Posted: October 10, 2007

Athletics: Kastor Looking Forward To Another Race In Boston

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com By Parker Morse Less than a day after winning the 2007 U.S. 10-K championships at the Tufts Health Plan 10-K, on Monday, Oct. 8, Deena Kastor was up for a Tuesday-morning run on a similar course, the criterium loop which will host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials - Women's Marathon next April. The Trials course will feature four laps of a circuit which criss-crosses the Charles River between Boston's Back Bay and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, sharing large sections with the Tufts course. Kastor and her coach, Terence Mahon, said the course tour was the second of two reasons to come to Boston this weekend, the first being the opportunity to race hard on the course during the 10-K on Monday. Kastor won that race easily in 32:01, and admitted that it also represented an opportunity to "redeem myself" after a disappointing race at the Boston Marathon in April. The 2007 Boston Marathon has framed Kastor's approach to the Olympic Trials as well. "Boston taught me not to believe in favorites," Kastor said on a conference call with reporters today. "Anything can happen over the marathon distance." Having seen the Trials course, Kastor and Mahon agreed that the greatest challenges of the race would come from the U-turns on Memorial Drive and the possibility of winds both on Memorial Drive and the Massachusetts Avenue bridge over the Charles, which runners will cross eight times. Kastor noted that the course had several advantages as well, with the out-and-back segments allowing runners to see their competition more easily than previous courses. "In St. Louis [in 2004] we had to look over our shoulders or wait for certain corners to see where everyone was," Kastor noted. "Being able to see how someone is doing after you've left them, or they've left you, adds an extra dimension to the race." "Everybody's going to be anxious," Kastor noted. "I'm going to be looking out for people taking the race out too hard, or making drastic or dramatic moves at any point in the race." Kastor noted other advantages of running the Trials on a multi-loop course. "The crowds can see the race evolving," she explained. "They can see people moving up or falling back. It gets them more involved, and that means it's a great way to race for us. For us, I'll be timing each loop to see if I'm on pace. It's better than judging pace per mile, because each mile is different." Kastor leaves Wednesday for the IAAF World Road Running Championships in Udine, Italy, where she will run a half-marathon along with a U.S. team including Katie McGregor and Alicia Shay, who were second and fourth behind Kastor on Monday. After that, she says she'll take a short break before "narrowing" her training focus for the Olympic Trials. "I feel like I've timed things well," she added. Looking beyond the Trials, addressing worries about pollution and heat levels in Beijing for the Olympics, Kastor noted that Athens had similar concerns. "Conditions there weren't as bad as we thought. The Chinese are going to do everything they can; the athlete's job is to get as fit as possible, so the conditions don't matter. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest