ESPN Olympic Sports

NEW YORK -- Dathan Ritzenhein knows it seems as if he's been around forever.

Eight years have passed since he won the national high school cross country championship in record time as an 11th-grader. That earned him the title of Next Great American-Born Distance Runner.

Now he's preparing for the U.S. men's marathon Olympic trials Saturday, and Ritzenhein prefers to think he's just getting started.

"There have been a lot of expectations ever since I was only 16 years old, really," Ritzenhein said Thursday. "I've had that burden of carrying the torch. It's difficult to handle.

"I think a lot of people don't realize necessarily that I'm only 24, still. I have a lot of improvement to go in this sport. I'm still learning like anybody else does."

Ritzenhein is one of the favorites in a deep field that the running community hopes signifies a resurgence of American marathoners. Meb Keflezighi, the silver medalist at the 2004 Olympics, is back, as are the other two members of the U.S. team in Athens, Alan Culpepper and Dan Browne.

Abdi Abdirahman is a two-time Olympian in the 10,000 meters. Ryan Hall ran the fastest time by an American making his marathon debut in London in April. Khalid Khannouchi is a former marathon world-record-holder but has battled injuries.

An expected field of 131 qualifiers will start at Rockefeller Center at 7:35 a.m. on Saturday then head into Central Park, where they will run five laps of a 5-mile loop to complete the 26.2-mile course. The top three finishers make the Olympic team.

Organizers hope the race's compact route and timing -- a day before the New York City Marathon -- will draw large crowds. Strong wind and a chance of rain are predicted for Saturday morning.

A year ago in this city Ritzenhein ran his first marathon. He finished 11th in two hours, 14 minutes, 1 second in the NYC Marathon (which uses a different route), just more than four minutes behind the winner.

"I finished well and I made a lot of big mistakes," Ritzenhein said. "That was the thing that made me know that I could improve a lot more on what I did."

One big mistake: His energy wasn't there the last few miles. Ritzenhein decided to do a lot of work at close to the marathon pace and distance.

He moved from Boulder, Colo., to Eugene, Ore., in May, forgoing the benefits of training at a high altitude that many athletes favor. Eugene offers softer surfaces -- wood chips instead of cinders or hard dirt -- that he hoped would stave off the injuries that have plagued him much of his career. Ritzenhein said he has been healthy since the move.

"Without the altitude, it's less of a stressor on your body, as well," he said.

Training at sea level also meant he could run faster and longer. Ritzenhein did one 24-mile run at nearly the same speed as he ran the NYC Marathon last year.

Ritzenhein made the 2004 Olympic team in the 10,000 -- but not on the track. Because he had previously posted a qualifying time, he earned a spot after Keflezighi decided to concentrate on the marathon. Ritzenhein was unable to finish the 10,000 in Athens because of calcium deposits in his foot.

Ritzenhein plans to run the 10,000 at the U.S. track trials next summer and is unsure which event he would choose if he qualifies in both.

Between the injuries, Ritzenhein has shown hints of a capacity for unprecedented feats. In 2001, he became the first American man in 20 years to win a medal at the world junior cross country championships. In 2004, he broke the U.S. collegiate national record in the 10K. In 2005, he won a prestigious cross country meet in Ireland against an elite international field.

"The more experience I get from each year is going to be better and better," Ritzenhein said. "Physiologically, it should be a good five, six years before I'm at the peak of my career."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index