Kastor helps revive U.S. interest in marathon

The 31-year-old represents the country's best hope for a medal since 1984.
GIORGIOUPOLI, Greece (AP) -- Twenty years ago, a slight figure wearing a white painter's cap emerged from the tunnel at the Coliseum in Los Angeles to a burst of roars and applause.
Joan Benoit was the winner of the first Olympic women's marathon. Since then, however, Americans have had little to cheer about.
Athens might be different. Deena Kastor represents the country's best hope for a marathon medal since Benoit's 1984 victory.
"I couldn't have prepared myself any better," Kastor said as she and the other two U.S. women marathoners relaxed Friday at a seaside resort in Crete, where the U.S. track and field team has set up its pre-Olympic training camp.
Four years ago, the United States had just one woman in the Olympic marathon, Christine Clark, a doctor from Alaska who finished 19th in the Sydney games.
This year, there is a full contingent: Kastor, 40-year-old South African transplant Colleen De Reuck and Jen Rhines, who eclipsed her personal best by 11 minutes to finish third at the U.S. trials.
Renewed interest
The 31-year-old Kastor thinks Americans lost interest in the marathon during the last two decades, but that it's on the upswing.
"We now see a marathon boom in the United States," she said. "It's a glorified event again. To go to some of the major marathons and see 30,000 people lined up at the starting line, it's exciting to see America going that way."
De Reuck said much of the renewed interest is due to Kastor, who carries U.S. hopes despite an upset loss to De Reuck in the trials.
"She made a mistake. She didn't drink enough fluids early in the race," De Reuck said. "She won't make that mistake again."
The loss only fueled Kastor's preparations for Athens.
"I feel it's probably the race that brought me back to being hungry in the sport again, that got me excited to begin training and try to do things right leading up to this marathon," she said.
Training
Kastor lives with her husband of 11 months, Andrew Kastor, in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., the heart of the Sierra Nevada. She ran as many as 145 miles per week at altitudes up to 9,000 feet before coming to Crete to get acclimated to Greece's heat and humidity.
Just 5-foot-4 and 104 pounds, Kastor's biggest challenge this week -- when she'll run about 100 miles in training -- is eating and sleeping enough to recover from her workouts.
She probably won't be considered a contender when she lines up against the favorite, Paula Radcliffe of Britain, on Aug. 20, but her credentials are solid enough so that a medal is no fantasy.
A silver medalist at the last two world cross-country championships, she was Deena Drossin when she broke Benoit's 18-year-old American record at 2 hours, 21 minutes, 16 seconds with a third-place finish at the 2003 London Marathon, a race won by Radcliffe in world-record time. Only seven women have run faster than Kastor's time in London.
The marathon, especially at the Olympics, often produces a surprise winner. The Athens race presents a particularly daunting challenge, passing through steep hills along the ancient route taken by the original marathoner, Philippides. It is said that in 490 B.C., the Greek soldier ran the distance to Athens to deliver news of a victory over the Persian Army at Marathon, then dropped dead.
"To retrace history like that, you bet it's going to be thrilling for all of us," Kastor said. "I don't know how much we'll be able to appreciate while we're out there, but right now we're appreciating it. Probably afterward we'll appreciate that we made that trek -- if we make it."