KASTOR TO RACE MORE MAGAZINE/FITNESS MAGAZINE WOMEN'S HALF MARATHON
By Chris Lotsbom
(c) 2013 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

(26-Mar) -- The New York Road Runners, organizers of the More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon, announced today that multiple American record holder Deena Kastor will headline the April 14th race, which is America's largest half-marathon exclusively form women. In its tenth year, the race takes participants through two loops of Central Park.

“It is very special for us to have Deena Kastor here at the More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon with the anniversary theme of ‘Women Run the World,’" said New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg through a media release. “Deena is one of our country’s great athletes, and she continues to impress us all with her incredible talent, dedication, and passion for what she loves, which we appreciate and honor.”

Kastor has already run one half-marathon, one full marathon, and the IAAF World Cross Country Championships so far this year. In February, three days after she turned 40, Kastor won the Rock 'n' Roll Pasadena Half-Marathon in a course record of 1:12:57.  A month later, the mother of one returned to the roads to place third in the Asics LA Marathon, timing 2:32:39. Finally, last weekend she helped the U.S. Senior Women's team to a fourth place finish at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, finishing 34th.

“I am thrilled to participate in the More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Half-Marathon,” said Kastor in a statement from race organizers.  “It is an honor to celebrate our sport with so many women who have inspired me to continue competing as a 40-year-old mom.”

Kastor holds USA road running records at nine distances, including the national half-marathon record of 1:07:34.

If she wins the More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon, Kastor will take home $1,000 in prize money and “The Meyerhoff,” an award named in honor of 2010 winner Sally Meyerhoff, who died in March, 2011, when she was struck by a truck while cycling.

Last year, Ethiopian Alemtsehay Misganaw set a course record of 1:13:25, topping the podium over Americans Jen Rhines and Michelle Frey. A total of 7,092 women completed the course in 2012.

PHOTO: Deena Kastor poses with daughter Piper in July, 2012 (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

ENDS