Ritzenhein hopes to bring home NYC marathon win

	Dathan Ritzenhein will attempt to be the first American to win the NYC Marathon in 24 years. Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images
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The search for the next great U.S. distance runner has been a tantalizing tease, often unrepentant and heartbreaking.

Back in the days when Frank Shorter won Olympic gold and silver medals at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, respectively, and even after, the country enjoyed a wealth of milers and distance runners with verve (Steve Prefontaine), grit (three-time New York Marathon winner Alberto Salazar), quirkiness (800-meter Olympic champ Dave Wottle) and local hegemony (four-time Boston Marathon champ Bill Rodgers). Many Next Greats have emerged in the years since, from Jim Spivey to Steve Holman to Alan Webb. Yet nobody has captured the imagination as Prefontaine did or earned a place in the sport that many of his U.S. male contemporaries did.

The guy who has been squarely on the radar screen of Next Great forecasters most recently is Dathan Ritzenhein, who equaled Prefontaine's high school record for the two-mile run (8:41.5) in 2001. He won a bronze medal at the world junior cross-country championships in 2001, making him the first junior to earn a medal at the competition since 1981. He won an NCAA title in cross-country and track (5,000 meters) while attending the University of Colorado, competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the 10,000 meters and won the U.S. 12K cross-country title in 2005 by 25 seconds.

This week the 23-year-old Colorado resident was in New York to talk about a new test -- his marathon debut here on Nov. 5 -- and to run the last 10 miles of the course that no U.S. native has conquered since Salazar's last victory, in 1982. (The drought for U.S. women in New York dates back to 1977.)

"I was looking at new challenges and opportunities," Ritzenhein said. "This is a chance to build my strength physically in a year without an Olympics or world championships and also to see if there might be some promise in it for me."

Promise is the operative word for Ritzenhein. The press release announcing his entry in New York features the subhead: "U.S. champion known as most promising American distance runner ever."

New York is a good place to fulfill promise. Last November, Ritzenhein had a close-up view of the frenzy when he traveled in the men's pace car from start to finish. "It really made an impression," he says. "The place has so much energy. There are people everywhere."