Last April, Deena Kastor became the fastest female marathoner in U.S. history, running 2:21:16 at the London Marathon to break Joan Benoit Samuelson's 17-year-old mark by five seconds. It was the third career marathon for Kastor, who finished third in the race behind Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe and Kenya's Catherine Ndereba. Kastor's previous two 26.2-mile efforts yielded a 2:26:58 (an American debut record, set at the 2001 New York City Marathon) and a 2:26:53 (run at the 2002 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon).

The versatile Kastor had considerable success on the track, roads, and in cross country before her 2003 breakthrough in the marathon. A 2000 Olympian at 10,000m, Kastor has won three national titles at that distance (2000, 2001, and 2003) and has represented the United States at three IAAF World Track & Field Championships. She is a two-time silver medallist in the long-course (8K) race at the World Cross Country Championships (2002, 2003). Kastor also holds American records on the track (30:50.32 for 10,000m) and on the road (14:54 for 5K and 47:15 for 15K).

Kastor, née Deena Drossin, was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, and grew up in Agoura Hills, California. As a prep at Agoura High School, she won five California state titles (two in track, three in cross country) and made the finals of the Kinney (now Foot Locker) national high school cross country championships four times. Kastor won seven Southeastern Conference titles while representing the University of Arkansas, of which she is a 1996 graduate. Now 31, she married Andrew Kastor in September 2003. The couple resides in Mammoth Lakes, California. We spoke with Kastor as she was wrapping up her preparations for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon, to be held April 3 in St. Louis.

FW: You haven't really raced since you were a pacemaker for part of the 2003 New York City Marathon. Is it difficult from a mental standpoint to not have had that feeling of being on the starting line in so long [since the 2003 World Championships in Paris, where she placed 12th in the 10,000m]?
DK: I guess I made the decision not to race because I do feel sharper when I can just stay at home and train with one goal in mind. I did make the decision because staying at home and getting in consistent workouts seems to give me the most confidence. My workouts have been going extremely well. I've logged some really high-mileage weeks with some good quality in there so I do go into the Trials with a tremendous amount of confidence. I think traveling kind of wears me out a bit. So to keep hopping from race to race seems like it breaks up the consistency of my training, which is why I chose to forego some of the races that I usually run in and just prepare for the Trials.

FW: You did actually travel to the USA Cross Country Championships. Did you decide not to run just because the risk of injury would be too high in those conditions?
DK: Yeah, any other year I would've thrived in conditions like that. I love cross country for the conditions that it brings — the mud and the ice and the snow. Being able to train in that and then go race in it. I enjoy it — extremely. But I just wasn't ready to take the risk this year. I was really excited about the Trials and kind of even in training in January had my mind set on the Trials. So to go to cross country… The thought of risking anything for the Trials would not have been worth it to me.

FW: Is it hard not to be at the World Cross Country Championships in Brussels this weekend? Will you follow the results online?
DK: Yeah, of course I'll follow the results online. I obviously wish I could be there, but it will be an exciting race nonetheless, and I look forward to hearing how the U.S. girls and guys do. My thoughts will definitely be with them, but I unfortunately won't be there to cheer them on.

FW: Would you really have gone to Europe to run in the Worlds had you run [and qualified] at USATF Nationals?
DK: Yeah, I did it last year with the London Marathon — running the cross country season, nationals, and World Championships, and then going to London to run the marathon. The time frame is about the same as I'm doing this year, so I felt like I could've done it. But I also really do love being at home and training and getting in that consistency. I think if I had made the decision to run cross country [nationals], then I would've run the World Championships and been prepared for the marathon just as well, but I do gain a lot of confidence in staying home and consistently training.

It was hard not to be in Jacksonville for the [Gate River Run] 15K last weekend. [Note: Kastor won four straight national 15K titles in Jacksonville from 2000-03.] But it's just the sacrifices you make in an important year, and I hope that by the end of the year they will have paid off for me.

FW: What kind of shape are you in right now? Are you in the best shape of your life? How would you compare your fitness with what it was before London last year?
DK: My training right now has been very different from London last year. I had a lot of real speed-oriented quality running under my belt when London came around. My mileage wasn't as high. So right now I feel that I'm more strength-based. I don't have the turnover to drop a 5:00 mile to get back on pace if I fall off pace in this marathon like I did in London. But I definitely have the strength. My long runs have gone great. I haven't done anything under 120 miles a week since January. So I just feel incredibly strong. I've been able to stay healthy and just maintain that strength this whole time, at the same time having great tempo runs and mile repeat workouts that I tend to base my fitness level off of. [That] is why I can go into the race with confidence — it's workouts that I've done consistently throughout the years so it's always something I look back on. The times that I'm running right now and the strength that I feel when I'm out there is definitely giving me the confidence going into the Trials.

But in a marathon, anything can happen and I know that all the other girls on the starting line are well prepared for the race, so it's definitely going to be a challenge. You've got the top U.S. distance runners toeing the line together and everybody comes prepared. So all you can do is have faith in what you've done in your own preparations and hope that it pans out for you at the end of the journey.

FW: Can you give some specifics about some of the workouts, like the mile repeats, that have gone well?
DK: Just to take the last one — I did six times one-mile, and my fastest one was 4:49, with a two-minute jog inbetween. It's on a mile that we have marked out on the asphalt. We try to get everything done on asphalt since that's what the race is, so we have a mile marked off on pavement up here that I've been doing over the past three years.

FW: And this is in Mammoth Lakes, at 7,800 feet?
DK: Right. And then I'm doing two long runs a week, one on Wednesday and one on Sunday. So I've gotten up to a 24-mile run — that's been my longest run, and [I've been] feeling really good doing that. So I just feel like I have a nice balance right now. And, like I said, no weeks under 120 miles.

FW: Do you ever get a day off? Is there any way to run 120 miles a week and have a day off?
DK: No, I didn't take any days off. But I usually run twice a day every day but Sundays, but this time around, I've only run twice a day for four or sometimes five days out of the week.

FW: And on the other two or three days, you made it a single longer run?
DK: Right.

FW: You said you never went under 120 miles a week, but what was your peak mileage week?
DK: 134 was my highest mileage week.

FW: Is that the most you've ever done in your career?
DK: No, I've actually done more, but not consistently at this level. I usually throw in a couple high-mileage weeks, and then go back down to 100, and then build back up and try to hit a peak mileage week again. But I've just felt really good in my training. I'm not completely faithful to the program — if there's a day that I get out there and I feel bad, I'm not going to do the distance that it says on the paper. I'm not going to throw in an extra two miles at the end of the week just to hit my mileage for the week. I feel like it was all real quality, good-effort runs. This is the first time I feel like I haven't really thrown in a lot of junk mileage that marathoners tend to do. Everything's been kind of quality, because even on my distance days or my easy days, I'm trying to keep up with a couple of the guys that are training up here. It's been a great training session, so I'm hoping to run this race and recover fast from it.

FW: Who writes your training program?
DK: Coach [Joe] Vigil writes my program entirely. He was up here for the entire training stint. He just left to go to the World Championships in cross country.

FW: Is he doing well? [Note: Vigil suffered a heart attack in April 2003.]
DK: Yeah, he's doing great. I guess whenever he's coaching he's feeling wonderful [laughs].

FW: Was this entire training session in Mammoth Lakes, or did you spend some time in southern California?
DK: I was in San Diego for the beginning of January, and then the last month I've been up here [in Mammoth Lakes] training — since the beginning of February. Part of my training — which I haven't done in the last few days because the weather's been so warm — I've been snowshoeing and using crampons up at 9,000 feet altitude. Going up there and doing a six- to eight-mile run up there just to be at a higher elevation and to embrace winter a little more. I have my hard sessions in the mornings and then in the evenings would go out up at 9,000 feet and snowshoe. It was really just a strength builder. Some of the sessions were a little more exhausting than my hard sessions in the morning, but [it was] really enjoyable. I guess if you live in a ski resort in a ski town, that you need to embrace the snow and wintertime somehow. That seemed to be a really fun thing for me to do this winter.

FW: Does your husband go snowshoeing with you?
DK: No, he actually works at that time. In the mornings I'm with the group and with Andrew and Coach Vigil, and have the more intense training session. The evenings were kind of my escape to get up and think about my goals and just kind of collect my thoughts and have some fun in the snow.

FW: Who else is in the training group up at Mammoth?
DK: Matt Downin — he just recently ran the 15K — and Ibrahim Aden. Those are really the two guys that helped me out the most. They would try to chase me down on tempo runs. I'd start three minutes ahead of them on a 10-mile tempo run and they had to try to catch me. I was hanging on for dear life trying to maintain a distance between them. So, I lost some weekends but other weekends I was victorious in holding them off.

FW: When they caught you, would it be near the very end?
DK: Yeah, it would come down to the wire, it was always close. So it was really fun training in that respect. Matt was also with me for a lot of my longer runs, kind of pushing me a little bit to get a faster pace in on my longer runs. So I really feel those two guys helped me out so much. The people that we had up here [were] a steeplechase runner and a 1,500m runner and a 10K runner and another marathoner and an 800m runner. We had so many different denominations of the sport. But we all worked together beautifully somehow in just breaking up our runs so that we could finish together or try to challenge each other a little bit.

FW: These were all runners that are trained by Coach Vigil?
DK: Yes.

FW: Where do you stay when you go to Chula Vista to train?
DK: We stay at the Olympic Training Center. You usually have a roommate — my roommate is usually Sasha Spencer, who's an 800m runner. For me to go down in my last week of preparations, it's just getting away from the house and the bill-paying and the entertaining at the house and just the things that go with [being home] — like hot water heaters going out (laughs). Just to get away, and not have to think about running to the grocery store to cook dinner that night or going to the post office. It's just all those things you tend to escape. Just rest and recover.

FW: What's the setup like in Chula Vista? Is everyone living in the same dormitory?
DK: Yeah, it's really kind of a family situation down there. There are so many different sports, but it seems like the people who stay down there most consistently are track and field athletes. So we have our Monday night meetings where everybody sits around and shares their week with each other. So we're hearing how the pole vaulters are doing overseas. It's just a very fun atmosphere, a very supportive atmosphere, which is what you need when you're trying to reach such lofty goals. We have everything from a psychologist — which I'll probably utilize, I'll probably visit Jim [Bauman] a couple times next week — and my strength coach Zach Weatherford is down there and my physiologist and just the whole group that seems to be my support system. The people that have helped me fine-tune and get ready for some of my biggest competitions.

FW: Then you'll go from Chula Vista to St. Louis?
DK: Yes.

FW: And where do your parents live?
DK: They're just outside of Los Angeles, in Thousand Oaks.

FW: And they'll be at the Trials?
DK: Yes. There's about 27 family members coming to the race, so we'll have an entourage. I think they're coming in by a bus or something [laughs].

FW: How will you approach the race in St. Louis, where there won't be any international women or any men in your race? Are you willing to run all alone from the beginning? Or are you going to run a more comfortable and conservative first half than you would normally run, so you can have some company, and then separate yourself in the second half?
DK: I by no means would put myself in a different category from any of these women, because we all had to do the same thing to get there. We've seen plenty of upsets, not just in the marathon, but in the Olympic Trials in general. There are always people that just have everything click in their training and everything click on that race day and you see them come out and just blow the fields away. So I'm prepared for that. I would be prepared to run by myself, I'd be prepared to try to chase down a pack in the last few miles to try to earn a spot on the team. So I've really thought about it from a lot of different angles. But I think my tactic is going to be more relaxed in the first half of the race and then kind of assess how I'm feeling and hopefully throw in a move somewhere after the halfway point to try to break the field.

FW: Is your attitude going in that just making the team is a success? If you're in PR/American record shape, will you go for it? Or is it something where you're really going to save your best effort for August?
DK: I definitely want to save my best effort for August. I'm not looking to run a super, super fast time [in St. Louis], but if that's what it's going to take to get in the top three, then I'm going to die trying. So whatever it takes to earn a spot on that team is what I'm looking for.

FW: Is the timing of the Trials and the Olympics tricky? Would you have preferred to have the Trials in February like the men?
DK: With the women's Trials being so late, we really have to be tactical about the amount of rest we take after this race and then preparing for Athens. So it is going to take a pretty aggressive rest period. Usually after a marathon, I just relax and don't do anything. I take time off from pampering and from all the things that go with taking care of yourself during marathon training and just rest for the month. But this time I'm going to have to be more aggressive, because my rest is going to be cut short. I'll probably only take one to two weeks off. So I'm going to have to still keep on top of getting in ice baths and getting massages and all those things to help flush out the lactic acid and damage that was done during the marathon

But in saying that, St. Louis is doing just an awesome job of putting this together. They're really making the athletes feel welcome. They're making the families of the athletes feel welcome. And I think that with the organization and the amount of time that they're putting into this race, that it's definitely worth the late start.

FW: Have you seen the course?
DK: I have not seen the course. Just on paper.

FW: Do you care to make any predictions about how some of the other runners will fare at the Trials?
DK: I guess this would be the hardest race in the world to make predictions for, especially because we don't know how people have prepared for it. A little hip tightness a week before the race could play havoc on someone emotionally during the race, if not physically. So there are just so many factors that come into play. But I know everyone's going to be on the starting line as prepared as they can be on that day. I guess I have my favorites in my mind but I don't want to say them, my pre-race favorites [laughs]. [They're] mostly just friends that I've had over the years in this sport. You always want to see people you know that are paying the price and working so hard for it, you always want to see them reach their goals.

FW: Looking ahead to Athens, are you a good hot weather runner? How do you tend to deal with racing in tough conditions?
DK: I actually love racing in — not hot conditions, but in adverse conditions. I feel like my body adjusts pretty well to whatever the conditions could bring. I would like it to be a little excruciating out there, whether it's excruciatingly cold or excruciatingly warm. I guess it is a little tough in a marathon to hope for the warmer, but we do the best we can in hydrating and staying cool throughout the race, and I am excited for it. I'm actually showing [my] optimism in making the team — my husband and I are going over to Greece in May to preview the course and to look things over. We're going to stay there for 10 days, and just really know every inch of the course, just to be familiar with it when we come across it in the race. And not have to wait until the day before the race to preview it.

FW: Is someone from the organizing committee going to give you a tour?
DK: Right now we're just going over by ourselves, but we're looking into [getting] some people in the organizing committee to help us get around while we're there. [People] in the IAAF.

FW: Do you think about the Olympic marathon and what it will feel like if you're in medal contention with 10K to go? Are scenarios like that often on your mind?
DK: Yeah, that thought usually gets me out the door in the morning [laughs]. Just wanting to prepare as perfectly as possible, which is why we're taking the trip over there [to Athens] and just really trying to train methodically towards these two races — the Trials and the Olympic Games — and not throw in other things that may distract from that vision. So I would never get on the starting line of a race not feeling prepared or not preparing for that event, so I have cut out a lot of races that I enjoy throughout the year because my focus every day is for the Trials and the Olympic Games. That's not to say that I'll be devastated if I don't make the team. If I don't make the team, then I sit back and reassess my goals for the rest of the year and just adjust things.

FW: Given that you had a tough experience at the Sydney Olympics [an achilles injury interfered with Kastor's preparation, and she did not advance out of her 10,000m heat], does that put more pressure on you for these Games?
DK: No, I guess I just separated this race from everything else in that this is what I'm training for right now. I guess Sydney was poor preparation because I was injured and kind of running with an injury — with a nagging Achilles — throughout the summer. It was just unfortunate that that was the year that you tend to learn the most about yourself. I'm just treating this as a totally separate race. The Olympic Games are not the only competition we do, so I guess that keeps us a little grounded in the reality that it's just another race. But it is in fact the Olympic Games — it's something that we dream about as really young athletes because it's so glorified in the media and in sports in general — so it does weigh a little heavier in that instance. But it's still 26.2 miles against the best people in the world that we meet every summer and every time we get out to a competitive race anyway.

FW: What's been your experience with the learning curve of the marathon? You improved five minutes from your second marathon to your third. Were you really in that much better shape the third time? Or did you just have a tough day when you ran your second marathon [in Chicago]?
DK: I think that's the nature of the marathon — that whenever you cross the finish line you always think of something else you could've done to make it faster, whether it was something you could've changed in your preparation for it or something you could've done during the race tactically to get a better effort in. So, I felt that way in New York City, I felt that way in Chicago, and I also felt that way in London. I think that's what keeps people coming back for more each time, is that desire to get it right. Inevitably I think the marathon wins each time [laughs], which is why you have to respect the distance and the other people that are running. But in saying that, I think that every time you're out there, you learn a little something about the race distance and about yourself.

FW: It's hard to quantify discomfort, but can you give an idea of what the effort of racing a marathon feels like for you? How does mile 16 of the marathon compare with lap 16 of a 10,000m race?
DK: It's definitely a less intense feeling when you're out there [in the marathon], because you feel like you're just pacing yourself, and the pace feels so easy initially. And then all of a sudden it feels like someone beat your legs with a baseball bat, and you're not sure where it came from. So the distance is a little frustrating, because you go from not pushing and not being aggressive to not being able to go. It's hard to really know where it came from — where that agony set in or what caused it. But you could feel like that at mile 20, and then at mile 21 you're feeling great again. It's just so up and down, which is why it's just a true test of attrition. You have to keep persisting and hoping that your positive mentality and the persistence in your mind will get over all the negatives that try to creep in during that length of time.

FW: What are your career plans beyond this Olympic year? Do you still have goals on the track?
DK: Definitely. I still want to run a fast 5,000m and a faster 10,000m. I have goals in both of those distances, so I'm by no means finished with the track. But I also have loftier goals in the marathon, wanting to win a major marathon here in the United States, whether it be Chicago, New York, or Boston. I'd just love to win one of those major marathons some year, as well as running a faster time. I guess my two marathon goals would be to win a major marathon in the United States and to also run faster. I want to run under 2:20. That's obviously not going to happen — I don't believe it's going to happen — in the Trials or the Olympic Games. So I'll have to choose some other [race] over the years to do it in.

FW: Only four women in history have gone under 2:20, so that would be elite company.
DK: Yeah, it's definitely going to take work to get there. Work and optimal conditions.

FW: When you're in the midst of a grueling training period, is it ever difficult to get yourself out the door to run?
DK: I guess it's usually not hard. When you have a training group that you meet with every morning, it's fun to get up and meet with your friends in the morning and work out together. So I've really enjoyed that part of it. It's the evening runs sometimes when it's at the end of a high-mileage week and you know it's just a three- or four-mile run that doesn't really mean that much — except to get out and get your legs under you a little bit to warm up — that's usually when I call on my dog [Aspen, a chocolate lab] to give me some inspiration. And she gets so excited when I start putting on my running shoes in the evening. She doesn't run very long but she gets me out the door for the first 15, 20 minutes and she runs with me whether it's snowshoeing up at the Lakes… She would join me and then I bring her back to the car and continue on by myself. Very seldom is there a day that I really need the motivation to get out there. It's usually when I can't wake up from my nap.

FW: Do you take a nap every day?
DK: Yeah.

FW: How many hours a day do you usually sleep?
DK: Probably 10-14.

FW: So in these heavy training periods, you're asleep as much as you're awake.
DK: Right. There's a lady in the athletic club when I was doing my weight session the other night who had seen me out earlier that day training with some of my training partners. And she said, 'That must be really nice to have a profession that you just get to work out all day.' And I said, 'The best part of it is sleeping most of it away.' I would definitely say running is a close second to the fact that I get to nap in the middle of the afternoon.

FW: How's married life treating you?
DK: It's wonderful. It's just such a great support team that Andrew has been for me. He's just very giving. He has his own career, but he always pushes it aside to get in my massage or to travel to an important race with me to make sure I'm taken care of. So just a very generous relationship on his part, and it's been fun, it's actually been wonderful. We went to Cancun, Mexico, over New Year's for a vacation and to watch a friend get married down there. We brought books to read on the beach, and obviously a ton of sunscreen [Note: Kastor underwent surgery for melanoma last summer and is now cancer-free] and we just sat under the umbrella at the beach the entire time — underneath a straw hut talking — and we never opened the books that we brought down. Just a nice companionship that we've had. We lived together before we got married, but just having that celebration and sharing it with all of our friends and family here just made it that much more special and made us appreciate the support that both of us have from family and friends. So it's been great so far.

FW: Did you run at all on your honeymoon? Did you even bring your sneakers?
DK: No, definitely not.

FW: Do you ever get to go for an easy run with your husband? Can he keep up with you?
DK: Yes. We used to run a little bit more together, but in training for [the Trials] he's been more just running the warm-up with me and then he's always timing or handing me water bottles on my long runs. He drives alongside of me making sure I'm getting my fluids. So [he has] just been really supportive.

FW: He's a physiotherapist? Does he have a lot of clients year-round up there in Mammoth?
DK: Yeah, he worked with strength and conditioning with a lot of Olympic skiers and snowboarders this year, and mostly treating injuries and getting people over nagging injuries that they've had for years. And just fixing little nagging things that people have over the weekend from skiing or something.

FW: You made a name for yourself as an athlete as Deena Drossin. Has it been difficult to make that adjustment to being known as Deena Kastor?
DK: It hasn't been hard to accept a new last name, but to change it has been a nightmare. It just seems like there's always a discrepancy in something. A plane ticket will come as Drossin, or when I was changing my photo ID, I was still traveling at the time, so to go through security was a nightmare. There was a hole punched in my driver's license and I was traveling under a different last name — it was just a big nightmare. I guess just the fact that I'm continuing to travel while trying to change my name everywhere has been really difficult.

FW: What else do you like to do? You mentioned entertaining. Do you have any television shows that are appointment viewing for you? Do you watch other sports on TV? Do you read a lot?
DK: We don't have a TV. I love reading — I think reading and entertaining are probably my two favorite things to do. I love cooking up a big elaborate meal for my training partners or friends in town or family coming up to visit. I love preparing a big meal for the table.

FW: Any specialties?
DK: Oh, gosh. The only thing I can't do are Asian dishes. I always use too much soy sauce. Luckily the only time I tried it was with Andrew, so he graciously finished it and then I think we ordered pizza afterwards [laughs]. But I love just experimenting and trying new things.

FW: Do you know Paula Radcliffe personally?
DK: Yes. I usually just see her at races, but it is always nice. I guess the running circle is fun like that — that after not seeing someone for six months, you can get together somewhere around the world and be able to catch up and spend some time with people.

FW: Did you talk to Joan Benoit Samuelson after you broke her American record in the marathon?
DK: Almost every reporter has asked me that, and no, I didn't. Everybody has asked me that. But I am excited to be there at the Olympic Trials with her. I just think she's a phenomenal lady. Always been an inspiration and will continue to be an inspiration for all of us marathoners.

FW: Do you remember seeing her Olympic marathon win? Did you watch the 1984 Los Angeles Games on television?
DK: Yes. I don't think anybody that saw them would forget them.