Kevin Castille crushes M40 American record in 10K at Stanford
Kevin at age 38.
Here’s what I found about Kevin at Carlsbad 5000:
In the men’s Masters race, youth was served by recently turned 40-year-old Kevin Castille of Nicholasville, Kentucky. Leading from gun to tape, Castille crossed the finish line in 14:57 to win by 33 seconds over defending Masters champion Christian Cushing Murray of Santa Ana, Calif. Tim Gore of Oceanside, Calif., was third in 15:31.
Hitting the mile unchallenged in 4:38, Castille continued to stretch out his legs, along with the lead, over the final two miles to make his first Carlsbad 5000 a memorable one.
“I just turned 40 on March 17 and wanted to start the Masters off right,” said Castille, who hopes to qualify for this summer’s Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters. “I know sometimes races are tactical so I wanted to go out in 4:45 no matter what and see what happens.”
My thanks to David Monti’s Twitter feed, which informed me of Kevin’s amazing mark.
11 Responses
Wow!
Smoke’em if you got ’em!! Wow Kevin! Go UK – too.
Simply amazing performance! Just completely embarrassed the old record!
Unfortunately Ken is wrong that “he’s almost assured of being in the field” at the Olympic Trials. In fact it is the opposite. In 2004 Kevin was the slowest runner who made it in the race at 28:49. In fact he and Greg Jimmerson weren’t among the top 24 qualifiers, but USATF fudged the qualifying since there were only 2 runners with the B standard outside the top 24.
In 2008 Dathan Ritzenhein was the last qualifier at 28:28. 13 runners with the B standard didn’t get to race. USATF once again made an exception to their own rules and hand picked Adam Goucher to be runner 25 in a 24 man field.
I have seen Kevin in local races in Louisiana,he was running out of Lafayette, La, definately the class of the field here.
Kevin is on a roll. He looks and runs like a kid fresh out of school.
It doesn’t make sense. How do you barely break 15:00 for a FAST road 5k and then run 28:57.88 for 10,000m? This guy’s PR for 3000m eight years ago is only 8:22.37. Isn’t anyone suspicious? Why do so many masters crush AR’s at Invitational meets where they are 10th, 15th, 8th or in this case 19th rather than breaking those AR’s at National Masters Championships? Hmmm.. No testing for runners who finish back regardless of how fast they run?
This just doesn’t sit well. I believe there is a trend where this sport is getting tainted, especially at the Master’s level. What a sad commentary..
I will respond to the comment that he barely broke 15:00 at Carlsbad. The Carlsbad 5000 is a fast race because of the competition; it is in no way as fast as running on a track. He had no one to push him as the next runner was some 30 seconds back. Also, it was very windy that morning and most runners that I talked with ran approximately 30 seconds slower than if conditions were calm.
As for American records – Masters fields do not have competitive fields or at least at the same level that Invitationals can provide. Many masters will not run at our national meet because it is July or August with very hot weather conditions with no adjustment to running our races either in the morning or evening hours.
Great job brother, I should have been there with you just like old tymes, best wishes with the trials, just give your 100% and all will be alright…….:)
In response to Rich. Carlsbad 5000 was a very windy day and no one else as fast as Kevin in the masters race. He is the real deal. I have seen him run up close.
Rich, the answer to your Carlsbad question is that Kevin’s plan was to run EZ at 4:45 pace….the windy conditions slowed the time…it was a very ez tempo run..he did as his coach instructed him…have fun and win. The answer to you second question about his 3k PR from 8 years ago was again he did as his coach told him…don’t lead the race until 600m to go…where he went to the front and closed in 1:32 for the win…he debuted in 28:49 for 10000m at Stanford one week later. He never ran another 3k until his 8:11 indoors 2012…his PR for 3k was actually 8:15 en-route durning a 13:57 5000m. Before you shine a negative light on someone for doing something you cannot imagine yourself doing…you might want to do a bit of homework.
I’ve been watching Kevin since he was in high school, college, and beyond. For those who think this is too good to be true need to look at his whole running history, not just what he’s recently accomplished. It is hard for me to believe that someone who couldn’t break 15 minutes in college is now running 14 flat at 40 years old. What happened to the 1-2% loss in VO2 max over the age of 35? He’s defying the aging process by running times that are equivelant to times he ran during his prime.
Oh, and by the way, Kevin is from Lafayette, LA. He attended Acadiana Highschool. Kevin just recently moved to Kentucky and his times magically got better. When he moved to Oregon back in the early 2000s, his times did the exact same thing as well. I’ll believe the times when I see results from drug tests.
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