Posted: April 1, 2004

Athletics: Kastor Taking Nothing For Granted At Olympic Trials

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

ST. LOUIS (01-Apr) -- Although the overwhelming favorite to win Saturday's U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon, Deena Kastor isn't taking victory for granted. On paper, however, it looks like she should.

Kastor, 31, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., is the U.S. record holder for both 10,000m (30:50.32) and the marathon (2:21:16), and during the qualifying period for this race has run nearly seven minutes faster than the next-fastest qualifier who is entered, 39 year-old Colleen De Reuck of Boulder, Colo., (2:28:01). Kastor also ran the third-fastest marathon in the world last year at London when she shattered Joan Benoit Samuelson's 16 year-old national record. As one reporter pointed out here today, the only direction she can go on Saturday is down.

"I know the passion (to make the Olympic team) runs strong in all of us," Kastor told reporters at a press conference today. "It's a battle out there... I don't consider it an easy race."

Perhaps the only nick in Kastor's armor is the fact that she hasn't raced in nearly eight months. Her last competition was the IAAF World Championships 10,000m in Paris last August, where she finished 12th in what was the most competitive women's 10,000m race ever. She ran as a special pacemaker at the New York City Marathon last November, running 25 km at a 2:40:00 pace, but skipped both the U.S. Cross Country Championships last February because of icy conditions, and the U.S. 15-K Championships last March. She would normally run both of those races, plus the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Could she be a little rusty?

"I do feel a lot of confidence staying home and training," she said, adding that she had adapted to Mammoth Lakes' snowy winters. "Most of the time I was snowshoeing at 9000 feet for my second run."

She's approaching this marathon differently from her previous three (New York, 2001, 2:26:58; Chicago, 2002, 2:26:53; and London, 2003, 2:21:16). In the Trials race she only needs to run for finish position: the top-3 finishers get Olympic team berths, provided they have run the Olympic Games "A" qualifying standard time of 2:37:00.

"In previous marathons I been concerned with pace and time," added Kastor. "I'm going in with a more competitive attitude." She also said that she didn't have a particular race strategy, only that she would concentrate on performing well in the second half.

Although Kastor has 15 national titles to her name and two World Cross Country Championships silver medals, she has yet to win a big international championship, or do well in an Olympic Games or a World Championships on the track. In Sydney in 2000 she competed in the 10,000m, but an Achilles injury forced her to run her preliminary race in training shoes. She was lapped by U.S. teammate Libbie Hickman, and ran a dismal 34:40.86. She has much higher hopes this year, twenty years after the first Olympic marathon for women was contested in Los Angeles and won by former U.S. record holder, Benoit Samuelson.

"That to me is really special," said Kastor, pointing out that Samuelson was a pioneer who is still involved in the sport, making frequent appearances at road races. "Running is for life."

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