Kevin Castille crushes one of the oldest masters WRs on the books
In 1982, French Olympian Lucien Rault set the M45 world record in the 5000 of 14:23.6. It wasn’t a surprise. He’d run the 10K in the 1976 Olympics in 29:40.76 at age 40. But the shocker is that Lucien’s time would hold up as the WR for 35 years. Now we have Kevin Castille claiming the M45 WR with his incredible 14:11.09 at the Music City Distance Carnival in Nashville two weekends ago. An earlier mark of 14:22.55 is still being reviewed, according to Jeff Brower’s list of pending marks. No mention of the 14:11, however. Kevin’s times have been under a cloud for years, though, since he’s a former admitted cocaine dealer. But as Charles Bethea details in his amazing 2014 profile of Kevin, the doping doubts have been addressed: “The more records he breaks, the more he’s been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. (He has never failed a test.) The LetsRun message boards are full of anonymous suspicion. Even Hop’s friends openly wonder: How did this guy seem to come out of nowhere and suddenly start winning so much? It must be that he’s juicing. Kevin thinks it’s funny, in a way, given that he handled crack cocaine for a decade and never used the stuff. People, he says, think he came out of nowhere, but they don’t know about Acadiana, or ULL, or his decade off, or how hard he works now.” He also slept in an altitude tent set at 10,000 feet. I know people who won’t accept Kevin’s marks as unjuiced. But I have no evidence. All I know is he beat Pete Magill’s listed AR of 14:34.27 and Lucien’s 14:23 — at least twice. Let’s see what Jeff has to say — if the 14:11 is submitted.
4 Responses
He has actually been running fast times for several years and was an excellent runner in HS and ran in college so the talent was there. It sounds like he has turned his life around so there is a lot to celebrate.
Look forward to age 50 WR’s from him.
He can probably set from the 3000 through the half in 50-54.
Saturday 17 June a Duluth 1h03.58 in half marathon.
In the day of his birthday, 17 March a Lafayette, he run 29’44″38 in 10000 meter in track.
..crazy range!!
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