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Supremely confident and in the best shape of her life, 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor goes into Sunday's Flora London Marathon aiming to improve upon her U.S. record of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 16 seconds. That performance made her the 7th fastest woman in history (11th now) and was also set in London three years ago.
Kastor has good reason to be confident. On April 2, the 33-year-old set four U.S. road race records en route to a second place finish in the Vattenfall Berlin Half Marathon; and the news that world record holder Paula Radcliffe has withdrawn from this year's event, opens up all sorts of possibilities.
"I am pretty excited," Kastor said during a trans-Atlantic telephone call Thursday. "I love London and the course they have here is my purpose for coming back. Also they put together a great field. Paula Radcliffe dropped out at the last minute, but we still have a pretty good field, and I want to use the talented field to run a good time."
"My preparations leading up to this weekend have been fantastic. I couldn't have asked for better preparations as far as my workouts have been going. The half-marathon in Berlin is proving that my fitness is good. I am pretty excited."
In Berlin, she finished the half-marathon distance in 1:07:34 beating her own U.S. record by 19 seconds. Along the way she set three more pending U.S. records at 12K (38:24), 10 miles (51:31) and 20K (1:04:07) formidable performances by anyone's standard. The following day she and her husband Andrew Kastor and her training partner, Jen Rhines, flew to London and set up a training camp in nearby Teddington, a favorite location for scores of international middle distance runners.
Comfortable in the knowledge she is in the best condition of her life the Team Running USA athlete is reluctant to offer a marathon time that equates to her Berlin performance.
"I don't think anything translates to the marathon," she says laughing. "I think the day just has to unfold well. Right now I feel like I have prepared myself the best I can for this weekend.
"I feel the most confident I have ever been going into a marathon. As the marathon unfolds you are always posed with decisions to make along the way. I do feel prepared to run the race of my life, but you never know what happens on race day. I am preparing the best that I can and feel confident of running a personal best out there, but we will see how the race progresses."
Kastor admits that Radcliffe's absence changes things immensely. The media focus on Britain's favorite runner has gone elsewhere. Nevertheless, she denies she is feeling added pressure being thrust into the favorite's role.
"It doesn't put any more pressure on me, but it does change the race strategy significantly," she explains. "I mean when Paula is in the race you can pretty much guarantee that it's going to be swift and aggressive from the start. But now it will prove to be more of a tactical race. But I am here not only to try to win the race, but also to post a good time. So hopefully the other women have the same thoughts. I am hoping that everybody goes into this race aggressively and looking for fast times and that we can help each other out doing that."
Typical in these days of global trotting, Kastor hasn't seen her Mammoth Lakes, Calif. for about a month. She and Andrew have lived there for the past six years. The region offers an exceptional training environment for many top U.S. runners including teammate Meb Keflezighi, the 2004 Olympic Marathon silver medalist, who was third in Boston last Monday.
"It's where our Running USA group has their high altitude training camp. My husband and I have lived there for the past six years and right now it's breaking records for snowfall with over 600 inches of snow," she says, "and there was an avalanche just the other day. Luckily, no one was hurt. They are still very much in winter, but we haven't been home in the past month."
Having tapered her training to be at her best for London she has been filling her days with other activities to prevent boredom or complacency.
"I have been engaging in some card games with my team here, my coach [Terrence Mahon] and training partner and husband," she explains, laughing again. "Jen Rhines and I play card games and sudoko challenges. We only moved into the hotel Wednesday so now things are getting busy as far as press obligations and photo shoots but (I'm doing) pretty much just the same, training and napping and walking into town to get a bite to eat. The days get filled up pretty quickly."
A London victory Sunday would be fitting for this unassuming American heroine who also won the 2005 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon and who keeps her Olympic bronze medal in a basket by the telephone rather than in a trophy cabinet. The winner will receive $55,000 prize money and there's another $125,000 for a world record. Kastor sees a bright future.
"I have no plans of stopping. I still have so many goals and things that I want to do in the sport. So I definitely don't plan on exiting any time soon; I still want to win marathons, run faster. I still want to run faster on the track," explains the two-time Olympian. Indeed, she has some pretty impressive track credentials, too including the U.S. 10,000m record at 30:50.32.
"I am sure I will appreciate the medal after children come into the picture and a few years after retiring. But it seems that immediately after the Olympic Games I was already focused on other things I wanted to do. I always look forward and get excited about striving for the next goal I have written down as well as my next training session." |
Kastor Gunning for London Victory
