Goucher rides change of perspective to landmark win

OSAKA, Japan -- Late Saturday night at Osaka Nagai Stadium, a cauldron of dead-still heat and humidity, 29-year-old veteran U.S. distance runner Kara Goucher won a bronze medal in the women's 10,000-meter run at the world track and field championships. It was a performance of considerable historical weight -- just the fifth medal by a U.S. woman in a distance running event, and the first in 15 years in the 10K -- yet from a plastic seat above the finish line, Goucher's coach saw something larger.

On the last day of June, Alberto Salazar, on the short list of the greatest distance runners in U.S. history, fell to the ground in a parking lot while walking to a training session with three of his athletes on the sprawling Nike campus in Beaverton, Ore. He was just 48 years old, balding yet slender, still a symbol of the 1980s distance running heyday in America and here he lay perilously close to death with a massive heart attack.

The short story here is that Salazar, 49 (48 at the time he was stricken) lived because he received timely and effective CPR and because doctors were able to clear a clogged artery and install a defibrillator. Probably because he had beaten back lousy genes with a lifetime of training. "I feel very lucky to be alive,'' said Salazar late Saturday night. "I had my heart shocked eight times. Doctors told me I had a one-in-10,000 chance of living.''

He returned to coaching and took his training group -- including Goucher, her husband, Adam, who will run the 5,000 meters here; Galen Rupp, the talented 21-year-old who will run the 10,000 -- to Park City in July. He put Goucher in a plastic sweat suit -- "Like wrestlers wear to lose weight,'' says Salazar -- to assist in adapting to the heat.

And he gave everyone in his group a fresh perspective. "For me, what happened two months ago was not a low,'' says Salazar. "It really was a high. It reinforced for me that this'' -- here, Salazar waved his arm at the empty track, bathed in bright, artificial light -- "is all great. And I love this game. But it really is a small part of life. It's all just a trivial pursuit, a little thing. The more you can be relaxed about it, the better you can be. Realize how lucky you are and just enjoy it. It's just racing.''

Goucher says, "My life has changed since Alberto's accident, for both Adam and me. We've taken a different perspective on life and what's really important and even though we've been training really hard, it's just running.''

Goucher was a gifted young runner who won three NCAA titles in 2000 (one in cross country, two in track) while running for Colorado. During college, she began dating Adam, though they had met as high school seniors at the 1993 Foot Locker Cross Country meet. "She'll say I totally ignored her there,'' says Adam. "And I did.'' Both have fought incessant injuries through their careers, and both have flourished under Salazar.

En route to the stadium on Saturday night, Salazar says he told Goucher, "Put yourself in the top seven during the race and if you do that, you can definitely medal.'' Goucher did exactly that, surviving a battle of climatic attrition. (Running aficionados will recall that one of Salazar's finest moments came in the 1982 Boston Mararthon, when he defeated a dogged Dick Beardsley in brutal spring heat).

"I told Kara, 'Heat is an equalizer,''' said Salazar. "You can beat a lot of people who, on paper, can run faster than you.'' (To be perfectly clear, Salazar ran well several times in the heat, but he was often the best runner, as well).

Goucher got third by tearing loose from Jo Pavey of Great Britain and Kimberly Smith of New Zealand on the final lap. The race was won by the remarkable defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, who outkicked -- as she always does -- Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey over the final 400 meters. Dibaba won despite falling far off the back of the back of the pack in mid-race with stomach problems.

Even more impressive were the affiliations of those behind Goucher: Three other Ethiopians and two Kenyans.

Women have run long distances in major global championships only since the marathon was introduced at the 1983 worlds. In that period, until Saturday night, U.S. women had won just four medals: Marianne Dickerson's surprise bronze at the '83 worlds; Joan Beniot's epic marathon gold at the '84 Olympics in Los Angeles; Lynn Jennings' 10,000-meter bronze at the '92 Olympics and Deena Kastor's bronze at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

It is a short enough list that any medal is hugely significant Some, of course, even more than others.

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