was going to happen.
So to be here and to actually win in New York is kind of like my own kind of personal story. It's just ridiculous. I never imagined racing and winning.
I mean, I was running, and I could see in the foreshadows when I was running next to Dathan. I was thinking there is so much class in those shadows. I just don't want to look. I don't want to look. So there was a little bit of running scared.
But, yeah, it's been amazing being part of the team. You don't quite get that in the UK. People are dotted around, so to be part of a team every day waking up and have your teammates, to be part of that is pretty amazing, and a major part of I feel like my career and its going forward.
Sitting here today in front of you guys, I don't know. I love racing, and I love sitting here to be honest (smiling).

Q. Ritz, how is the leg feeling today? Do you have a little bit of anxiety testing it out on a big race like this today?
DATHAN RITZENHEIN: No, it feels great. My leg is a hundred percent. It's kind of ugly looking maybe, but it felt good, and I wasn't worried. I've done a lot of long, hard marathon-type workout starts, so I wasn't concerned about that at all.
I was just trying to kind of put it out of my mind all of the injury part, but actually just trying to move on and trying to gain whatever fitness I could out of the race too because it's just been so long for me.
It was more like kind of trying -- it was more mental for me than anything. Just trying to get back into the warming up and being with good competitors again and stuff like that.
Physically I feel great. So I'm happy to say that I feel like that stuff's behind me for now.

Q. Dathan, this is your first race in a year now. Trials are in ten weeks. Will you race again between now and then?
DATHAN RITZENHEIN: I hope so. Yeah, I think this doesn't really predict a whole lot for the marathon, but I do need the actual race experience. So this is something that I can kind of train through these shorter races and keep my volume high and still get the actual experience of racing.
I hope to get another short race. I'm not going to do a longer half marathon. I'm going to go back to Portland and back to Albuquerque probably for the last few weeks.
I have the world champion in the 5K and the American record holder in the 10K to train with every day, so I'm sure we'll be doing something -- we'll probably run 62 minutes for half marathon practice sometime. So to have guys like that, that helps me a lot. I don't necessarily have to go out and do it in an actual race.

Q. Aaron, a lot of guys are coming off breaks or preparing for marathons, where are you training and how does it set you up for today?
AARON BRAUN: I'm in my fall base period, so I'll be building up for a while to try to find a good half marathon to do some time soon and get ready for track season, but I had a good opportunity to try to impress New York Road Runners. They're one of the best organizations, so hopefully I'll get to come back here in the future and do more races. I loved it.
MARY WITTENBERG: I'll mention, there was a special British fan here that is out doing television. But Paula Radcliffe was pretty excited about this finish. So Paula's around, and we'll bring her in here as well.
But, guys, there is always a first one, and you guys gave us a really phenomenal start to this race. Hat's off.

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