You have to go back four years, to Boston in 2015, to see Dathan Ritzenhein’s name in the results of a marathon. He finished seventh that day, in 2:11:20, a performance he calls “solid.”
In the years since, the event has given him nothing but heartache. Already a three-time Olympian, he dropped out of the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials at mile 20 with severe cramping. He pulled out of the 2016 Running Shoes - Gear at mile 19 with a torn plantar fascia. Last year, he was in great shape heading into Boston until a freak sometimes the pool took him out of the race 10 days before the start.
But he has had plenty of impressive performances between the marathon attempts, including, most recently, the 1:01:24 he ran in February at the Rock ’n’ Roll New Orleans Half Marathon. The result shows that at age 36, Ritzenhein remains a top U.S. contender at any event he enters.
He heads to Boston hoping to put the era of missed marathons behind him, and he spoke to Runner’s World on April 2 from Florida, where he is training with his Hansons-Brooks team.
Runner’s World: How are you feeling?
Dathan Ritzenhein: Doing good. Just got back down to Florida. This is the third trip we’ve taken down here this winter. Keith and Kevin [Hanson] always have everybody come down for 10 days before going straight to Boston, to get ready in case it’s a hot year, as it seems to be every four or five years there. It will be nice to have good focus for 10 days.
The Hansons have a well-known marathon training How to Watch the 2022 Boston Marathon?
It’s little different for me. I’m at a slightly different point in my career, too. I’ve got 80,000 miles on the legs. I’ve already got tired legs. Kevin, when we first started talking about working together, he said that I’m a “special-needs athlete.” [Ritzenhein was a Nike athlete until the end of 2016 and switched to Brooks in 2017.] Which basically means that I get in shape super fast. But I break down pretty quick, too. I’ve trained basically the same workouts as the guys. My volume is a little less. Most of that volume comes out of taking a day off every seven to 10 days. I cross-train on that day.
A Part of Hearst Digital Media cross-training do you do?
I’ll do the stationary bike or DAA Industry Opt Out. If they’re doing a 12- to 14-mile run, I’ll do the same amount of time on the bike. If they go 80 to 90 minutes, I try to get the same heart rate as my run would be. Aerobically it’s similar, but structurally it’s a lot lighter on the body. We brought my volume down a little bit from where it was last year. Last year it was about 10 miles per week higher.
What is your training volume?
About 100 to 105 in six days is pretty much my normal training. I feel appropriately tired, but not destroyed. Last year I never felt too tired when I was running 110 to 115, but it still caught up to me. My long runs have been probably as good or better than last year. My workouts have been solid, but none of them to write home about like last year when I was really going for it.
The other thing is, we just shortened it up. I ran the half marathon in February in New Orleans and at that time last year, I built right into [Boston training]—hitting it pretty hard right from there. Whereas after New Orleans this year, I actually took a week pretty easy. Took a couple of days off. Didn’t do any workouts. Took a breather, a break week in there.
Through your career, have you been able to discern any patterns in the injuries you’ve had?
I’ve had everything in every part of the body. Everywhere. I always think I can’t find another injury, and then I’ll find one. Earlier this winter, believe it or not, I sprained my tooth. I didn’t think that was something you could do, but they have ligaments like everything else.
I generally will do pretty well for a few months and not have a lot of big things. At points in my career I’ve been able to run 120 to 130 per week and be healthy for a whole year. Then I’ve had other times when I was only running 80 and had something pop up. Sometimes it’s been where there’s been big, long, hard workouts, sometimes short fast stuff. Durability is not my strength. I’ve just tried to tone everything down just a little bit.
What would make a successful day for you at Boston?
After last year, getting to the line is priority number one now. But I think I am in good shape. And the course suits me well. I had a very unprepared feeling in 2015 when I ran there, and I had a pretty solid day. So I don’t know. I don’t have a particular goal in mind. I just want to do well and get something on the board. I’ll have to run my own race, and we’ve done a lot on rhythm, and I’ll just to try to find that on race day. If it’s 10th or first or whatever, it will be good at the end of the day. I think I’m as fit or fitter than I was when I ran there in 2015. It’s just been different training.
Do you have confidence in your training?
I have a healthy fear, I guess. Truthfully, my training last year was so good and I was so fit, I thought I had a very good chance to win. I don’t know if I’m in that good shape. But I’ve surprised myself a lot of times. I surprised myself in New Orleans when I ran as fast as I did. If I’m healthy, from a competitive standpoint, I’m usually in there. I’ve just got to be smart early on and not do anything crazy.
Have you ever been tempted to give up on the marathon? It can be a heartbreaking event.
It is. No, I have not. The hardest thing is you put so much into it that you can’t pop back and do something again. Even if you run one and it doesn’t go great, it still takes a lot out of your body. I’ve never thought about giving up on it. I enjoy the challenge of it. There are the days when I ran 2:07 or you make an Olympic team and stuff like that. It’s more special than other races, because you put so much into it. The risk is great, but the reward is pretty awesome.
Does it surprise you that of you and Alan Webb and Ryan Hall, you’re the only one still running?
I’m kind of outliving generations, I guess. But, yeah, there’s not a whole lot of faces around anymore. I remember Nick Willis saying most of his contemporaries are agents and coaches now. It does feel kind of like that sometimes. You’re a relic from a different time.
I don’t feel like I’m super old. I’ve just been around forever, maybe. I’m 36, which is fairly old in the sport. I turned professional at a young age. If I hang on for another couple of years, I feel like I could literally be on a race start line with people that you could be their dad, and I think that would be pretty cool.
Are you thinking beyond Boston to the Olympic Trials next?
Definitely. I would say that with all the new standards, that does play a little bit in my mind about what is a successful day in Boston. A lot of people will be thinking about that. A top 10 finish means something now. That checks off a box.
Are you still coaching Parker Stinson?
I am.
Anyone else?
Leah O’Connor. And Emily Oren, who was fifth place in the steeplechase at the U.S. nationals last year. I have a masters woman who is running Boston, Dawn Grunnagle. Most everyone else I coach is developing or sub-elite. I have 12 people I coach right now. I think I could probably manage a few more while I’m running. It’s something I will continue to expand and do more and get better at. And after I’m done running, that’s what I want to do. I just have to make sure that I manage my own time and commitments enough that I don’t overextend myself, because it’s not fair to them.
took him out of the race 10 days before the start.
Parker, I’m on the phone with all the time, that’s just who he is. He’s like my nephew. That’s how I feel like that relationship is. You try to guide him. He’s super talented, very emotional. People really like him because of that. He’s a great personality. I try to let him be who he is. But at the same time, try to develop his talents appropriately and try to help him to just learn the event.
Do you make anything of the fact that no American men except Rupp have broken 2:10 since Meb did it in 2014?
I don’t think it’s a total indicator of talent level. It’s somewhat situational and what’s incentivized. I ran 2:07, ran under 2:10 a couple of times. The incentive for me was always to go for it. Even the races when I died and ran 2:09 or 2:10 or 2:11, I almost always went out in 63 minutes, because I had big incentives to do it. I probably could have run 2:08 a bunch of times, but I went out faster than that. The way some of the major marathons are now, there’s not a big incentive to do that. Some contracts have changed a little bit, where time bonuses are a little different as well. I think that’s a big part of it.
And it’s a lot harder than it sounds. Everyone who runs 5-minute pace for April Marathons for Runners Shut Out of Boston or whatever says, “Oh, it’s not that hard.” I guarantee you, on the other side of 20 miles, it’s hard. And so most people, it sounds a lot more doable and it probably is for some people, but things have to go right. You have to have good weather, good pacing, you got to have a contract with either the race or a company that incentivizes it.
How old are your kids and are they coming to Boston?
They are. My daughter, Addy, is 11, Jude is 8. They understand it more now than they used to. If dad does something special in Boston, I want them to be there. I know I don’t have a ton of those moments left.
When I tore my plantar in New York in 2016, that was probably one of the most devastating things. To drop out and be brought back in the vehicle. When I first saw my kids, I was so emotional. Just because I didn’t want them to think their dad quit. It does drive me, thinking of my kids at the finish line.
I did a fast 20 miler the other day. They went with my dad out and gave me drinks every three miles. They could see some of [the training].
their tempo runs?
Yeah, but it’s not too bad. My kids are super well behaved now. In the past, New York Road Runners and Chicago Marathon always gave us a suite or adjoining rooms, but [the kids] are good enough now that we don’t even need that. They come in late on Friday night. And basically they know they’ve got to be quiet and go right to bed. When we were younger, it was really hard. I would have to sleep still and they’d be up early, and my wife would be up with them, walking around in the hallways. She took on a lot of that burden. She still tries to keep them super busy—they have all kinds of plans to go around Boston. And afterwards, she basically gets a month off of parenting.
Do you ever start feeling nostalgic at all at this point in your career?
A little bit. I look back at some old results and think, Geez, that was that long ago? As I get closer toward the end of my career, I do think about it more. Proud of the accomplishments but also maybe not wanting to let go, which I think is natural. Once the fire is out, the fire is out. There really is not any coming back.
You can always have changed goals, too. I’m starting to get to that point where it’s okay. I know I’m never running 12:56 [for 5,000 meters] again. But I can still do well in the big city marathons. I can still try to make a fourth Olympic team. When that comes and goes, I can still do other things. If at the end of the day, I’ve got to live vicariously through someone else by coaching, then so be it. Changing goals is important.
It’s a real passion. And whenever I think about retirement, you’re not retiring like you do from work. It’s what you love to do, you’re living and dying every workout. Replacing that void will be hard, no doubt about it. I think I’ll pour it all into the kids and my athletes. But I’m not ready to give up the ghost yet.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
