Raitter set for national cross country event

By Dave Price

Appeal Staff Writer

With a view of the Sierra and true blue skies overhead, Bill Raitter feels right at home when he commutes from home in Reno to Carson City, where he works as a supply clerk at the office of the Nevada Army National Guard adjutant general.

There's just one thing he'd like to change - to spend more time running, or snowshoeing - which explains why his idea of relaxation at lunch time is a run up Prison Hill.

"Prison Hill is my favorite run," he said. "That's my lunchtime run."

Raitter, 37, will be banking on all that hill training Saturday when he lines up with an elite field of entrants in the men's open race at the USA Track and Field Cross Country Championships in San Diego.

A record field of more than 700 runners are set to compete at Mission Bay Park, where the stakes in the open men's race will be qualifying to represent the U.S. at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 30. The national cross country meet will be televised along with the U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships on Feb. 24 on ESPN2 (from 5-7 p.m.).

The men's race will feature Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein in a rematch of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials Men's Marathon on Nov. 3, 2007, where both qualified for the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Raitter has no ambitions to finish with those leaders - "I'll be right with them ... until they fire the gun," Raitter said, flashing a grin - but he does have the incentive of vying for one of 12 spots on a U.S. Team that will compete at the World Military Championships in Switzerland.

Raitter has some definite goals for Saturday. First, he wants to qualify for his second trip to the military world championships (he qualified for the 2003 event in Bourdeau, France).

"That's why I appreciate the military," said Raitter, who qualified for the national and world military events in 2003. "It gives people intermediate people like me something to shoot for ... a chance to make a trip somewhere like Switzerland."

Second, he wants to run 40 minutes for the 12-kilometer course - a distance he favors.

"The military championships used to be a 4K race," Raitter said, referring to the former national format of holding 4- and 12-K races. "Now, it's just the top 12 from the 12K race, and that really plays to my strength. I'm more of a longer distance guy."

He's also a mountain guy.

"I love the mountains," Raitter said. "I love the running. You get such a good aerobic workout, without getting the pounding on your legs. You may not be running fast, but your VO2 is really high."

He was the second American at the World Mountain Running Trophy in 2003. In 2004, he won several trail races, including course record times at the Peterson Ridge Rumble and Medicine Bow Half Marathon in Laramie, Wyo., plus a third-place finish at the U.S. National 10K Trail Championships.

Not bad for someone who only took up running at age 20 when he was in the Air Force and later began competing seriously as a student at Western Michigan University - where he met his wife of 11 years, Sarah.

Now, Raitter follows a cross-training regimen that includes running 50 miles a week ("plus or minus 10 miles depending on what I'm doing"); swimming one-mile twice a week ("the Carson pool is a great facility; one of the best I've ever been in"); weight lifting; as well as cross country skiing and snowshoes.

Sarah and Bill Raitter have both been top-four finishers at the U.S. Snowshoe Association national championships each of the last two years and will compete at the 2008 event on March 8 in Ogden, Utah. One day later, Bill will fly to Minnesota to compete in the military national biathlon (skiing and shooting) nationals.

Still, Raitter doesn't consider himself to be an ultra competitive athlete. He is simply happy running with Sarah and their three dogs on a mountain trail.

"It's not about the competition. It's about the people you meet and the places you see," he said. "My wife and I run. It's what we do together. I like to think of it as a passion."

Of course, he's looking forward to running the Escape from Prison Hill Trail Half Marathon on April 26.

"That's my home course ... I'm really looking forward to that race," he said.

• Contact Dave Price at dprice@nevadaappeal.com or at 881-1210.