A long time coming

ATHENS -- Deena Kastor was 11 and watching her television set as Joan Benoit came into the Los Angeles Coliseum for the last lap of the Olympic marathon.

"Since then, it's been a dream to win an Olympic medal," Kastor said yesterday, less than 24 hours after taking the bronze in Athens. "I've always said how much she meant to me. I hope I can be an inspiration in running or anything else for someone to set lofty goals and do the work to fulfill them. I would like to have touched someone, somehow."

Kastor's bronze wasn't the same color as Benoit's gold 20 years ago, but the victory was just as important for the marathon in the US. Kastor has been recognized as America's best female distance runner for several years but she only started running the marathon seriously three years ago. She could have come to Athens in the 10,000 meters but opted for the marathon instead.

"I knew if I wanted a chance at any medal, it would have to be in the marathon," she said. "That's why I chose this as my focus. It was an absolutely incredible night. A lot of people would be disappointed with a bronze, but this is great."

Kastor's medal came in a race that was marked by heat that claimed 16 runners over the course from Marathon to Athens.

"To take the journey from Marathon where the temperature was 101 . . . it's an incredible feeling to retrace those steps of so long ago," she said. "I wasn't sure if I was third or fourth when I came into the stadium. I had been hearing both along the course. I didn't want to celebrate too early. I waited until I heard the announcer then a ran hysterical lap, crying with a million thoughts running through my mind. There was the elation of reaching a goal, but also of all the people who helped me achieve it."

Kastor spent most of her preparation for Athens in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., running along the mountain roads in sweats and long sleeves. Still, she almost wondered if it had been enough at the start of the race, which began at 6 p.m.

"There was a little sense of apprehension when you get off the bus and see that it's 101 degrees," she said. "I knew I would have to run a conservative race because of the heat. I saw all the other runners stumbling and dropping out, and that was my greatest fear that I would be one of them."

Instead, she was one of those who mastered the heat and the hills of the course. "I felt best on the hills. If there had been a few more of them, my medal might be a little shinier.

"When I got to the halfway mark, I thought it was a little cruel to have a big sign in red saying it was 85 degrees with 56 percent humidity. A lot of times when I get to the halfway mark, I think `Oh gosh, I've got a long way to go.' This time I felt a sense of renewal."

Yesterday, as she prepared for the medal ceremony, she appeared as fresh as when she came to Crete over a week ago. "There is no way I would run a marathon in these conditions, except at the Olympics. I probably would have felt differently about how I feel today if I had finished fourth."

Kastor did know, however, that it is only 76 days until her next marathon in New York. "I'll take a week off and then get started again," she said.