Ritzenhein leads American men in Olympic marathon

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BEIJING -- BEIJING -- It was well worth the wait.Sixteen days after the Opening Ceremony - and four years after dropping out of the 10,000 meters at the Athens Olympics -- Dathan Ritzenhein finished ninth in the marathon, the final track event at the Beijing Olympics."To be able to come here and finish ninth at the Olympics is a big step for me," said Ritzenhein, who finished in 2:11.59. "Now I'm going to hopefully keep carrying that momentum and next time around keep climbing the ladder."Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya won the gold medal in an Olympic record of 2:06.32. It was Kenya's first Olympic gold medal ever in the marathon. Jaouad Gharib of Morocco won the silver in 2:07.16 and Tsegay Kebede of Ethopian won the bronze in 2:10.00, passing countryman Deriba Merga on the final lap in the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium. "I thought I had a good shot at a medal," said Ritzenhein. "I tried to put myself in it early, but I looked at the clock at 5K, and I think I was 14:55 (actually 14:59, in 30th place, seven seconds behind Wanjiru). I knew that if I kept up that 2:06 pace, I wouldn't be finishing probably. So I eased off back there and tried to keep my composure."Conditions were not ideal but not unbearable either with temperatures in the 70s, and humidity around 60 percent on a clear, mostly sunny day. The 26.2-mile course began at Tiananmen Square and wound its way past the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and other attractions as thousands of fans packed Beijing's streets."It didn't feel that bad out there," he said. "It was definitely warm."After the first 5K Ritzenhein gradually lost sight of the leaders, but he kept reeling in slower runners. By 30K he had moved up to 10th place. But the pace and heat took its toll as his calves and hamstrings started cramping up."I actually had to stop just past 30K because my left hamstring seized up," he said. "I took a couple seconds there and tried to ease back into pace for a minute or two and kind of got back onto a reasonable pace."I was just trying to hang on at that point because the cramps just kept coming. I think the only thing that really saved me (was) I put emergency gels on my last bottle. They had a lot of sodium in them. If it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have made it in, I don't think."Ritzenhein was the top American finisher, one place ahead of Ryan Hall, who finished in 2:12.33. Hall trailed Ritzenhein the entire race. He pulled within 10 seconds of him at the 35K mark, but couldn't catch him."It's hard to feel competitive toward your teammate, especially when you're running in ninth and 10th place," said Hall, who won the U.S. Olympic trials last November. "For me it's all about just doing the best I can. It doesn't matter whether Dathan's in front of me ... I'm always going to do the best I can."I'm happy for Dathan. We got two guys in the top 10 in the Olympics. That's not bad. All in all, it's a pretty solid day for us."This was the first time two Americans finished in the top 10 in the Olympic marathon since Frank Shorter finished second and Don Kardong finished fourth at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.The third American in the race Sunday, Brian Sell, finished 22nd, in 2:16:07.Although he didn't win a medal, Ritzenhein said he will certainly look back on the Beijing Olympics more fondly than Athens, when he couldn't finish the 10,000 meters because of a calcium deposit in his left foot."Four years ago, they don't compare at all," he said. "That was the only race I had ever dropped out of still, and I carried that with me for four years. That was never really an option for me I guess today. If I had to sit by the side of the road and drink until I came to life I was going to have to do that. I couldn't even think about that again." (--mail David Nielsen at nielsend(at)shns.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)