MINNEAPOLIS — After all the abuse and indignities that elite distance runner Kara Goucher has endured, I was surprised that the one moment she got choked up during our hourlong conversation was while recounting the time she won the USA Half Marathon Championships during Grandma's weekend in Duluth.
Clinching that 2012 victory in the community that reared her — on the way to her second Olympics — was a pinnacle of her career, she said.
"This stuff makes me want to cry, but that's where I started running, that's where I discovered the love of it. My high school coach was there. My grandparents were there. So many high school teachers, and classmates," as well as a stranger who shouted, "My son was in chemistry with you!" she recalled with a laugh.
