Nicholasville resident is earning attention in the running world
castille
The abundant green grass and rolling hills of central Kentucky have proven kind to elite runner Kevin Castille, as he wins races and sets records despite notching the big 4-0 on the calendar in March.
Hailing from Lafayette, La., the long-legged speedster has been living and training in the region since moving to Nicholasville a little over a year ago. He said the move has been a good one.
“It’s been nice because at home it’s always so hot,” he said, adding that the heat and humidity used to force him to start training runs at 4 or 5 a.m. “And everything there is flat, there were no hills, and I think having that adjustment of hills really made me a lot stronger.”
Castille’s spring accomplishments prove he has gotten stronger.
In April he set an American masters division (40 and over) record for the 10K by clocking a 28:57.88 at the Stanford University Invitational Track and Field Meet, finishing only 36 seconds behind the winner, who also happens to be an Olympian.
“I’ve never been on a big pedestal,” he said about breaking the record. “Even in high school I’ve never been a state champion or national champion, nothing in college. We had intentions of doing the record, so my coach had planned for it. It was not an easy record; 29-something is not slow, but it was kind of in the plan.”
Less than a week after the Stanford race, Castille won the masters division at the Carlsbad 5000 in a blazing 14:57 time. He was then named the USA Track & Field Athlete of the Week.
“That was kind of neat because it’s not like ‘masters athlete of the week;’ it’s athlete of the week, period,” Castille said. “I was kind of surprised when they called me. It’s like you go from being invisible to all of the sudden everyone’s talking about you.”
The father of three, including a daughter in eighth grade who is a runner and who he often runs with, is humble about the award and his recent accomplishments as he remains focused on his goal of qualifying for the Olympics in the 10,000 meters.
In order to make the team, he must first qualify for the Olympic Trials, which he has done as a provisional qualifier. Automatic qualifiers are a guarantee at the trials, and provisional qualifiers have a chance to fill in the 24 spots that are not filled by automatic qualifiers. Qualification is all based on race times, and Castille has his eye on several 10Ks in this spring’s busy race season to try to meet the time requirements.
“I try and not let my highs get too high and my lows get too low,” Castille said about his chances of qualifying. “I try to keep a pretty calm head. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and keep plugging at it, and whatever happens, happens.”
He said his 10K time will likely need to be in the 28:30 to 28:40 range to qualify for the trials. But Castille feels he now is in his best form yet, despite being older than much of his competition. He is training full-time and said he is “more focused and more in tune with his fitness” than ever before.
His “masters” division status is living up to his name. Once turning 40, Castille explained, runners are eligible for different prize money categories at some races and masters only competitions, but in terms of Olympic qualification, age is not a factor.
“You still have the ability to do what everybody else does,” he said. “But older is older, so I try not to feel bad for myself. I see a lot of runners go, ‘Well I’m 40,’ and they get their mind set that they can’t do it. And it’s not that they can’t, it’s just that they don’t anymore.”
Castille hopes to head to running hub Eugene, Ore., soon, where his coach is located. Previously, Castille was a high school coach and personal trainer before committing to his training full time (sometimes running three times a day), and said that running is the only thing he has ever done since running “found him” in high school when he was under five feet tall and only 70 pounds.
The running community in Lexington and central Kentucky, Castille added, has been very accepting and a nice change of pace. But with his eye on qualification, Castille for now is keeping to himself, preparing for races all over the country and following the advice of his coach.