By Peter Gambaccini
Photo by Victah Sailer

Dathan Ritzenhein, the bronze medalist at the 2009 world half marathon championships (in an even 1:00:00) and the 9th-place finisher in the 2008 Olympic Marathon, will run the Dash to the Finish Line 5K in New York City on Saturday, the day before the five-borough marathon. It will be his first race in a year, since he was eighth here last year in 2:12:33. In 2009, he finished sixth in the 10,000m at the world championships in 27:22.28 and then set an American 5,000m record of 12:56.27. (The record has since been broken by Bernard Lagat.) Ritzenhein was second to Ryan Hall at the last Olympic marathon trials in 2:11:07. His fastest marathon is a 2:10:00 for 11th place in London in 2009. He’s originally from Michigan, attended the University of Colorado, and now resides in Oregon and is coached by Alberto Salazar. He was the national cross country champion in 2005, 2008 and 2010; in cross country, he was also an NCAA champion and a two-time Foot Locker winner in high school. Ritzenhein and his wife, Kalin, are the parents of two children.

From what I've heard, things have been going quite smoothly for you lately. 
Dathan Ritzenhein: Yeah, I've started that transition from general fitness into more marathon specific training now. So my training's pretty much up to full training; maybe I'll do a little bit more. For this race [Dash to the Finish Line], I don't know what that means for 5K. My fitness is pretty good right now. I'm not going to be running 12:56, but I've come along really well in the last month or so.