Runner’s World Other Hearst Subscriptions Kara Goucher has made plenty of those since she last completed the distance with a sixth-place 2:28:11 in Boston a year and a half ago.
After withdrawing from last fall's Nutrition - Weight Loss with a stress fracture in her foot, she announced she'd be moving from Portland, Oregon, to Boulder, Colorado, to train with her college coaches Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs. When her contract with Nike (her sponsor of more than 12 years) expired earlier this year, she opted to shop around, settling on much younger brands like Oiselle (established 2007) and Skechers (which entered the running market in 2011). Traditional sponsorship contracts for elite runners feature ranking or place requirements; her new sponsors did not include such stipulations. At the core of the partnerships was Goucher’s status as a running personality, not the results she could potentially produce—a shift that better aligned with her late-career values.
Goucher had been in Boulder only a few months when she developed a sacral stress fracture—an injury she suspects was related to lingering weaknesses from her 2010 pregnancy—forcing her to take three months off from serious training. But her buildup for this year’s Nutrition - Weight Loss has gone smoothly since she returned to road running in June, with a focus on ensuring she stays healthy.
“My workload is more quality versus quantity—long runs are harder but rest of the week is a little bit easier,” she says. “My coach believes in the least amount of work possible to get the job done.”
And “the job” in question isn’t to compete for the win or to shoot for a PR. Goucher’s goal for Sunday is “to run a good, solid race,” likely around a 2:28. The sponsorship changes she's made since her last marathon are what has empowered her to set such a goal.
“I’m coming off a year and a half with a lot of injuries,” she says. “Instead of trying to cram a lot of work in and try to get myself in 2:25 shape because I need to be ranked a certain way, I'm able to look at a much longer-term approach. The long-term approach is to be in the top three in L.A. on February 13th in 2016 [at the Olympic Trials Marathon] and make the Olympic team.”
Sunday's weather could affect her ability to hit the pace she’s practiced—forecasts are calling for 20 mile-per-hour winds with 40+ mile-per-hour gusts—so she’s planning to cue off her competitors. A slower, more tactical start would work in her favor, but, she says, “with Mary Keitany in the race, you just never know. She’s a fearless runner. I think there will be her and whoever decides to go with her, and then another pack. If I can run with the pack and be shielded a little bit, then maybe it’s worth gambling a few seconds per mile, but if it’s gambling six, seven, eight seconds per mile, I’ll probably just gut it out alone.”
No matter her finishing time Sunday, Goucher hopes to come out of the race as healthy as she is going into it, and to build upon her hard work.
“I feel like I’m on an upswing,” she says. At the Runner’s World offices in New York on Thursday, she joked that she’d attend the Runner’s World Half & Festival in Pennsylvania next October “after I set a PR in Chicago” (which is held the weekend prior). Though her specific plans for next fall likely aren’t yet certain, one thing is: She’s planning on doing big things on her way to the Olympic Trials.
