August 7, 2009

Simply Put, Women Rock!

It was pretty big news that Kara Goucher, leading U.S marathoner who is currently undefeated in the 1/2 marathon, was going to be running in the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Chicago Half Marathon (formerly the Chicago Distance Classic). While in town this past weekend, she did some "celebrity appearances", including an autograph signing at a local running store. Seems like people were pretty excited.

Guess they had pretty good reason to be excited. Kara won. Not just the women's race ... she crossed the finish line in a little more than 68 minutes, beating the top men's finisher by nearly 20 seconds :) While this is an awesome feat, it appears was not totally unexpected. First of all, she was the only elite runner on the field (another reason her entry was so exciting) and according to Competitor Running:
Goucher has never been beaten at the half-marathon distance. In addition to defeating marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe at the Great North Run in 2007, Goucher also won this year’s Lisbon Half Marathon in 1:08:30. She is unlikely to be challenged in Chicago, where the course record is 1:11:56, which is equivalent to marathon pace for Goucher, who finished third in the New York City Marathon last year and in the Boston Marathon this year.


Another cool thing about Kara? As the 31-year-old approaches the peak of her career she also plans on starting family next year ... and plans to follow that with the 2012 Olympics. Now there is a role model for young women today ;)

3 comments:

Jess said...

She certainly is running's premiere person to watch. I think she's universally appealing to both men (she's super cute) and women (who doesn't like a chick who kicks ass?). I didn't know she was 31 though; for some reason, I thought she was a lot younger.

Kristin said...

How fabulous! Would have loved to have seen it.

Aron said...

she is so freaking awesome!!