Gouchers hope baby makes three in 2009

Distance star Kara would return to competition in '10

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Feb 7, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Portland's Kara Goucher, giving a hug to Amy Yoder Begley at the Olympic Trials, hopes to put her distance running career on hold to start a family in 2009.

L.E. BASKOW / THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE

You might not see Kara Goucher on the track this spring and summer, but it’s not because she is injured, or because she is moving away from a career in track and field.

Portland’s star Olympic runner and her husband, Adam Goucher, are planning to try for a baby — with the blessing of their coach, Alberto Salazar.

“It’s something my husband and I have talked about for a long time, and Alberto and I have discussed for a couple of years what the best time for that would be,” says Kara Goucher, 30. “Originally we thought right after the Olympics. Then we decided to try the New York Marathon.”

After finishing third at New York in her first crack at the 26.2-mile race, Kara vacationed with Adam. They spent a couple of weeks discussing the possibility of starting a family.

“We decided it was worth it,” she says. “We were going to keep it a secret, because you never know what’s going to happen. But there were so many requests (for race appearances) for the spring, and I’m not very good at lying. And Alberto finally said, ‘Just tell people you’re going to give (motherhood) a try and probably won’t be running this spring.’

“It’s a little weird to talk about, but at least now I don’t have to lie.”

Mother Nature makes no promises, but the ideal thing would be for Kara to get pregnant soon, have the baby before the end of 2009 and be prepared for a comeback in ‘10.

“I feel really excited,” she says. “My life is already so busy, so I feel nervous about it, but there are so many great role models who have had children and had long, successful running careers afterward.

“It’ll definitely be hard, but running won’t last forever, no matter how good you are. At the end of my life, running is not what’s really going to be important to Adam and me. It’ll be our family. If I thought I’d retire in four years, I’d just wait. But I don’t want to.”

The Gouchers, who have been married for seven years, came to Portland from Colorado in 2004 to train with Salazar. For Kara, it was a career-saving move. After winning a bronze medal at 10,000 meters in the 2007 World Championships — becoming the second-fastest American at the distance in the process — she won the 10K and was second in the 5K in the Eugene Olympic Trials to qualify for the Olympics in both events.

At Beijing, Goucher placed 10th in the 10K in a personal-record 30:55.15, then came back to finish ninth in the 5K in 15:49.

“I look at Beijing as a good learning experience,” she says. “I didn’t run great there. I ran strong. In the 5K, I ran the best I possibly could. In the 10K, I gave up on myself a little toward the end.”

The humid conditions in Beijing didn’t affect Goucher’s 10K performance.

“What I wasn’t ready for was how the race went,” she says. “Alberto and I thought it was going to be a slow, strategic race. Instead, it was out blazing from the beginning. Frankly, I hadn’t done the work to run that kind of race. We had practiced for a long, slow drive. We were out (the first 5K) in 15:11 and it never slowed down — it actually picked up.

“I wasn’t ready to medal (in the 10K), and I maybe would have moved up one or two spots, but I didn’t run up to the best of my abilities. When there was 4K to go and I realized I had no shot at medaling, I mentally fell apart. It stung a little bit.

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