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August 22, 2004 9:17 pm

Kastor charges through heat for bronze

By TOM WEIR

USA TODAY

ATHENS, Greece — With a little more than a half-mile left Sunday in the women's Olympic marathon, the United States’ Deena Kastor glided past an Ethiopian and was running at a faster pace than anyone in the field.

But there was a problem.

Kastor was not certain whether, amid brutal heat, she was in position to win the United States’ first Olympic marathon medal by either gender since Joan Benoit's gold in 1984.

"Two different people told me that if I caught the girl in front of me I'd be in third, and then someone else told me I'd be in fourth," said Kastor, who had patiently picked her way through a field that inevitably wilted in 95-degree temperatures.

About a minute later she entered historic Panathinaiko Stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896, and got her answer.

"I didn't know until the announcer said, "Deena Kastor is going to get the bronze,' " she said. "I just cried my way around the track after that. ... When I heard that, I just lost all my emotions. I couldn't contain myself."

But Kastor might not have contained her pace had things gone better for her in April at the U.S. Olympic trials. She had faded at the trials after leading early and didn't like "being passed like I was standing still" by Colleen de Reuck.

"I didn't want that to happen to me again," Kastor said. "I was adamant about being conservative early in the race. ... Getting second in the Olympic trials taught me a lesson."

That lesson paid extra dividends on a course whose middle section was a 9-mile uphill grind.

Kastor was 28th after 3 miles. She had moved up to 12th at the halfway point of the 26.2-mile race but still couldn't see the leaders. The lead pack had disintegrated by 19 miles. Kastor was eighth and catching the stragglers.

The most notable: World recordholder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain, who melted down near the 22-mile mark, sat down on the curb and began sobbing.

Gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi of Japan, who won in 2 hours, 26 minutes and 20 seconds, was uncatchable. And so was silver medalist Catherine Ndereba of Ethiopia, who ran 2:26:32.

But within range was the formidable third-place runner, Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia, this year's runner-up in the Boston Marathon. No one in the entire field covered those final 7 miles faster than Kastor, who finished in 2:27:20, 55 seconds faster than Alemu.

"Her goal in the race was to just pick off, pick off," said Kastor's husband, Andrew. "I think she feeds off that weakness when she sees other people faltering."

There were plenty of them on a course that followed the route Pheidippides supposedly took in 490 B.C. to announce that Greece had defeated Persia in the Battle of Marathon. Pheidippides, according to legend, then dropped dead.

Kastor's version of that perilous course was in Antelope Valley, Calif., at 7,500 feet above sea level.

"It's just up-down, up-down," Andrew Kastor said. "She'd be out there at 10 a.m., and she'd train in a long-sleeve shirt, hat and tights."

Sometimes she would take 24-mile runs on those hills. In the prelude to Athens her mileage topped out at 141 miles a week.

"Everything was on the edge of going too far," Andrew Kastor said.

But that risky preparation likely was necessary for a race where even gold medalist Noguchi had to be held up by an Olympic volunteer as she left the stadium.

"She loved this course," Andrew Kastor said. "She's a hill runner. She loves to attack the hills."

And he sensed a good day was ahead when he and his wife parted a few hours before the race.

Temperatures were already 100 degrees, but Kastor "just gave me this big smile," her husband said.

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