ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 2, 2003

Jenny Crain

Deena Kastor

Sara Wells

SARA WELLS: I don't know. I haven't found out yet.

SARA WELLS: There were two of the women who were up through the 25K, were right on or just below pace and, one of them, Deena's had come back with us there. At that point Kelly was starting to fall back a little bit. The others were -- seemed to be maintaining the pace. The other five -- from the beginning, started out a little bit more conservative than the 1:24 pace.

SARA WELLS: Kelly and Laura. I don't know the last name.

SARA WELLS: Kelly was falling back at mile 15, but Laura, she seemed really strong there. Debbie had dropped back with us. She started with our group at around mile 10.

SARA WELLS: They seemed to be pretty comfortable.

DEENA KASTOR: The weather didn't seem a factor out there at all. It seemed very nice on the course. I don't know if the second half of the course is more exposed, but the air was cool, and there was a light breeze that cooled things off and the sun wasn't intense by the 25 K.

DEENA KASTOR: Did she drop out? She finished but she fell off of my pack at the 13 mile mark. Kim Pawelek and I were together to the 25 K. She was at the halfway mark. She was ten seconds under pace so we went through at 1:19:50 and then we were right on pace at the 25 K.

DEENA KASTOR: She ended up running 2:45 which is a B qualifying time.

JENNY CRAIN: I ran the trials in 1996 and 2000 and I did not have a marathon qualifying time and still have not decided if I will run the trials for the olympic trials. I don't know if I will do that yet. But I did run the A qualifier to get my way paid, not the olympic A standard, mind you. I haven't run a marathon since the trials in 2000.

JENNY CRAIN: I was focused on my own race plan and ran basically by myself the whole time. I had a lot of wheelchair people that I was able to cheer on. The question was what was my halfway split. My halfway split probably, most of you know that better than I would. I believe I was a 1:17:10 if I am not mistaken.

JENNY CRAIN: No, I was running on my own.

JENNY CRAIN: I started back. My number was 60,000 -- kidding. I started with the elite women, yeah.

JENNY CRAIN: It was a personal best for me and I was very pleased on this course. It's a very difficult course and I felt very fit and I was pleased with the time, and the crowds were fabulous.

JENNY CRAIN: The question was, I made a lot of sacrifices in leaving my life in the Midwest and heading to Eugene, Oregon, Track Town, U.S.A. is that beginning to pay off? As all of you know, life is a marathon and the marathon mentality is, taking it a day at a time in your training. It's just been day after day of focusing on what I am trying to do in staying healthy and I believe that a lot of the little things are making a big difference in my performances, yes.

JENNY CRAIN: The answer is yes. I am being coached currently by Matt Lonergan, who works with me and he trains Marla. To suggest that I actually run with Marla would not be accurate so I do a lot of training on my own. We have similar but different training programs and Matt Lonergan basically caters to each one of us based on our strengths individually and what we are able to accomplish.

JENNY CRAIN: With the A qualifier, why would I not consider running the trials in April was the question. The answer is I see myself having the strength of a 10k run on the track and that's the event I will be most focused on with the trails in April for the marathon, and the trials for track in July. For me personally, I feel that those events may be a little bit too close for me to consider doing both, but again I haven't made a decision.

SARA WELLS: We were a little under, about 1:23:40.

SARA WELLS: Yeah, I felt pretty comfortable. It was fun.

DEENA KASTOR: This was my first time ever pacing elite women in a field like this. I am usually part of the competitive ones on the starting line, so it was a huge stress. I have had problems sleeping at night, which I normally don't have and never being nervous for my own races in the past 19 years that I have been running competitively. I have been nervous for the past 2 months for this job. So I am glad to have been able to have followed through and do the job well and little unfortunate that my girls couldn't hang on to those pace as little bit longer, but I am proud of them nonetheless.

SARA WELLS: I did get pretty nervous because I know I am not to the level that Deena is at, and I just I think it's the pressure of letting the other girls down and we talked a little bit about it beforehand, if they wanted to go right on pace, a little fast, a little slow, and some wanted faster, some wanted slower, so I guess it was just barely faster.

DEENA KASTOR: I think the starting line this year was just packed with such talented runners. It was really a battle. There was a buzz around -- there's always predictions being made ahead of time. I don't think anybody could really put their finger on who could win this race today. There wasn't any one person that you can just hand it to in the pre-stages of the race. It was a fight to the finish and a beautifully executed race on her part. Amazing race. That let's you know that the weather really didn't come into effect today like people were talking about earlier in the week.

DEENA KASTOR: I think Margaret's success comes from her patience, which I think every great marathoner in the history of marathons has always had. It's a quality that's necessary to be in this event; to have patience and to execute your strengths when the finish line is in site and she seems to do that every time. She gets into a nice rhythm but she can really up the tempo when she needs to.