Two former local high school stars did very well indeed this morning. Kristin Price, a former Penn-Trafford High School track and cross country champion, won the women's division of the marathon, and on the men's side, Mt. Lebanon graduate Greg Costello won the half-marathon. Both were WPIAL Class AAA 1,600-meter winners back in the day (Price, 2000, Costello 1999) before going on to North Carolina State and Bucknell, respectively.
For Costello, who works as a technical representative for Nike out of Chicago, it was a busy trip home. He was on his feet to work Nike's contribution of the Health and Fitness Expo Friday and Saturday, but managed to run back to the South Hills for a brief visit with family.
With a personal-best entry time of 1:07.02, he figured he'd be among the leaders, but winning came as a surprise.
"With this sort of prize money [$2,500], I thought more people would know about it. That usually attracts a certain level of talent. But eight minutes into the race I had a pretty good idea how this was going to go," he said.
Setting the pace by himself had its ups and downs, he added. "It takes the pressure off, but it's hard to do this on your own. I'm proud I was able to [push the pace alone]."
Costello, who has a PR of 2:20:28 for the marathon, had been putting in high-milage weeks of 125-130 miles going into the men's Olympics trials -- he was 42nd in the race in New York City last fall. But he's changed the pace more recently, going more for 90- 100-mile weeks and quality over quantity. He might run a fall marathon and is keeping an eye toward qualifying for the men's 2012 trials. The qualifying standard has been tightened for that race -- 2:19 for the marathon, 1:05 for the half.
Yet spectators watching the race probably didn't realize who he was. Although a hometown runner crossed the finish line first, a bib mixup resulted in Costello being announced as "Bob Costello of Columbus, Ohio."
For Kara Price, twin sister of Kristin, the trip back to Western Pennsylvania had mixed results. She said she was happy for Kristin's victory but her plan to push through a marginal stress fracture didn't pan out.
"I saw my parents around 12 or 13 miles and just had to drop out," she said. "I've felt this [injury] coming on over the last month and a half. I tried to limit my training to longer [more moderate] runs but it kept hurting.
"But it wasn't like I was going to win this race, especially any one with Krisin in it," she said, examining a laurel wreath given to her sister.
Their mother, Donna, is a third-grade teacher in the Penn-Trafford School District. Although the girls never had her for class, they did see her when they were in high school; Donna also has her librarian's certification.
Teaching must run in the family; Kara, who lives in Raleigh with Kristin, teaches high school chemistry. Her twin also is a chemist, but is in the research field.
"I didn't want to be in a lab all day, and I didn't want to go to grad school. I like giving tests, rather than taking them," Kara said, laughing.
Posted
May 03 2009, 12:52 PM
by
Maria Sciullo