Deena Kastor
UNITED STATES
BIRTHDATE:
February 14, 1973
PERSONAL BEST:
2:19:36 (London, 2006)
CAREER NOTES:
Kastor’s extensive performance portfolio includes a 1997 World University Games win in the 10,000m and a U.S. title in the same event in 2000-01, 2003-04. Additional U.S. titles include: CC 1997, 1999-2003, and Half Marathon 2004. She set a U.S. record for 10,000m in 30:50:32 in 2002 and has other personal bests of 4:07.82 in the 1,500m, 8:42.59 in the 3,000m and 14:51.62 in the 5,000m (all set in 2000). Kastor was recognized as the recipient of the 2003 Jesse Owens Award as USA Track & Field’s most outstanding woman athlete.
She ran her first marathon in New York in 2001 and after two 2:26 races, made a major breakthrough with an American record 2:21:16 for third at London in 2003. Leading up to that race, she won her fourth consecutive U.S. 15 km road race title in 47:15, bettering her own American record of 48:12 set at the 2002 Championships, and won the silver medal at the World Cross Country for the second consecutive year.
Kastor ran an expertly judged race to earn a bronze medal in the Athens Olympic marathon in 2004; her bronze medal was the first U.S. medal at the event since Joan Benoit’s 1984 win in the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon. She followed that up in 2005 with her first World Marathon Major win in Chicago with a finishing time of 2:21:05.
In 2006 Kastor broke her own U.S. record with a second-place 67:34 finish in the Berlin Half Marathon before winning her second consecutive World Marathon Major in London, setting a new U.S. marathon record (2:19:36).
PERSONAL NOTES:
After attending high school in California, Kastor went to the University of Arkansas, where she received her degree in English/creative writing and journalism. She is coached by Joe Vigil and married Andrew Kastor, who also is her physical therapist (and a 3:55 1,500m runner), in 2003.
HIGHLIGHTS:
05/11/06 ING New York City Marathon 6th 2:27:54
23/04/06 Flora London Marathon 1st 2:19:36
22/08/04 Olympic Marathon, Athens 3rd 2:27:20 Bronze
09/10/05 The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon 1st 2:21:25
13/04/03 Flora London Marathon 3rd 2:21:16
13/10/02 The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon 6th 2:26:53
04/11/01 ING New York City Marathon 7th 2:26:58
