Sports

Marathoning

RICK GANO AP Sports Writer

CHICAGO — Deena Kastor certainly cooked up a way to pass the time while she was on the mend. Unable to run after fracturing her foot three miles into the Olympic Marathon at Beijing, she turned to her other love.

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Deena Kastor, left, leads Magdalena Lewy Boulet during the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in Cambridge, Mass., in April 2008. Kastor was three miles into the Olympic marathon 14 months ago when she felt a pain in her foot. It turned out her foot was broken, which ended her chance to medal at the Beijing Games. Kastor will run her first marathon since that day when she runs in the Chicago Marathon.

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“I used that time wisely to get some recipes and measure some things, which I never do. I was out there with my best measuring spoons and getting the proper ingredients to finish a cook book,” Kastor said Friday.

She’s even signed with a literary agent and hopes to get the book on the shelves soon. First, though, she’s got some running to do, starting Sunday with the Chicago Marathon.

The women’s field also includes Germany’s Irina Mikitenko, who has won three marathons, including London for the second time in April in 2:22:11. In August, she pulled out of the World Championship marathon in Germany because she hadn’t trained sufficiently after the death of her father.

“Obviously it’s a tough topic for me to talk about. It was a tragic loss for me,” she said. “He was the most important person in my life. We had a very good relationship and he was always proud of what I was doing. So I want to show him I can run good, just for him.”

For Kastor, 36, a bronze medalist at the Athens Olympics in 2004, seven months off may have extended her career. At least for another two years.

“The fact that my Olympic dream was basically broken is keeping me in the sport until London in 2012,” she said. “I’ll try to fulfill a brighter medal than a bronze. In that way it has kept me in the sport.”

After her foot flared up this June and she had to scale back, Kastor returned for a tuneup race at the New York half-marathon in August. It didn’t go well, but the experience made her put even more into her workouts at her Mammoth Lakes, Calif., home.

“I do get the best out of myself when I can stay at home with uninterrupted training and get into the work,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if my body could handle this anymore. The fact I was able to put together this training over the past few months. ... It has me looking forward to Sunday knowing I can be a top contender again.”

It also helps when your physical therapist happens to be her husband. Andrew Kastor, an avid runner himself, really got into shape while his wife was recovering and here’s why: