Kara Goucher
Fast Track
April 24, 2009
In the latest issue of Runner’s World magazine, you may want to check out the profile on track star Kara Goucher. As you might recall, Ms. Goucher competed in the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, placing 10th with a personal best time of 30:55.16 in the 10000m final and placing ninth in the 5000m with a time of 15:49.
In the piece, the lovely Ms. Goucher talks about the rigors of her sport. “My first few years of running in middle and high school in Duluth, Minnesota, I would run so hard on race day that I would throw up or pass out,” she recalled.
“I never trained hard. It wasn’t until my senior year and into college that I had to work. I was running with really talented people, I couldn’t get away with not working.”
Right now, she’s focused on being the first female since ’85 to win the Boston Marathon. Then, she and her husband, cross-country star Adam Goucher, have other plans that have nothing to do with running marathons.
“I want to get pregnant after Boston,” Ms. Goucher, 30, said. “It’s the right time, career-wise. If it happens, `Yay!’ If it doesn’t, I’ll deal with it.”
Naturally, she’s on a strict regimen of exercise and diet to stay in tip-top shape. But does she have any guilty pleasures?
“There’s this place in my neighborhood [in Portland, Ore.] called New Seasons Market, and they make the best blond brownie,” she said. “I get a couple every time I go there.”
And what does she listen to during her runs? Kara’s playlist ranges from Nickleback to Coldplay to Katy Perry.


