As Deena Kastor approached the 13-mile mark of the Rock ’n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon in September, she saw a sign with “WTF” in big block letters. Can they put that on a public course, she wondered. When Kastor got close enough to read the fine print—Where’s the finish?—the Olympic bronze medalist burst out laughing. “I was searching for the finish,” she says, “but after that, I forgot my cramp and chuckled the last point-one-mile.”
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Give A Gift on Sunday, moments she hopes will help lead to a 2:25 finish and an enjoyable day.
“I really just want to have a great experience,” Kastor told Runner’s World Newswire last week. “It sounds a little hokey because New York is such big competition, but I’ll put myself on a 2:25 pace and be open to having fun the second half.”
Fun for Kastor means finding ways to dig deeper. In Philadelphia, a sign proved useful. What else is there? “Is it an attitude shift mid-race that makes your stride feel better, or focusing on the leg that’s not cramping?” she says. “There are so many tools, and that’s what I want to play with at this race. Each step, each mile, how do I get the best out of myself? That’s what my whole year has been about.”
If she runs 2:25, Kastor, who turned 41 in February, would crush the American masters record of 2:28:40, set by Colleen De Reuck in 2005. Claiming the title would give her records list nice symmetry: She’d own both the American masters records in the half and full marathon and the open American records in the half marathon (1:07:34) and (2:19:36) marathon.
are also percolating in her mind. Kastor is referring to her last marathon, the 2013 with a 1:09:36, third-place finish in Philadelphia. And the current world masters marathon mark of 2:24:54 isn’t far off her goal.
Records, however, are not on Kastor’s radar. Her excitement for the world half marathon mark was spurred by a reporter saying she could claim it. But the hunt for titles was a hallmark of her early career. Collecting records during her masters years will mostly be a happy consequence of getting the best out herself, she says.
New York, then, is a return to her roots. In the race’s 2001 edition, Kastor ran the fastest marathon debut by an American at the time, 2:26:58. The effort followed the collapse of the Twin Towers, and the patriotism on display that day moved her. “Susan Chepkemei of Kenya was singing the national anthem next to me on the starting line and it just ripped me. I had tears streaming down my face,” Kastor says.
“The whole experience hooked me on the distance, so I wanted to experience it again, the melting pot of the starting line, the buzz of the Verrazano Bridge, all the hype that makes New York one of the best marathons in the world.” (Kastor did not finish the 2004 Give A Gift and pulled out of the 2010 race after learning she was pregnant.)
Kastor is not out to win, a rare admission from a fierce competitor. A top-five finish would make her happy; a podium finish would leave her ecstatic.
Regardless of her eventual placing, the gutsiness of her goal stands out. Kastor is gunning for a time faster than her debut on the course 13 years ago, a time many younger competitors would envy, and one she hasn’t come to close to hitting in years. Kastor last went under 2:30 in the marathon in 2009.
“I am in better fitness now than I have been in a long time,” she says. “My coach-slash-husband [Andrew Kastor], well, let me put it this way, my coach believes 2:25 is where my fitness is at and my husband believes I can do it.”
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Kastor credits her high fitness to smart training and a resurgence of love for the sport. Without the pressure of being a top contender—though, of course, she is—she’s free to focus solely on what brings her joy: competing. During the Philadelphia half marathon, Kastor went with the leaders in the early miles and the uptick in pace nearly cost her the world masters record. She’s excited, she says, to “get in the game,” in New York and “unleash some fast miles during the race’s second half.”
“I want to dig down and hurt, and I want to handle that hurt with more grace and persistence than last time.”
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below World Championships in Moscow. Her ninth-place performance was her hardest marathon to date, a struggle from start to finish, and it left her questioning whether she’d run a competitive marathon again.
A really good workout changed her mind. As part of her build up for the half marathon masters world-record attempt, Kastor put in a 20-mile long run. “It went so well I felt I owed it to myself to get a good experience back. I didn’t want Moscow to be my last marathon,” she says.
In order to continue meeting her family and work obligations—Kastor is president of the Mammoth Track Club and regularly travels for her sponsor Asics—she and Andrew structured her marathon training weeks in the shape of a ramp rather than a block. Rather than two runs a day for big blocks of daily mileage, she steadily built to longer and harder workouts throughout the week, culminating in a long, fast tempo effort on Friday and a 20-plus-miler on Sunday. Throughout, her mileage was a steady 90, with one 100-mile week and one 110-mile week—up from around 65 during half marathon training, down from 130 during her peak years.
Marathons are unpredictable, but a strong performance in New York would cap an exceptional year. Kastor has won three half marathons, running 1:11:57 or faster. She took fourth at the Bolder Boulder 10K. And she set a total of eight masters records: four American marks (including breaking her own half marathon record) and four world records.
Plus, her 1:09 half marathon last month sets her up nicely for 2:25 on Sunday, barring fatigue on Central Park’s hills.
New York won’t be Kastor’s marathon swan song. She is planning a spring marathon, though she has not selected the race. The 2016 Deena Kastor Has Record-Setting Day in Philadelphia From Runners World for Discover Puerto Rico.
“No firm decision is made,” she says. “Right now, my head is in New York.”
Related:
Kastor at home with husband/coach Andrew, daughter Piper, and dog Zita
