Article on Kevin Castille

I loved the article. I personally think it's absurd he isn't considered a qualifier already. Did you see that his 64:45 time can at a USA championship?

If it's a US champs, it should count, end of story. They should be rewarding people for running US champs and since they sent him a letter saying he was in, that's on them.

The course actually starts and finishes fairly close together but since it ended near the sea, it had a big elevation drop in the last mile:

John Kellogg has told me that for every 10 feet in elevation drop, your time drops by 1.8 seconds. So 250 feet would be worth about 45 seconds but he might not have taken advantage of all of that as so much of it came at the end.

That being said, the rule is 3.25 meters per kilometer as being the max. In this case it was about 3.6 (76.2 meters over 21.1 km).

Anways, he's a great story. I love how he's over come his addiction.

I hope he makes it.

Rojo, if you read his background story, he did not have an addiction. He sold drugs to make money. Anyway, I hope he makes it too.

From a Breaking Bad character to cleaning up on the Master's circuit. How not to love that?

He sold drugs. He ran in the same circles as Eddy. At his age, this screams of PEDs!

CriticalObserver wrote:

He sold drugs. He ran in the same circles as Eddy. At his age, this screams of PEDs!

?Eddy? That happened 8-10 years ago in Albuquerque. Was there really a connection, or are you just making things up?

You are right that was a few years ago. I forgot the sport has been cleaned up since then and EPO no longer exists.

Just asking. And I will spell it out slowly. Was..he..connected..with..Eddy's..group?

Yes or no. And maybe we can go from there.

Kevin had decided he wanted a full-time coach; he briefly considered working with Eddy Hellebuyck

I'm tired of these elites failing to do the base research. Its not like the information is not known on what's a qualifying course and what is not. he failed to do the research and now blames everyone else. he takes none of it. It's ironic he calls the USATF unprofessional. He is too.

I didn't know he was a dealer...I hope he doesn't make because of that. No telling how many lives he's ruined.

SaRollo wrote:

Just asking. And I will spell it out slowly. Was..he..connected..with..Eddy's..group?

Yes or no. And maybe we can go from there.

No. Read the article.

Let me guess, you are a white male. At least 30 years old. Possibly from the South. Likely a Trump supporter.

We have been waiting a long time for someone to break Jack Foster's 1:04.51 single age 44 record from 1977.

There are very few people lower than drug dealers. This guy knowingly helped people mess their lives up. I wouldn't care if he turned into Mother Teresa, his decisions helped people destroy themselves. Can't believe anyone would want this guy to represent runners. Can't believe the holier than thou Brojo's, who eternally label runners as drug cheats, think this guy is admirable. Eff him. I'm far from perfect, but drug dealers are a special kind of low.

To serve only 21 days for drug dealing as a black male in this country has to be some kind of record in and of itself.

i ran the san diego course, and though it really does seem stupid that a usatf national meet would use a course that neither counts for records nor qualifiers, this fact seems like it was pretty well known--a big deal was in fact made out of this since meb was running this race as a new master.

that said, the mix-up for notifying qualifiers who in fact had not qualified is definitely unprofessional.

also for what it's worth (which is absolutely nothing in this case), i don't think the downhill at the end was optimal--most of the descent came in one spot that was difficult to take advantage of--so it won't surprise me if duplicates or surpasses that time on a legal course...

There were surely a lot of people who knew the San Diego course was a downhill one, obviously including Meb K, who's from the area. But Castille is from Louisiana and was there to run a U.S. Masters Championships and the USATF web page for the championships makes no mention that the course could not be used for qualifying.,

The article even states that Ed Torres had to inform his friend Sara Slattery that her time on the course in 2014 wasn't going to count as a qualifier. So it's not like everyone knew.

Kevin is a great dude with an interesting backstory. Yes I have met him in person. The last time I checked, he was doing some training at my alma mater, Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

Here's a 43-year-old dude who ran 1:04....just let him in the fu**ing race fer chrissakes.

I lived just outside Lafayette for over 20 years so of course I know Kevin personally.

He's always been a class act. Humble, and always encouraging of other runners, whether they run 14:30 or 25:00+. And believe it or not, there are *lots* of 25:00+ 5k men and women. Lots.

You'd have to talk to a whole bunch of people before you'd find one in Lafayette that would say a bad word about Kevin.

i found this in less than 30 seconds through google:

The qualifying mark must be made on a USATF certified course, in an event Sanctioned by USA Track & Field or a member federation of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The course must be USATF/IAAF/AIMS certified with an active course certification and have an elevation loss no greater than 3.25 meters/km. All course configurations will be accepted (no minimum separation).

i can't remember what the non-usatf rock and roll competitor site said about course info (can't access the old site, and it looks like they may be changing the course for 2016), so it may or may not have been publicized as a downhill course--can't remember how i found out--but it's the first thing i'm going to find out if i know, or reasonably suspect, that i am in qualifying shape.

now in kevin's defense, it's not clear he even was concerned with whether the course was a qualifying one or not (he likely was running it just because it was a national championship); what is clear is that he has a legitimate complaint with how notifications, some of which were misleading and in error, were handled...