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Foot Locker Outdoor
June 16-17, 2000 at Raleigh NC - presented by
Adidas and the National Scholastic Sports Foundation
FLO Preview
CLASH of the TITANS!
Ritz - Sage - Logs . . . let the good times roll
by Steve Underwood
Yes, indeed, and as of 10:15 p.m. Thursday, Dathan Ritzenhein and Donald Sage WERE planning to race that 2-mile at the FootLocker Nationals Friday evening in Raleigh - despite that Prefontaine Mile that Sage is now to run, despite those pesky 4-mile relays and despite that exhausting, dehydrating 5000m Mr. Ritzenhein raced the week before.
Can you hear it now? "How can it be?" the messageboard mavens will cry. "But what about what so-and-so said ... ?"
Well, all it really took was a few days of recovery on Ritz's part, a few e-mails and a few phone calls. And maybe a little "Hmmm, maybe this really WOULD be a cool thing to do!"
Yours truly, fishing for stories at the time, even was called into courier duty of sorts one tenuous evening. (don't ask)
So, add a little spice (that is, several other hungry sub-9 2-milers) and please don't let it get TOO hot or thunderstorm too bad (unless it can cool things down).
Throw all that together and we might just have ourselves some history, baby. Yes, it's a well-worn phrase, but you wanna say it anyway: CLASH ... of the TITANS!
Don Sage. Dathan Ritzenhein. Eric Logsdon. A bunch of other fast guys. Hundreds of watches eager to stop before they read 8:40, or even 8:35 ... Just don't place any bets until they all toe the line.
In all seriousness, all of us track nuts - prolific posters or not - have gotten pretty excited about all this. Ok, maybe too much. Yes, that applies to you hyperactive teenagers AND us old codgers. We all want to see the best guys race each other, records threatened or broken, and to be able to talk about it until our keyboards give out.
But let's face it, Dathan and Don (and of course, Alan Webb and many of these other guys) have been under of lot of pressure this season, from many sources. And these guys are unequivocably team players - seriously - and only human, not supermen. So can they really be blamed if they just wanted to stick to their relays and try and break some records there?
And, hey, look at what we've enjoyed this season already:
8:41.10.
8:42.89.
More sub-9s and sub-4:10s than you can shake a stick at. Fifty-seven second last laps. Triples and quadruples that defy belief. Guys running 8:56 and finishing double-digit seconds back.
So in any case, sit back and enjoy watching (literally or figuratively) this great meet, whatever these guys do. They're here (we do know that), along with hundreds of others. It's going to be a great show, whatever happens.
And we'll write about them some more, whatever races they run. And whatever they do, we should thank them.
The writing part will come in the next couple days. Because you'll want to hear not only about the races, but about these runners, their teams, their coaches and what makes them great.
Oh, you think you've heard everything about them. But there's still some interesting stuff that hasn't seen the light of day for most of you.
As far as thanking them, well, you COULD use the message boards for that.
Thanks, Dathan. Thanks, Don. Thanks to all of you Distance Gods and Goddesses. And you know you aren't done yet ... neither are we.
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Next ... a report from Raleigh, and we begin a closer look at Dathan, Don, Joe Newton, Brad Prins and everyone else involved with the Dukes and Rams.
the 2000 Foot Locker Outdoor Track and Field Championships
