12:56.27, August 28, 2009, Zürich, Switzerland

Dathan Ritzenhein Breaks Bob Kennedy's 5,000m American Record

By: LetsRun.com
August 28, 2009

Thirteen years after Bob Kennedy became the first American to break 13:00 for the 5,000m, Dathan Ritzenhein improbably bettered the mark in the same venue where it was originally set. The old mark was 12:58.21, set on August 14, 1996. The new mark, set by a man who had run only 13:34.00 this year and had a previous personal best of 13:16.06, is an ear-popping 12:56.27.

Looking at the all-time 5,000m lists, only two men born outside the continent of Africa have run faster than Ritzenhein. Germany's Dieter Baumann ran 12:54.70 in Zürich in 1997 before later serving a doping suspension and Aussie Craig Mottram ran 12:55.76 in London just over five years ago.

All of the attention in the race centered around Kenenisa Bekele, coming back from his 10,000m/5,000m double win at the Berlin World Championships, and hoping to stay in contention for the $1,000,000 Golden League Jackpot. There had been talk of a world record attempt, and the early pace was 2:30 for the first kilometer. No fewer than ten Kenyans were entered in the race to either rabbit the great Ethiopian or attempt to defeat him.

One non-African was in the field. He was in last, and after a few laps he was being dropped from the single-file chain of competitors. An opening 1,600 of 4:04 for the leaders appeared to be having quite a negative effect on Ritzenhein, the first non-African finisher in the 10,000m in Berlin and the new pupil of former outstanding runner and now world-renowned American distance coach Alberto Salazar.

With a gap emerging between Ritzenhein and the second-to-last competitor not once but several times in the first 3,000m in the race, one could hardly expect the monumental outcome that occurred over the final laps. But within a few minutes, several of the African runners started to crack and fade badly. Laps of 60 and 62 became 63 and 64, even for Bekele, and for the others they were becoming 66 or slower.

Ritz, however, kept the pace going. 12:56.27 for the 5,000m is almost exactly 62-seconds per lap (62.11 would estimate his average lap time more accurately). Off the back a bit early on, Ritz was able to maintain his rhythm and with three or four laps to go, all of a sudden he had caught a significant number of runners. Of course, one could only catch a glimpse of him if a cameraman used a sort of "alternative angle;" there was no point in focusing on a runner so far behind the greatest distance runner of all time. Ritzenhein seemed destined for a 6th-place finish and a personal best, but within a minute or so it became clear that he had a lot of "gas" left in the "tank." In other words, he looked so good we wanted to ignore what was going on just out of habit, but we couldn't escape that thought in the back of our minds that said, "Ritz is really charging."

Looking back, the perfect storm was happening for Ritzenhein as he...