CAPE ELIZABETH — Deena Kastor, Meb Keflezighi and Ryan Hall are part of what organizers call the deepest field of American runners in the 16-year history of the TD Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race.

Kastor, Keflezighi and Hall join a professional field of 30 men and women distance runners for the 2013 race, which will take place Saturday, Aug. 3. The group also includes Kenyan Stanley Biwott, the defending Beach to Beacon champ, as well as three Kenyan women — Lineth Chepkurui, Joyce Chepkirui and Linet Masia — who are all capable of breaking the women’s course record of 30 minutes, 59 seconds set by Chepkurui in 2010.

“We have the deepest field of Americans in the 16-year history of the TD Beach to Beacon, but they have their work cut out for them with the high-level international athletes we were able to attract once again,” Beach to Beacon elite athlete coordinator Larry Barthlow said in a press release. “All in all, I like the balance we achieved and the depth. And with the right conditions, we might see three women run a sub 31:00, which would be really amazing.”

Kastor is one of the most decorated American distance runners over the past decade. She planned to make her Beach to Beacon debut in 2011, but was sidelined by illness the day before the race.

The 40-year-old who will compete in the marathon for Team USA at the World Championships in Moscow later this summer, won bronze in the marathon at the 2004 Olympics and holds the American record in the marathon and half marathon. She first broke Joan Benoit Samuelson’s 18-year-old American marathon record in 2003, then lowered the mark to 2:19:36 in 2006.

Keflezighi, 38, has the highest finish by an American male at the Beach to Beacon. He finished fourth in 2007 with a time of 27:58 He won silver at the 2004 Olympics to become the first American to medal in the marathon in 28 years and finished fourth at the Olympic games last summer in the marathon.

Hall, 30, is a two-time Olympian and won the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in 2008. He holds the American record in the half marathon and is making his Beach to Beacon debut.
The women’s field will be led by Chepkurui, 25, who set the course record in 2010. Last year, she finished third, just two seconds out of first. In 2013, she has won the Utica Boilermaker 12K and the Peachtree 10K.

The men’s field is led by Biwott, who earlier this year ran the 10th fastest half marathon time in history (58:56).

Copy the Story Link