Ritz After the 10k

Yeah dude, Ritzenhem

Ritzenhem is a great running that doesn't get the press that he should get.

Thank God we have interviews to look at- a short time ago there was nothing. It's because of flotrack and Mark that we can make commentary. Right now there is no national commentator that does mid and long correctly because rarely do we see more than a spinbite.

You don't know what your talking about man, go look up some of Ritz's recent times and then think again Leo

He is a nice kid, tries hard, shows up but will never reach the next higher level. There are others who accomplish more with less and do not get the recognition and attention he gets. He is Over...rated !!!

Hey anonymous, of course I was joking about Carol Lewis. Mark's interviews are fun to watch because they are off the cuff and unpolished.

carol lewis!!! i hope you are kidding
she is the worst

didnt seem like ritz was that depressed
when he was getting asked those questions
seems like you guys are interpretting how you would feel and not how ritz was actually feeling

how do you guys know this guy's name

i have a feeling he's asking these questions like off the top of his head like he's not writing em dow. so the interviews are more like conversations so its understandable that the interviews aren't really well organized. I love this site i visit it all the time. ritz ran well too...the real goal is osaka as he said so we'll see how he does there.

I still think Mark should take some pointers from the folks at NBC and I TOTALLY agree that communication majors make great commentators. Again I point to Carol Lewis as a great example.

SanfordRF. Good point, he did get third but lets keep this in perspective. He ran 28:30ish. That would have put him about 30 seconds behind last at Hengelo earlier this spring. These guys aren't exactly flying in terms of world competition so nothing wrong with asking the tough questions.

I agree, I kept waiting for them to say something inappropriate but they never did.

How can "Anonymous" say Ritz didn't produce? Didn't he just get third at the national championship? And qualify for Worlds? I can understand how some people with high hopes might be disappointed, but let's be realistic: two guys in the entire nation beat him (on an obviously bad day).

But maybe you're right. Nike should drop him because I, as a consumer, demand nothing less than world records at every race.

I read the remarks before I heard the interview and I think flotrack did fine, so did Ritz!! Nobody's freaking perfect.

Hey guys mark is interviewing professionals here, not guys who train in their free time. If they can't produce on the day of a competition then they should explain why. Don't forget that Nike, Asics, etc. aren't paying these guys you are every time you buy some shoes, shorts, singlets, shirt etc. We should be getting our money's worth in national and international competition

You've got to feel a little bad for the guy. By the end of ther interview, you could kinda tell he was tired of talking about how he fell apart, didn't want to talk about it, etc. Maybe they shoud have ended with the "hey, you still qualified for Osaka" instead of sandwiching it inbetween the "what went wrong" kind of questions.

I am very greatful for the service though flotrack is awesome... I wish you guys were around much earlier, but hey, I'm not going to complain now that it is here.

yeah, Mark generally does better interviews than ESPN

I actually think Mark does a pretty good job. True, he does seem to focus on the negatives, which makes some of the interviews awkward and uncomfortable to watch, but with a little more practice, maybe that will improve. I don't think it's necessary to ask "what went wrong?" The runners are reasonable people, and if you ask them "how do you feel about the race?" they'll usually tell you what went wrong even without asking ... and let's be honest here, TV commenators aren't great. The ESPN and NBC crew have terrible insight and comments.

Maybe Mark could hire Carol Lewis for the interviews. She does a great job covering track meets on television.

the weakest part of the flotrack enterprise is the inane commentary and unprofessional interviews. somebody hire a person with a communications degree!

yea, wtf Mark. have a little heart.

Don't get me wrong, I like flotrack, but mark the interview dwells entirely too much on the negatives. You can tell that ritz is dissapointed, it's almost as if Marc is rubbing salt in an open wound in almost every interview.