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Running Sensation
Photos Courtesy of nyrrc.org (photos by Victor Sailer and Bryan J. Myers)
 Photo by Victor Sailer/Courtesy of Runner's World  Hi, I'm Dathan Ritzenhein, and I am starting school this fall at
Colorado
University in Boulder. I ran high school track at Rockford High School
in
Michigan.
I started running around at an early age - around 11, but I did not just jump right into it. At that point, I was running a couple times a week, more as an escape than as a sport. My parents had recently entered into a divorce. Running was a way for me to escape that and get my mind on something else. My dad started to bring me to the North Kent Running Club when I was in 6th grade. I never took running seriously until I was in 8th grade. I don't know what it was, but in the winter of my eighth grade year something lit a fire under me. Every day in the dead cold of Michigan winter, I went out and ran the same four mile loop. I tried to run it faster every day. I really had no plan; I just went out and tried to run hard. I was always competitive, but it was a whole different level when it came to running. I had a whole different flare. I came into the track season in eighth grade and ran a 10:24 in the two mile. Then I took my running to a whole new level. The summer before my freshman year in high school I started to run with the high school team. I had known Mr. Prins (my high school coach) from the running club, since he headed it. When I started doing his workouts every day, I knew I had found what I was good at. Running is something that means more to me than anything except my faith, my family, and my friends. If you really want to be the best you can be in running, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. I think Gerry Lindgren said it best, "You can be the best; you just have to be willing to pay the price." From USATF: Distance runner Dathan Ritzenhein of Rockford, Mich., was named USA Track and Field's Athlete of the Week following his bronze-medal performance in the Junior Men's 8-kilometer (4.97 miles) race at the 29th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Oostende, Belgium, in March, 2001. A senior at Rockford High School, Ritzenhein's third-place finish time was the best by an American in junior men's competition since Keith Brantly finished third in 1981 in Madrid, Spain. Ritzenhein, who finished in a time of 25:46 on the muddy course, ran the entire race with USA teammate Matt Tegenkamp, the eventual fifth-place finisher (25:55) from the University of Wisconsin, at his side. Together, Ritzenhein and Tegenkamp led Team USA to an impressive fourth-place finish in the team competition, its best finish for the junior men since the USA placed fourth in 1987. The Americans just missed winning team bronze, finishing three points behind third-place Uganda. Later in the 2001 season, Ritzenhein missed Gerry Lindgren's all-time high school 5000-meter (3.1 mile) record by less than a second at the GMC Envoy USA Outdoor National Track & Field Championships. He is currently beginning his first collegiate cross country season at Colorado University in Boulder. Editor's Note: Thanks to Bill Roe, USATF for inviting Dathan to write this little biography for KidsRunning.Com. Kids, keep your eyes on Dathan. He's going to be an awesome runner to watch for many years to come.
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