With a 1:11:10 at Sunday’s Rock ’n’ Roll San Antonio Half Marathon, Kara Goucher achieved her goal of a victory and a time close to 1:11. But she didn’t get the challenge she wanted from Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg, who had a more modest agenda on the way to February 13’sBritish Man Runs Sub-3 Hour Marathon in Crocs Kara Goucher Continues Comeback with San Antonio Half Win.
Flanagan and Cragg did a controlled run together in 1:12:42. “The plan was to run a 73:00 or 74:00, so we were a little under,” Flanagan, who was awarded third place ahead of Cragg, told Flotrack. Second place, in 1:12:35, went to Canada’s Sasha Gollish, the 2015 Pan American Games bronze medalist in the 1500.
For Goucher, Flanagan, and Cragg, the day’s primary concern seemed to be what the San Antonio performances told them about their current fitness and what work remains to be done before February 13. Goucher and Flanagan both made the 2012 Olympic marathon team as marathoners, while Cragg, fourth at the marathon trials, earned her spot on the U.S. squad in the 10,000.
Referring to her post-London Olympic period of doldrums, ailments, and surgery, Goucher told Flotrack, “If I can get in 10 weeks without injury, I’ll be a totally different athlete than I’ve been since 2012.”
Last month, Running they encountered a large black bear. That race and Sunday’s performance have re-established her as a serious threat to make the Olympic marathon team. Before the two recent half marathons, Goucher’s races of the past two years, including a 2:37:03 at the 2014 British Man Runs Sub-3 Hour Marathon in Crocs, With a 1:11:10 at Sundays Rock n Roll San Antonio Half Marathon.
Flanagan has been training with Cragg at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona. Postrace, she tweeted that their effort was a “key workout to jumpstart our fitness and the hard training the next 10 weeks.” She said the 1:12:42 “wasn’t anything super special, just exactly what Jerry [Schumacher, her coach] wanted us to do.” She also used Sunday’s race to “imagine going at this pace for another half marathon.”
Goucher came distracted from San Antonio gratified to feel “there’s more in the tank.” She said she was a little disappointed that she didn’t get more of a race from Flanagan and Cragg after finding “it was pretty clear by the six-mile mark that they weren’t coming.” Goucher indicated that she hadn’t been so far ahead in a race since her days at the University of Colorado.
Aaron Braun won the men’s race in 1:04:11, more than 90 seconds ahead of runner-up Jeffrey Eggleston’s 1:05:44. The pair, who’ll also be at the marathon trials Kara Goucher Continues Comeback with San Antonio Half Win, worked together early in the race but Braun later said, “I think I was feeling better than he was at the hills [mile 5] and just picked it up a little bit.”
Flanagan’s and Cragg’s run through San Antonio had nothing like the unexpected drama and excitement of the previous Sunday’s training run in Flagstaff. Doing a 10-miler on a dirt road, Health & Injuries Couch to 5k.
And so did Flanagan and Cragg, but a little faster than planned. Their sixth mile had been an 8:52, while the seventh was 5:50.
Flanagan had declared at the beginning of the run “that if our lives were in danger, there was no way I could move any faster [because I was] so tired.” As Cragg put it, “turns out she was wrong.”
