THREE-TIME OLYMPIAN KASTOR SPEAKS WITH CPP CROSS COUNTRY TEAM (24 PHOTOS) (October 4, 2022)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
CORNING — The Wineglass Marathon weekend wrapped up on Sunday, but special guest Deena Kastor was in town one-extra day, and the Olympic medalist spent Monday night talking to the Corning-Painted Post cross country team.

Kastor, a three-time Olympian, and a Bronze Medalist in 2004, talked to the Corning runners on Monday night after the Hawks had a long run workout.

“It was an incredible weekend,” Kastor said. “Just quintessential Wineglass hospitality. Being at all the races this weekend, but also going to the Corning Museum of Glass and making a pumpkin this morning and being able to talk to the high school kids in the middle of their cross country season at the end of a long run today.

“They stayed awake a little extra long to allow me to speak to them, so it’s just been an amazing weekend and I feel like I come to these races charged to inspire the people I meet and I walk away so inspired by the stories I witness and the people I speak with so all around it has been an incredible weekend.”

Corning coach Ray Lawson knows that adversity is a big part of the sport, and he enjoyed hearing Kastor tell the runners about how you battle through those difficult situations.

“I think the biggest takeaway for me is Deena’s connection with going through the struggles of running, going through the challenges of a race and how to find a positive voice to persevere. And, she shared very effectively how just in life we all face obstacles and you can sort of have the approach like why me or you can just deal with the reality of the problem and look for a solution for it. I just thought she was really good at saying we all sometimes when we face tough moments. Maybe we want to give up or want to find an excuse, but in running and in life you learn to persevere, you learn to find solutions. I thought that part was excellent of her sharing that with athletes.

“I thought the athletes, to have an American record holder here, someone who has run a faster 5K than any of our athletes, male or female. She’s a sub-15 5K runner, as a runner that draws their attention and they can respect how talented she is. I think most of her focus was on, she talked about how she doesn’t remember the races as well, she remembers the relationships and the friendships she formed, so that’s all good. I was very glad to have her here.”

Kastor enjoys getting a chance to talk to younger runners about the sport.

“I think some of the highlights of my entire running career from 11 until now, almost 50-years-old, were in cross country season so I feel extra giddy to be in the middle of their cross country season being able to speak with them and just hear their enthusiasm and exhaustion. It’s a balance of both, they had al long run today, and to be able to just share the height of this experience and show them where it can take us.

“And, really, we can sit here and listen to our coaches and do our long runs and our repeats and get in our races, but in all of it it is up to us to make sure our perspective is at tis best so we can get the best out to this sport. That’s my message to them, listen to your coach number one and second of all you are responsible for the six inches about your shoulders, so make sure you are advocating and cheerleading for yourself, because what they do is hard. It’s challenging, we get fatigued, we get to a place of pain and discomfort every time we are out there as runners. It’s our job to make sure we are at our best despite this.”

For Kastor when she talks to high school runners it brings her back in time, but it also makes her excited for the future with her own daughter.

“Talking with them really is a collision of both of my worlds,” Kastor said. “It brings me back to that time of exhaustion with school and training and racing, but it also is making me excited for my daughter, who is 11-years-old, who is just kind of finding herself in sport, and so it’s making me excited to encourage her. It was influxes this whole time just being excited for them and where they are in their young lives, but also excited for my daughter to come up in these ranks and be able to shine herself through sport.”
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Three-time Olympian Deena Kastor talks to Corning-Painted Post’s cross country team on Monday. PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES