LONDON — Early in the Olympic marathon on a rainy Sunday morning on the slick streets of central London, Kara Goucher found herself at the front of a brilliant field along with training partner Shalane Flanagan. It wasn’t necessarily where she belonged or wanted to be. It just sort of happened.
“We had no intention of leading,” Goucher said, trying to find some humor in what was a grim day. “Both times I tried to go back to the second or third row, I got pushed and grunted at and stepped on, so I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll just lead the Olympic marathon, why not? I have no shot at winning this, but I’ll lead for as long as they’ll let me.'”
At least the view was good. The eight-mile loop course took runners past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and Trafalgar Square.
The pace was slow, and when it picked up, Flanagan and Goucher fell off. Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia broke out of a threesome at the front of the race on the 25th mile with a spurt and won in two hours, 23 minutes, seven seconds. Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya finished five seconds behind for the silver medal and Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova of Russia took the bronze.
Flanagan finished 10th, Goucher 11th.
“I’ve been very realistic about my chances here,” said Goucher, a former Colorado Buff who lives in Portland, Ore. “This is the greatest women’s field ever assembled, so I thought I’ve just got to get myself in (personal record) shape and then hope for an opportunity. I knew that was a very good probability that I would be fighting for fifth through 10th.”
Flanagan is the American record holder in the 10,000 meters and took a bronze medal in that event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This was just her third marathon.
“Even though it’s not the place I wanted,” Flanagan said, “I know Kara and I ran as hard as we could. That’s all you can ask of yourself. This is a very memorable day. This course was insane, it was deafening, the fans. Besides hurting a lot, the fans were amazing, and that’s what made it special.”
A thunderstorm moved through 45 minutes before the start, and intermittent showers – some of them downpours – rolled through the area during the first half of the race.
“I got really cold and tingly and chills that last lap,” Flanagan said. “You start to get cool, even though you’re working really hard.”
Then there was the course itself, with lots of twists and turns, even a U-turn on the Tower Bridge.
“This course really trashes your legs,” Flanagan said. “All those turns, all that kind of stopping and going — it’s harder to find a rhythm.”
Goucher, who won a bronze medal in the 10,000 at the 2007 world championships, was disappointed but not discouraged.
“I’m confident I’m (going) in the right direction, but I have also learned it’s a process and it takes time,” Goucher said. “It does take time, it takes years of hardening. I felt like this was the first of a lot of really great marathons for me, and I believe that firmly. I believe I would have PRd today on a different course. I believe this would have been, on paper, the best marathon of my life. But I believe a year from now, I’m going to be a lot better.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jmeyer26
