Running on a beautiful day in Chicago, Kara Goucher made the most of her final major IAAF World Championship Marathon preparation with a 68:04 half-marathon performance. The inaugural edition of the Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon (previously the Chicago Distance Classic) was certainly made memorable by an extremely fit Goucher who ran the 21st-fastest half-marathon in women's history, the 5th fastest half of 2009, the 2nd-fastest American half-marathon to Deena Kastor's 1:07:34, and won the entire race. That's right, Goucher beat all of the males in the race (although the race didn't offer any prize money so not a total shock).
Faced with decent distance running weather but great summer distance weather of temps in the mid 60s and with the humidity well over 50% (a little humid for a runner but the day itself in Chicago today is going to be gorgeous with sun and a high near 80), Goucher and her pace-maker set out to run negative splits on the mostly flat course. Goucher's mentor, Coach Alberto Salazar, said he hoped for something in the 69-minute range, and she reiterated that in her pre-race interview when she said, "I’m not going to go out at a (1:06-07) hard pace but I would love to chase some people trying to run that down.”
After some early miles in the 5:20 range, Goucher picked it up to pass 4 miles under 21:00. From there on out, every mile was between 5:05 and 5:20 as Goucher picked her way through the leading men. Her attempt at closing the race with huge negative splits never really materialized, perhaps due to a slight headwind noticed by commentators Todd Williams and Juli Henner, though Goucher's final miles were all around 5:10 or faster.
READ ON...
ShareThis