Rich Rizzo’s local newspaper has a nice article on the recent M70 world indoor record in the 4×2 relay. Rich, who has a heavy New Yawk accent, told The News Review in Riverhead that he remembered the time in the 1982 Millrose Games when a competitor looked at him at the starting line before the gun went off and bragged that he was going to knock Rizzo into the stands. Rizzo calmly told him, “When the gun goes off, all you’re going to see is the back of my bald head.” Classic Rich.

Here’s the article, in case the link goes south:
Rizzo has a leg in 4 x 200 world record
By Chuck Adams
It was a run for the ages.
Rich Rizzo of Riverhead was part of a winning 4 x 200-meter relay team that set a world record at the Masters Open for athletes ages 70 through 79 at the 168th Street Armory Track and Field Center in New York City on March 3.
Rizzo, along with his SprintForce America teammates Larry Colbert of Maryland, the Rev. Dick Camp of Maine and Robert Lida of Kansas, won the race in a time of 1 minute 54.05 seconds, shattering the old record of 1:58.71 that was set by the German national team in the 2004 world masters championships in Germany.
It was the first time Rizzo, Colbert, Camp and Lida, who are all 70, had ever raced together.
“We have all been competing against each other for 30 years, and about six months ago, when we all realized we were turning 70, we started talking about doing this,” Rizzo said. “I organized this and coordinated everything. We really wanted to set the world record.”
Mission accomplished.
Rizzo, who grew up in the Bronx playing football and baseball, never ran track until his 40th birthday when he saw an ad for a race for men 40 and over that was going to be held on his birthday at Nassau Coliseum.
“I was always athletic,” Rizzo said. “When I saw the ad, I realized it was time to stop playing softball against 20-year-old kids and try something new.”
In his first race, with little training, Rizzo placed third in the 600 meters.
“I really liked it,” he said. “It sparked a bug in me. I like the competition. I have a desire to run hard and play hard. I like to compete as an individual. You race against seven other guys. You can’t blame anyone else if you lose. I liked the competitive aspect, so I stuck with it.”
Rizzo has racked up an impressive list of track accomplishments, including setting an American indoor record in the masters 4 x 400 relay in the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in 1980, finishing first in the 4 x 400 relay in the 1982 Millrose Diamond Jubilee, and winning the 300-meter intermediate hurdles and the 400 meters at the masters national championships in 1988 in Winter Park, Fla.
Rizzo was named the 1988 Athlete of the Year by the Metropolitan Athletic Congress. He has competed in the Penn Relays for 15 years and in 1982 came in second in the 4 x 400 relay in the 40-44 age group.
But being involved in the 4 x 200 relay world record holds a special place in Rizzo’s heart.
Colbert, who is a 13-time masters world record holder in the 200 and 400, and was inducted into the USA Track and Field Masters Hall of Fame in 1995, got off to a fast start running the opening leg of the relay. Rizzo ran a flawless second leg. Camp, who recently won the Penn Relays 100-meter race in the 65-69 age group and has been a chaplain at West Point for 22 years, ran the third leg like a man on a mission. Lida, the world champion in the 100, 200, and the 4 x 100 relay at the world masters championships in Puerto Rico in 2003, flew down the track for the last 200 meters to break the record.
Rizzo, who moved from the Bronx to Shirley in 1967 and then to Riverhead in 1985, trains three to four days a week, running and lifting weights.
As he looked back across the years, so many memories came flooding back to Rizzo. He loves the camaraderie between the athletes, how they are all so friendly and pull for each other, until, Rizzo said, “we get on the track.”
Then, the competitor in them kicks into overdrive.
He talked about Ed Small, a former teammate with the New York Pioneers, and how he was a mentor for him.
“I tried so hard to beat Ed in the 400,” Rizzo said. “I really looked up to him.”
Rizzo talked about Bill Burrell, who was on the world record 4 x 400 relay team for 50 and older runners in 1992.
He remembered the time in the 1982 Millrose Games when a competitor looked at him at the starting line before the gun went off and bragged that he was going to knock Rizzo into the stands. Rizzo calmly told him, “When the gun goes off, all you’re going to see is the back of my bald head.”
In 2003, right before the World Games in Puerto Rico, Rizzo sprained an ankle. He couldn’t train for three weeks. He still ran for the winning 4 x 400 relay in the 65-69 age category.
On March 23, Rizzo will take part in the Masters National Indoor Championships in Boston. He will compete in the 200 and 400 as well as in the 4 x 400 relay.
Rizzo has his sights set on entering the Penn Relays 100-meter race in 2012, when he will be 75.
“I want to compete as long as I can,” he said. “It’s in my blood. This has all been very rewarding. It has been extraordinary.”