The Amazing Deena Kastor… and Jason Lakritz!
Perhaps you heard over the weekend that Olympic bronze medalist (and American distance running queen) Deena Kastor set four World Masters records at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon. Pretty amazing for anyone to run a 1:09:36, let alone a 41-year-old mom!
There was a great photo of her running mid-race in a pack… with our very own Jason Lakritz tucked in to her right! (Jason is wearing the bright lime green Urban Athletics jersey)
Photo by PhotoRun.net
“I caught up with her about half a mile into the race and decided to just go with it,” Jason said. “There was a pack of about 10 of us that that ran together for 6 miles or so. This photo was taken just before the 41-year-old woman dropped me.”
Jason was hoping to match his personal best of 1:08 – but 90% humidity at the start coupled with a lack of training caused him to fall off the pace just before the 7-mile mark. He finished in 1:11:06.
“The thing I took away from this race was that I felt great through 6 miles, but I just didn’t run enough miles in training to sustain that pace,” he said. “It was a nice confidence booster because I felt good running a hard pace in the beginning.”
Jason joked that he’s “basically the equivalent of an elite woman” – but he admitted he wasn’t as accustomed to running in front of such large crowds.
“It was pretty cool running with Deena,” he said. “The crowds are so much bigger and louder for the elites. I noticed that right away, just how much louder it was because she was there.”
