Deena Kastor
Deena Kastor
Deena Michelle Kastoris an American long-distance runner. She holds American records in the marathon, half-marathon, and numerous road distances. She won the bronze medal in the women's marathon at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She is also an eight-time national champion in cross country...
ProfessionRunner
Date of Birth14 February 1973
CityWaltham, MA
running athlete community
The beauty of running is its simplicity; the beauty of runners is that we all have a similar drive to improve. We are either trying to run a personal best, or toeing the line for the first time, which will snowball into a future of trying to run personal bests. We road racers are a tight community of mileage-happy, limit-pushing athletes.
break coming goals great happy last moment months three weekend win
It was great to win and great to break 2:20, those were my goals coming here this weekend the last three months of preparation have been with this moment in mind. I'm really happy with the race.
best trying
After that, I have been trying to make the best of what was left,
broken falling gain kept looking marathon mile onto seconds shoulder starts
I kept looking over my shoulder after I had broken away from her, ... Just then, I started unraveling and falling apart, and I know that when a marathon starts to go bad, you do gain significant seconds onto your mile pace.
chicago creeping fear last miles three ticked
I had the fear of Chicago creeping back as the miles ticked on. My last three miles being horrendously slow.
early faster feeling hold main run training
It was one of my expectations as my training has been going so well. I did want to run faster but I wasn't feeling it early on. I managed to hold on to go under 2:20 which was my main goal.
aggressive definitely elite goals group run
It's definitely one of my goals to be part of that elite group of sub-2:20 women, ... I am going to run an aggressive race.
feels parallels
There's nothing I can think of that parallels what that feels like,
control negative running
All of my preparation has been about running in control and doing a negative split.
powerful winning thinking
I think it's important to keep mantras fresh (sometimes the same verse can get stale). That being said, I love this powerful statement: 'Define yourself.' I rehearsed it a million times during the 2005 Chicago Marathon [her first win].
running dream choices
One step at a time, I get to make positive choices to fulfill my dreams.
running thinking race
I felt my throat start to close up, and I didn't think I was getting enough oxygen. I was scared, and I thought about quitting. But you don't want to quit when you've trained so hard and long for one race.
training adore hard
I simply adore the exhaustion that comes with training hard.
running smart passion
Marathons are extraordinarily difficult, but if you've got the training under your belt, and if you can run smart, the races take care of themselves. When you have the enthusiasm and the passion, you end up figuring how to excel.