No one ever said chasing a dream was easy.
Certainly not Melissa Rittenhouse.
Though the 31-year-old Sheffield Village native has endured a rash of injuries over the last four years, she says she’ll be ready for Sunday’s 8 a.m. starting gun in Boston for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials — women’s marathon.
This will be Rittenhouse’s second trip to the trials. In 2004 in St. Louis, she finished 40th out of 107 runners while clocking a personal-record time of two hours, 45 minutes and 55 seconds — the fastest time of her career by more than 80 seconds.
The 1994 Brookside graduate earned her spot in Sunday’s race by turning in a time of 2:45:16 at the 2006 Austin Motorola Marathon, beating the 2:48 Olympic Trials “B” qualifying standard. (The “A” qualifying standard is 2:40.)
Rittenhouse had high hopes of breaking 2:40 before the Trials, but injuries the past two years forced her to lower her expectations a bit. As the No. 101 seed in a field of 163 runners, she hopes to finish around 2:52. The top three finishers make the Olympic team.
“Due to all the injuries, I debated up until about eight weeks ago whether to race,” Rittenhouse said. “I had already bought my plane ticket. I thought about going just to watch. I had qualified and had a lot of friends who didn’t qualify. I thought for their sake I should run.”
Rittenhouse previewed the Trials course last weekend when she was in Boston for five days attending a sports nutrition conference for collegiate dietitians. It’s different than the course that will be used for Monday’s 112th Boston Marathon, which is a point-to-point race. The Trials course is a 6-mile loop.
“I’m fastest at the marathon,” Rittenhouse said. “I know I’m stronger and able to hold a pace for a lot longer time than other people. I’m going to use that to my advantage. This distance is my distance that I’m good at.
“I don’t have all the training in I would like, but I’ve finished in around 2:45 three times and know what it takes to train at a high level. I have the confidence knowing that this is my event. I’m going to stick with it as long as I can.”
Few would have blamed her if she hadn’t stuck with it, considering all the stress she’s been under. In addition to training for the Trials, she’s been pursuing her doctorate in exercise physiology since 2005 at Kent State. She’ll earn her degree in August.
“The last 12 months weren’t the best,” said Rittenhouse, a dietary consultant for Wooster Community Hospital’s Health and Wellness Center. “I had plantar fasciitis in 2006 (after Austin). Soon after that, I developed pelvic pain which lasted up until about two months ago.
“We figured out my sacrum (a large triangular bone at the base of the spine) was out of place, but it was out so long that I ended up getting multiple overuse injuries and not even running very much. It actually hurt to sleep or swim even more than run. I didn’t know what to do.”
Her career was relatively injury-free before that, except for some ankle tendinitis. The first two years after St. Louis didn’t reveal any glaring issues, though she did fail to finish one marathon.
After running a personal-record 2:44:39 in October 2004 in Columbus, Rittenhouse dropped out of the Twin Cities Marathon in October 2005 due to heat exhaustion. She rebounded four months later and qualified for the Trials with her performance in Austin, the same marathon she qualified from in 2004.
Rittenhouse tried to race through some of her injury problems in 2007, rather than rest. Consequently, she struggled. She dropped out of the 2007 Boston Marathon last April after just 10 miles.
Rittenhouse felt better toward the end of the summer and got the marathon itch again. She raced and won the Akron Marathon in 2:52:31 with minimal training.
“I wasn’t 100 percent yet there either, but I had been to a few different doctors and tried different treatments,” Rittenhouse said. “While I won Akron and it felt easy and I had no pain whatsoever … a few hours after the marathon the pelvic pain was back.”
Rittenhouse took some more time off before finally starting to train seriously again about eight weeks ago. All the ups and downs might have actually helped in the long run (pun intended).
“I’m just going to try and be mentally tough and strong as possible,” Rittenhouse said.
It’s been an amazing journey in many ways for someone who never even qualified to regionals in either track or cross country in high school. In fact, her most noteworthy finish in cross country was a third place at the 1993 Lorain County Conference meet.
A good high school runner, Rittenhouse wasn’t always the smartest when it came to her training methods. The week before the Olmsted Falls Division II district track meet, she decided to make her marathon debut, turning in a time of 3:50 at the 1994 Revco (now Rite Aid) Cleveland Marathon.
“I wanted to run because I wanted to know that I could finish,” Rittenhouse said. “I realized later I probably shouldn’t have run.”
She didn’t run another marathon until a year after graduating from the University of Dayton, but now has 11 on her resume.
“The good thing about the Trials is that we don’t know who’s going (to the Olympics),” Rittenhouse said. “It could be anyone when you think about it. There’s only one runner obviously faster than everyone else (Deena Kastor, 2:19:36), but even she could have a bad day.
“There’s going to be some ordinary people that are going to make to the Olympics. That kind of gives everyone hope. Anyone could really make it this year, and maybe at the 2012 Trials, too. It’s really wide open unless someone steps up.”
That someone may be Rittenhouse on Sunday, but if it isn’t, she won’t be dissuaded from trying again.
“I’m planning on trying to qualify for 2012 and run 2:40,” she said. “I’m not stopping until I can’t run 2:40 for some medical reason or I get that time. I’m obviously going to run for as long as I can. That’s my main goal.”
Contact Paul Heyse at 329-7135 or phheyse@aol.com.

CHASING THE DREAM

WHAT: 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials — Women’s Marathon
WHEN: Sunday, 8 a.m.
WHERE: Boston, Mass.
TV: (Taped highlights) MSNBC, April 27, noon.
WEBCAST: (live) nbcolympics.com/marathon, Sunday, 8 a.m.
FAVORITES: 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor (2:19:36), Elva Dryer (2:31:48), Marla Runyan (2:32:17) and 2004 trials winner Colleen DeReuck (2:33:18).
LOCAL COMPETITOR: Melissa Rittenhouse (Sheffield Village native), age 31, (2:45:16).
AT STAKE: Top three finishers earn a berth on the U.S. Olympic team, which competes in Beijing, China, from Aug. 8-24. Qualifiers must have run a 2:39 or better by no later than April 21.

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