Boston bound: Kara Goucher

Back to Boston

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I ran the Boston Marathon. As this year’s event draws near I look back at my experience there with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I loved it. No other event can match its history, the excitement that surrounds it, and the spectacular crowds that come out to watch it.
On the other hand, as you probably remember, my first Boston Marathon experience was a heartbreaker. I had the lead with one mile to go, but got outkicked on the homestretch and finished third. I still replay the moment in my mind’s eye and try to make it come out differently.
The funny thing is, the more time passes, the less certain I am about what I should have done differently. I didn’t make any major blunders. There were a couple of decisions that don’t look too smart with 20/20 hindsight, but who’s to say the results would have been any better for me if I had made different choices?
Joan Benoit Samuelson—who knows a thing or two about winning in Boston—told me I should have surged in the Wellesley hills. Maybe so. Alberto says I should have been able to win the sprint. Maybe so. I really don’t know!
One thing I do know is that my training was perfect. I wouldn’t have changed anything about that. Yes, the race was incredibly slow, but it still took amazingly little out of me because Alberto had me so well prepared. I barely even noticed Heartbreak Hill. When I woke up the day after the race I was ready to run another marathon, and I even tried to talk Alberto into letting me run London six days later.
OK, that was a little crazy!
Yesterday I was at the track with Josh Rohatinsky, who was getting in one last dose of speed before flying to Boston for the race. “You’ll have fun,” I told him. “I’m jealous!”
And I am—jealous of everyone who will be running from Hopkinton to Copley Square on Monday. The Boston Marathon is such a cool event that I would have wanted to go back and run it again even if I had won it last year. But losing so narrowly makes me want to go back all the more.
Next year!