The Greatest American 1500m Race Ever

For those of you who tuned in to the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday on NBC, you may have witnessed the best American 1500m race of all time if you caught the women’s race towards the beginning of the coverage.  For those of you who missed it, lucky for you the video of the race is below.  

Colorado senior Jenny Barringer ran a 62-second last lap and nearly caught the leader, Gelete Burka, while dipping under the 4-minute barrier for a jaw-dropping finish time of 3:59.90.  This marked the first time since 2002 that an American woman broke the 4-minute barrier.

And that’s not all.  Just behind her, fellow American Olympian steeplechaser Anna Willard finished 4th in 4:01.44, 1500m Olympian Christin Wurth-Thomas 5th in 4:01.72, and 1500m Olympian Shannon Rowbury 6th in 4:03.92.  All times except for Rowbury’s were huge PR’s, and all times put these women at the top of the 2009 world leaders list.  There has never been such a strong contingent of 1500m runners from the US as there appears to be this season.  Any one of these women could medal at the World Champs in Berlin in August, and maybe more than one.

Live Blogging from the adidas Track Classic Saturday, May 16 4pm-7pm PT

(Ed. Note: WomenTalkSports.com co-founder and steeplechaser Ann Gaffigan will be at the Home Depot Center today using some cool new technology to live blog from the adidas Track Classic.  Followers can comment, interact, and get lots of behind-the-scenes commentary so if you’re a T&F fan, don’t miss this coverage).

I will be live-blogging (below) from the adidas Track Classic at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA, TODAY (Saturday, May 16) from 4pm-7pm Pacific!

This meet is stuffed full with great competition.

There are three women’s American Records that have a good chance of getting broken:

1) Beijing Silver Medalist Jenn Stucynski’s 4.92m (16′ 1 3/4″) AR in the Pole Vault, which she may break herself.

2) Beijing Bronze Medalist (10,000m) Shalane Flanagan’s 14:44.80 AR in the 5000m, which she could break herself, provided it is not too hot in Carson at race time (6:32 PM).

3) Colorado Senior Jenny Barringer’s 9:22.26 AR in the 3000m Steeplechase, which Anna Willard could threaten if she is pushed by Lindsey Anderson.

No less exciting than the possibility of records being broken is the head-to-head competition between star athletes:

1) Allyson Felix vs. Sanya Richards in the 200m: Watch Olympian Dee Dee Trotter preview this “hot event” and talk about the competitive rivalry between these two world-class athletes: http://vimeo.com/4654474

2) The 100m: This race is stocked with Olympians. Beijing 4th, 5th and 8th-placers Lauryn Williams, Muna Lee and Torri Edwards, respectively will be joined by Carmelita Jeter, who has run 10.96 this year, ranking her #2 in the world this year behind only Kerron Stewart of Jamaica. Look for Williams to avenge her disappointment at the Olympics and challenge Jeter, with possible surprises from Lee, Edwards and Marshevet Hooker.

3) The Steeplechase: Anna Willard has been dominating 1-mile races so far this season, defeating Shalane Flanagan in the B.A.A. Mile last month. Unlike Anderson, who has steepled twice this season (her best time so far being 9:35.30 at Mt. SAC in April), Willard will be debuting today. Both athletes have been looking very strong, so this will be one of the most exciting races to watch and the winner may threaten the American Record (see #3 above).

Tune in and watch my live updates below starting at 4pm PT! I will be posting polls and letting you all about the action on the track and in the stands as the meet goes on. You can also catch two hours of live coverage of the meet from 5pm-7pm PST on ESPN2. See the meet schedule below the live blog window below.

Meet Schedule: (all times PST)

Gender	Event	Time
Men’s	Discus	3:45pm
Women’s	100m (B Race)	4:20pm
Men’s	100m (B Race)	4:30pm
Women’s	800m	4:45pm
Men’s	400m Hurdles	5:02pm
Men’s	Long Jump	5:05pm
Women’s	400m	5:10pm
Women’s	1500m	5:15pm
Women’s	100m Hurdles	5:25pm
Men’s	110m Hurdles	5:38pm
Women’s	Pole Vault	5:45pm
Women’s	100m	5:50pm
	Fastest 5-yr-olds	5:55pm
Women’s	Triple Jump	6:00pm
Men’s	100m	6:00pm
Men’s	1500m	6:10pm
Men’s	200m	6:20pm
Women’s	200m	6:25pm
Women’s	5000m	6:32pm
Men’s	400m	6:53pm
Women’s	3000m Steeplechase	7:10pm
Men’s	5000m	7:25pm

Los Angeles Sol unveils Marta Bobblehead

CARSON, CALIF. – Wednesday, May 13, 2009 – The Los Angeles Sol (Women’s Professional Soccer) today unveiled a bobblehead doll depicting Sol forward and Three-time FIFA Player of the Year, Marta.

“The Marta bobblehead is sure to quickly become a collectors’ item,” said Los Angeles Sol General Manager Charlie Naimo. “It is not only the first-ever bobblehead in WPS, but also is the first time Marta has been depicted in this fashion.”

The unique, limited-edition bobblehead will only be available to fans who purchase the Sol’s Marta Bobblehead Ticket Package, which includes one ticket to both the Sunday, June 7  home match and the Saturday, June 27 game versus the Chicago Red Stars.  Packages begin at just $29.99.

“I am honored to be chosen for the first bobblehead in WPS history,” Marta said.

The Los Angeles Sol play Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY) this Friday, May 15 at 7:30 pm at The Home Depot Center.  For more information or to purchase Los Angeles Sol tickets today, please call toll free at 1-877-4-SOL-TIX (467-5849) or visit www.LosAngelesSol.com.

Track & Field Weekend Recap (May 8-10, 2009)

We are getting into the thick of the track & field season here in the month of May, and this weekend was proof.

At the IAAF Super Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar, 13 world-leading marks were set. Blanka Vlasic of Croatia leaped 2.05m in the air to win the high jump. That’s 6 feet, 8 3/4 inches, or about the height of your average doorway…!!

Allyson Felix of the USA won the 400m in 50.75 seconds, beating Beijing silver medalist Shericka Williams of Jamaica and made it look easy.

Ruth Bisibori Nyangau of Kenya took over after a painfully slow early pace in the steeplechase to run a world-leading 9:32.68, with her last 1000m taking only about 3 minutes, 2 seconds.

Beijing bronze medalist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Canada dominated the field in the 100m hurdles, sharply clearing each hurdle with perfection to win in 12.52 seconds.

Over in Osaka, Japan, Sheena Tosta (USA) won the 400m hurdles by nearly a second in 54.64 and afterward noted, “I had two goals at this race – sub 55 seconds and a win,” Tosta said. “I accomplished both and I am very happy to make it. I also noted that my step pattern (15 steps to eighth hurdle and 16 steps after that) works well.”

Brianna Glenn, also of the USA, won the long jump, and guess what? She is the Women Talk Sports Network’s newest member! Check out her recap of the meet here (from her blog, My So-Called FABULOUS Life). Brianna is also on Twitter: @briannaglenn

In high school action, where the State Championships are starting to be contested, Miami Jackson freshman Robin Reynolds won FOUR Class 3A Florida State Track & Field titles this weekend (RESULTS). She says her biggest victory was the 100m because “I’m really not a sprinter.” I’m pretty sure she’s a darn good sprinter. Reynolds won the 100m (11.56), the 200m (23.67), the 400m (54.95) and the long jump (19′ 4.75″). Her 40 points helped lead her team to the State title as well.

The charismatic, polite-but-confident Reynolds mentioned Allyson Felix, Tiffany Ross-Williams, Bershawn Jackson and her dad as her heroes but did not shy away from proclaiming, “You will see me in the Olympics 2012 when I’m 18.”

We have no doubt, Robin! Check out the full interview, courtesy of FloTrack:

Stay tuned for more great Track & Field next weekend! It’s Conference Weekend in the NCAA. Also, the adidas Track Classic will host world-class fields at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.

Elite High Schoolers added to adidas Track Classic

Jordan Hasay and Reggie Wyatt to Compete at The Home Depot Center May 16

Carson, CA (May 7, 2009) – The adidas Track Classic, one of the premier track and field meets in the country, has added two of the United States’ top high school runners to its already elite field, meet officials announced today.

Jordan Hasay, 17, a resident of San Luis Obispo, California, is already one of the most decorated American high school distance runners in history.  The 2008 High School Track & Field Athlete of the year, Hasay qualified for the 1500m final at the U.S. Olympic trials last summer and set a new high school national record of 4:14.50 in that race. One year earlier, Hasay captured the silver medal in the 1500m at the World Youth Championships.

In addition, she is a two-time Footlocker National champion, four-time California State Champion in cross country, three-time California State Champion in the 3200m, two-time USA Track & Field Cross Country junior national champion and has also been selected to three USATF Junior National teams. She will be competing in the 1500m at the adidas Track Classic.

Wyatt, 18, from Riverside, California has also enjoyed a stellar prep career.  Like Hasay, Wyatt won silver medal as a high school sophomore at the 2007 World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic and was the runner-up to national high school record holder Jeshua Anderson in the 300m hurdles at the California State Championships.Last year, Wyatt was the fastest high schooler in the country in the 300m hurdles with a blistering 35.71A and placed sixth in the 400m hurdles at the 2008 adidas Track Classic, a effort he is looking to improve on in 2009.Featuring some of the best athletes from across the globe, the adidas Track Classic has showcased track and field superstars from more than two dozen nations, including World Champions Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner, Allyson Felix, Meseret Defar and Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Among the biggest changes to this year’s event will be a move to an evening program that will allow for world class times in the middle and long distance races, while still taking advantage of Southern California’s warmth and the Home Depot Center’s fast track for the sprints. The meet will begin at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN2 from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. PDT.

Produced by Global Athletics & Marketing, Inc., the adidas Track Classic is the third stop on USA Track & Field’s Visa Championship Series.

Tickets, from $40 (finish line) down to $10, are now available by calling Ticketmaster at 213-480-3232 or visiting www.Ticketmaster.com. For group sales, call 1-877-AEG-TICKETS.

Visit the event website at www.adidasTrackClassic.com for updates and more information.

Another Exciting Weekend in Track & Field

Another exciting weekend in Track & Field! Last night’s Guadelupe meet kicked it off with USA’s Lashinda Demus (great article on Demus raising twins while training to make the 2008 US Olympic team here) running a world-leading time of 54.17 to win the 400m hurdles. The US women swept the top 3 places in the 100m Hurdles, and Cuba took home victory in the 400m dash and the long jump. (Full Results)

At the Jamaica International meet this evening, Sanya Richards will take on a slew of Jamaican women in the 400m, including Olympic 400m hurdles champ Melaine Walker and multiple national champion Novlene Williams-Mills. The 100m will be fast and furious, as Beijing silver medalist Kerron Stewart of Jamaica will take on countrywoman and Beijing gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser. Marshavet Hooker of the US is having a strong season and looks to challenge Stewart and Fraser. The meet starts this evening at 6:30pm CST in Kingston at the National Stadium. Look for results here.

While the sprints are the focus of the Jamaica International, the distance races will star at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford this evening. You can watch the meet live thanks to Flotrack starting at 5:15pm PST here: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/234940/live (also check out this link for the meet schedule and heat sheets)

We should finally see a very competitive and fast steeplechase, with world-leader and US Olympian Lindsey Anderson taking on former UK record holder Barbara Parker, current NCAA-leader Bridget Franek of Penn State and US Olympic Trials 4th-place finisher Nicole Bush of Michigan State. As long as the weather cooperates, this race could see a handful of women under the 9:50 mark, and possible the 9:40 mark. Anderson’s current world-leading time is 9:46.56. For the top 20 lists in the world so far this season, click here.

The US’s top two steeplechasers are competing at the Payton Jordan, but not in the steeple. Colorado’s Jenny Barringer, who is having quite the year, setting indoor 3000m and mile records, is entered in the 5000m. Barringer ran a 15:01 5000m indoors with virtually no competition, so look for her to break the 15-minute barrier tonight and possibly be pushed by Beijing 10K Olympian Amy Begley.

Anna Willard is proving that her recent coaching and residence change has gone smoothly, as she won the indoor US 1500m title and the recent Boston Athletic Association Mile against 10K Olympic Bronze Medalist Shalane Flanagan. She is entered in the 1500m tonight and will go head-to-head with former NCAA superstar Sally Kipyego of Kenya, US Olympian Jen Rhines, and current NCAA star Susan Kuijken of Florida State. This should be one of the night’s most exciting races, with the top runners possibly dipping under the World Championships “A” standard of 4:06.50. And let’s not forget that high school superstar and University of Oregon-bound Jordan Hasay is entered in the race. While Hasay may be in a little over her head in terms of the front runners on the heat sheet, she is well-deserving of a spot on the starting line, with a solid PR of 4:14. Check out this Flotrack interview with Hasay as she discusses tonight’s race, dealing with some setbacks this season, competing against her idols, and her plans for the rest of the spring and summer:

adidas Track Classic and Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix looking for LA’s fastest 5-year-old

Winner will be Crowned “L.A.’s Fastest Five-Year Old” during Premier Track and Field Event at The Home Depot Center

Carson, CA (April 28, 2009) – The adidas Track Classic, one of the premier track and field meets in the country, and Olympic gold medalist and Southern California native Allyson Felix today announced a Southland search for “L.A.’s Fastest Five-Year Old.”

Kids five years and younger can sign up at www.adidastrackclassic.com. Space is limited so parents are encouraged to register early.

Registered participants will compete in preliminary heats Wednesday, May 13 at 2 p.m. PDT. Finalists will vie for the crown during the adidas Track Classic May 16 at The Home Depot Center with only one boy or girl earning the distinction as “L.A.’s Fastest 5-year old.”

Felix, who attended Los Angeles Baptist High School and is a University of Southern California graduate is a two-time Olympic silver medalist and the reigning world champion over 200m. She also won her first Olympic gold medal last year in Beijing as a member of the United States’ women’s 4×400m relay team.

Featuring some of the best athletes from across the globe, the adidas Track Classic has showcased track and field superstars from more than two-dozen nations including World Champions Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner, Allyson Felix and Meseret Defar.

Among the biggest changes to this year’s event will be a move to an evening program that will allow for world class times in the middle and long distance races, while still taking advantage of Southern California’s warmth and the Home Depot Center’s fast track for the sprints. The meet will begin at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN2 from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. PDT.

Produced by Global Athletics & Marketing, Inc., the adidas Track Classic is the third stop on USA Track & Field’s Visa Championship Series. Tickets, from $40 (finish line) down to $10, are now available by calling Ticketmaster at 213-480-3232 or visiting www.Ticketmaster.com. For group sales, call 1-877-AEG-TICKETS. Visit the event website at www.adidasTrackClassic.com for updates and more information.

Watch the 100th Drake Relays and the Flora London Marathon on Sunday

by Ann Gaffigan for Pretty Tough

If you watched the live airing of the Penn Relays this afternoon, you might have since come down with a case of Track & Field fever. The USA vs. Jamaica relays took center stage, and the packed stadium (attendance was reported at 47,900) spent much of their time on their feet, craning their necks to see if the US teams could redeem themselves from what some considered to be an embarrassing performance at Beijing, where they dropped batons and in general could not keep up with the Jamaicans in relays Team USA usually dominated.

The US teams swept the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m relays, perhaps the greatest redemption from the Games, as well as the 4 x 400m relays. Jamaica did take home the women’s Sprint Medley title however, as Kenia Sinclair anchored her team with a very impressive 1:57 800m split.

If you’re hungry for more, then you’re in luck. The Flora London Marathon, one of the most competitive marathons in the world, will be airing live online at http://www.universalsports.com starting at 4am EST. If you’re not quite that big of a fan, it will also be on TV on Universal Sports at 9am EST and again at 6pm EST.

Letsrun.com has an excellent detailed preview of the women’s race here. The overwhelming favorite seems to be returning champion Irina Mikitenko of Germany, but there are several other elite women in the field that are thinking otherwise. The winner will get $55,000 for her victory, and additional bonuses are offered for fast times and records.

In the afternoon, the 100th Drake Relays will be televised on ESPN2, beginning at 2pm EST. The Drake Relays (along with the Penn Relays) are part of the VISA Championships Series, in which athletes earn points based on their performances in their respective events and at the end of the season could potentially win the overall title, which pays $25,000. The most notable star is hurdler Lolo Jones, world leader in the 100m hurdles last year who experienced an agonizing Olympic Final, hitting the 7th hurdle and losing her lead in the final steps as a result.

A Journey from One Uniform to Another

I grew up a soccer player. The baggier the uniform, the better. My teammates and I were always coming up with new and creative ways to make a baggy uniform look cool…tie the sleeves up with pre-wrap, roll the shorts, tuck in only the front of the shirt and let the back hang out, etc.

It never occurred to us to ask for a smaller size. Not that we could actually acquire uniforms that fit. Everything always came in men’s sizes, and even a men’s small is too big for a 12-year-old girl. Instead of taking the smallest uniform we could get and still have it be too big, we took the men’s size large and found ways to make it look “cool”.

Among me and my soccer friends, tiny shorts and short dresses were for girly-girls. We spent hours putting our hair in tiny braids in order to look fierce, instead of spending hours using a curling iron to look pretty.

When I got to college, I still had that soccer swagger. But I was running cross-country and track now; no more soccer for me. And in cross-country and track in college, you wear these things they call “buns”, a sneaky way of saying “bikini bottom”. And your uniform top is not an oversized jersey or even a loose singlet (if you’re female); it’s an elongated sports bra. You get in trouble by the officials if this elongated sports bra doesn’t touch the top of your buns when you stand still on the starting line. (Apparently, they are OK with the entire leg and usually part of the rear end showing, but not the navel.)

The question from my college teammates was “why don’t you want to wear the buns?” when I thought the question should be “who in their right mind would want to wear the buns?” According to them, the buns made them feel fast and look sharp. Of course, most of these women were much smaller than me and they looked great in the buns and glorified sports bra. I’ve always been the bigger one of the group if the group is a bunch of distance runners. I fit right in with soccer players with my big quad muscles and wider shoulders. But as a distance runner, I’m on the large side.

So while I hated to admit it, my aversion to the tight outfit was largely due to body image issues, another thing my baggy soccer uniform had hid (in addition to my body). Not only does a camera add 10 pounds, but try getting a picture taken when you are running in a tight outfit and every loose piece of skin or fat is flapping in the wind and every muscle is flexed. It’s not a “pretty” picture. Especially when you look at your teammates’ and competitors’ pictures and they make it look good.

I got away with wearing a loose singlet and shorts for most of my collegiate career because the equipment room did offer a few such outfits, and I was always quick to grab them first. I only had to wear the buns and tight top when I was running on a relay and we all needed to match and I was outnumbered 3-1. I would spend the evening before examining and re-examining myself, having to get more pumped up to wear that outfit than to run the race.

But after I graduated and eventually signed with New Balance, I realized that in the professional track & field world, buns and a crop top (a sports bra that is NOT elongated much if at all) were considered “professional” attire. Shorts and singlet had a connotation of “sloppy” and “unprofessional”. No one told me that to my face, but it was obvious.

As I wrestled with having to come to terms with my hesitations (OK, fears) about running around in plain view in so little clothing, I decided to look at other female athletes competing in track & field in these outfits and view them as critically as I view myself. What I learned was that you can almost always find a flaw somewhere. Where I had seen only perfection before, I now found flaws simply because I was watching from a different perspective.

Then I observed how these women carried themselves. I think it is fair to say that the biggest stars of our sport are the sprinters. They are beautiful and strong and fast. They carry themselves with pride, heads held high. And yet in mainstream society’s view, their muscular quads and shoulders would be considered less than ideal and grounds for backing off on the weights or at least covering themselves up. But is that what happens? No!!

It all started to make sense: these women were proud of the bodies they’d worked so hard for. Their legs carried them down the track at record speeds. Their 6-packs were the result of years of ab work that was done not to look “pretty” but to perform at their highest level. They didn’t look at themselves through the lens society uses; they used their own lens and guess what the result was? Other people began to use that lens too. Confidence is a powerful asset.

Taking another look at my fellow distance runners, I realized that I wasn’t the only “bigger” one. We actually came in all shapes and sizes. Yes, many distance runners have a small bone structure and are very lean. But there are also those of us with more muscular thighs or wider shoulders or a thicker torso. Your body is your body; if you’ve taken care of it and trained hard, it’s going to be what it is. I needed to be proud of my body for what it could do, not for what it looked like.

Now don’t think for one second that this was an overnight transformation. Body image is a tough monster and it takes time to get it under control after a lifetime of letting it control you. But finally, three years after exhausting my collegiate eligibility and turning professional, something clicked. After a terribly disappointing 2007 season, I realized I was beating myself up once again, blaming everything from my training to my weight for my failures. And I wanted it to stop, once and for all. So I went and got my belly button pierced. If you have your navel pierced, you can’t keep it under a shirt all the time, right? You have to be proud enough of your body to show it off a little.

This little “rebellious” action was more liberating than I had imagined and 12 months later, I found myself giddy with excitement as the New Balance crew handed me a brand new bright pink pair of buns and crop top to wear just for the Women’s Steeplechase Final at the Olympic Trials. I was excited to wear it, excited to show what I could do, proud of my body and proud of myself for all the hard work that had been put in, year after year. Proud that I hadn’t quit the year before, despite the fact that I had felt so far from reaching my dream of going to the Olympics. I didn’t make the Olympic Team last summer. But by training for that goal and overcoming much disappointment and self-doubt along the way, I had grown more than I had ever anticipated. And I’m never looking back.

Let the quads flex!

Kara Goucher post-Boston: “I wanted to be the one that won for everybody”

Kara Goucher was in tears. As soon as she hit the finish line. She had given it everything she had on that day and on the hundreds of days leading up to it: the tough training, the sacrifices, the tweaks in nutrition, the meticulous planning of each and every workout and race, the mental preparation.

She had laid herself on the line, put all of her eggs in one basket. She asked for the pressure to be put on her shoulders, announcing to the public that she wanted to be the first American woman since 1985 to win the Boston Marathon. She put a big target on her own back.

And we all love her for it. We love the guts, we love the passion. If you already were a fan of Kara Goucher, you have seen this insatiable desire to excel and be not one of the best but THE best in the world. If you are a new fan, here is proof: after the 10,000m in Beijing at last August’s Olympic Games, where Kara finished 10th, she was not content, to say the least, and repeated several times “I want to be an Olympic Champion” and reiterated that she needed to move up to the marathon to reach her full potential.

So move up to the marathon she did. She debuted in November, just three short months after her Olympic performance, at the New York Marathon in the fastest debut time ever by an American woman, 2:25:53, which got her a 3rd-place finish in one of the most competitive marathons in the world.

The talk about the Boston Marathon began almost immediately and Goucher was not shy about the fact that she was training for the win. She is not arrogant, mind you, she just wants to win so bad. She wants to be the best so bad.

She ran like the best on Monday morning in Boston. The initial pace was excruciatingly slow for runners at her level, with the first mile split being 6:25. As the race went on, Goucher realized that no one wanted to push the pace, which left way too many women vying for a top spot. That is a dangerous situation–to have a marathon turn into a jog and final sprint. It leaves too much up to chance.

Goucher decided to be the one to make it an honest race. In hindsight, she sacrificed herself in order for the race to be one to find the best marathoner on that day, not the runner with the best kick. After pushing the pace around mile 20, the lead pack had dwindled to 3 women by the 25 mile mark: Goucher, 2008 Boston Champ Tire Dune of Ethiopia and Kenya’s Selina Kosgei.

But Dune and Kosgei had more left in the tank: maybe because they had been towed by Goucher for 4 miles or so and thus had expended less physical and less mental energy, maybe because they simply were better on that day. They pulled away from Goucher in the final mile and finished within a second of each other, with Kosgei taking the victory in 2:32:16 and Dune collapsing (and later being taken to the hospital as a precaution) from the effort. Goucher was 3rd in 2:32:25.

And she was devastated. Her husband Adam met her at the finish with a big towel to wrap her in and she cried into his shoulder. You could see on her face an expression of sheer disappointment in herself, as if she had failed so miserably she couldn’t look anyone in the face.

True champions are not satisfied with 3rd place. They are inconsolable. It doesn’t matter to her that she made the podium, that she pushed the pace and was gutsy enough to make it a real race, that she finished higher than any American in a long time and this was only her second marathon. You might as well save your breath.

The video from the press conference after the race shows you just how disappointed she was. She patiently took question after agonizing question even though she was choking back tears the entire time. She wanted to win “for everyone that supported me and for my coach, my husband, my family and for Nike…I just wanted to be the one that won for everybody.”

If you’re not a Kara Goucher fan after watching her go after her goal in that race and after watching this video, I don’t know what to tell you. And my question would be, do you realize how pure her ambition and drive is? And how hard that is to find these days among the best athletes in the world? And yes, Kara, you are one of the best athletes in the world.

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