There is so much happening in Adam Goucher’s life right now.
He and his wife, Kara Goucher, expect to move into a brand new home in Northwest Portland in three weeks. Kara is due with the couple’s first child, a boy, in six weeks.
And yet, it is a grounded running career that eats at him.
Goucher’s latest injury began as an impingement in his hip. Now it falls into the category of “stress reaction.” One doctor tells him that surgery could fix the problem but put him on the shelf for six months. Another may be able to “clean it up” and permit him to run sooner.
In the meantime, Goucher feels like a handful of fellow Americans – his friends – are lapping him and achieving the goals he set for himself 12 years ago.
“This sport has gone to another level,” Goucher said Monday. “Six months is a career-ender (for me).”
So the distance runner who largely bridged the gap in U.S. distance running between Bob Kennedy and the new wave of Ritzenhein-Webb-Solinsky-Tegenkamp-Rupp feels that his time is waning. Goucher was 13th in the 5,000 meters at the 2000 Olympics at a time when few were willing to give any American a chance at making the finals at a global meet.
But injuries contorted his stride and the dogged will to succeed was tested over and over by setbacks and lost training time.
“There’s a reality you have to face and I’m closer to that reality than I’ve ever been,” Goucher said. “It’s kind of like, What’s the next step? I’ve got some good things in he works, but there’s still that failure aspect of it. That’s how I look at it. I’ve essentially failed because I haven’t achieved the things I set out to achieve, so it’s a tough one.”
Don’t get the wrong idea. Adam Goucher, 35, is about to become a family man and can’t wait to hold his son. He recently hosted Nike’s inaugural Elite Cross Country Camp for 20 of the top high school runners in the nation, and loved it. And he will do everything in his power to make sure that his wife, Kara, has everything she needs to re-engage her goals at a world championship level.
But those 12 years of professional toil and hard work in a brutal business aren’t easy to walk away from.
“I see the world of track and field and these guys are killing it right now,” he said. “On one hand I’m happy, I’m pumped. And on the other I’m sad because it’s not me stepping up to that race and doing it.”
The Gouchers moved to Portland in the fall of 2004 to gain a fresh start with Alberto Salazar. Adam was the star in the family then, Kara more of a throw-in part of a deal to re-shape the Oregon Project.
Adam ran well in 2005 and 2006 and made the World Championship team in 2007. Meanwhile, Kara slowly recovered from her injuries and then rocketed to stardom – with a bronze medal in the 10,000 meters in Osaka, 2008 Olympic berths in two events, and celebrated marathons in New York and Boston.
Adam fell back into a pattern where he couldn’t stay healthy, compounded by increasingly rigid biomechanics and advancing age. His 2008 Trials performance was a bitter disappointment — in part because teammates Galen Rupp, Amy Yoder Begley and Kara all made the team.
And so he contemplates how it will end, but the eternal optimist in him can’t shut off his addiction to the pursuit of big goals.
“You’re never going to officially retire,” Kara says, looking him in the eye. “You may stop at some point but it won’t be with a big announcement.”
Adam: “I will at some point. But not yet.”
On the days when he feels good, Adam Goucher believes he can still cheat the clock.
But by the time he becomes a dad, and his life takes another turn, he knows he could be close to the finish line.
“I always told myself I’ll never be that guy, that’s 35 years old and can’t see the writing on the wall,” he said. “I’m sure the vast majority of people out there are saying (I) can’t see he writing on the wall. It’s tough.”
