Every time Kara Goucher reaches a new racing milestone, it seems, Shalane Flanagan comes along and exceeds it.
"Anything I do, Shalane does it bigger and better a year later," Goucher said. "It's actually funny to me."
Both women, Portland residents who run professionally for Nike, are raising the profile of U.S. marathon running.
Both are beginning to target the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and both dream of winning a medal.
And yet, it may be too early to suggest that a recent U.S. running boom -- and an increasingly larger proportion of female participants -- is leading to more world-class performances.
Flanagan's second-place finish at the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7 -- in 2 hours, 28 minutes, 40 seconds -- nudged the bar for U.S. women a little higher. It was Flanagan's first marathon and she became the first U.S. woman in 20 years to place as high as second in New York.
"My passion for the marathon is very strong after today," Flanagan told the New York Times afterward.
Flanagan's performance, plus Goucher's top-three finishes in New York (2008) and Boston (2009), point to a possibility that either one of them could break longstanding victory droughts by U.S. runners in both races.
But statistically, the U.S. still has some ground to cover. READ ON
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