BEDAN KAROKI, of Kenya, won the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon yesterday, covering the 13.1 miles in 59 minutes, 22 seconds.
Cyrbian Kotut and Geoffrey Bundi, both of Kenya, took second and third place, respectively.
Ethiopia's Aberu Kebede was the women's winner in 1:08.40. Caroline Rotich, of Kenya, was second, 41 seconds behind Kebede.
Deena Kastor, 41, took third place and set a world record in the women's masters division with a time of 1:09.39. The Mammoth Lakes, Calif., resident beat the previous record by 20 seconds.
Kastor also set masters world records at 15K (49:03), 10 miles (52:41) and 20K (1:05:52). And she broke her own American Masters half-marathon record of 1:11:38.
"I had this annoying stitch in my side and wasn't feeling great, but Michael McKeeman [the 2012 Philadelphia Marathon champion and a training partner of Kastor's] who was running with me told me something that helped," Kastor said. "He said, 'You only have 2 more minutes to go, Deena. It's just 2 minutes. You can do this.'
"When I heard that, I thought about all the time I had put into training and realized that I can do anything in 2 minutes."
Karoki has been setting personal bests on the tracks and roads. "With a little more speedwork, I think I can run under 59 minutes," he said.