Kara Goucher Interview | Running, from the Olympics to the Trails
The Hard Way With Joe De Sena
Spartan Races
4.7 • 870 Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kara Goucher is a true legend of the running world, from competing in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, to a bronze medal at the 2007 World Athletics Cross Country Championships (formerly IAAF), to the women’s fastest-ever half marathon, and third overall at the 2009 Boston Marathon! In this interview she discusses the importance of being vulnerable, challenging yourself, leaning into things that make you feel anxious and how much you can learn from something you’re not good at. Kara Goucher also talks about aging, transitioning as an elite athlete, and entering the new exhilarating realm of trail running. Try to keep pace with this awesome woman and a great interview!
LESSONS
- Find out how good you can get
- Be ready to pounce
- Appreciate each experience
- Be vulnerable and challenge yourself
- Never be too afraid to try
- Lean into things that make you anxious
- It’s good when your not good
- Not winning doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing
- Don’t be afraid to age
- Do scary things
- Try a trail run!
LINKS
https://www.spartan.com/en/trail
This episode was brought to you by TrueForm Runner. Visit www.TRUEFORMRUNNER.COM/SPARTAN and use the code SPARTAN10 to save 10%
The Spartan World Media Fest was made possible by ATP Science
TIME STAMPS
0:00 Johnny and Joe De Sena introduce Olympian Kara
1:05 TRUEFORMRUNNER.COM/SPARTAN special offer
1:40 Interview begins with Dr. L and Kara Goucher
2:15 Starting running with her grandfather
3:30 Why she fell in love with running
4:45 Running as a profession
5:30 Finding out how good she could get
6:30 Going through the transition
7:30 Finding something new, fun and scary
8:30 Appreciating each experience- the nuance of the trail
9:45 Getting to the podium and finishing what you start
10:55 Shifting her athletic identity
12:00 TRUEFORMRUNNER.COM/SPARTAN break
13:45 Interview continues with how we challenge ourselves
15:00 Challenging yourself and being vulnerable
16:30 The athletic journey as you get older away from the Olympics
18:00 Product versus process
19:00 Good to not be good- being humble and having humility
20:30 Three lessons of wisdom
22:15 Johnny and Joe De Sena debrief this great discussion
27:27 TRUEFORMRUNNER.COM/SPARTAN close
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CREDITS:
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena, Dr. Johnny Waite and guest Dr. Lara Pence
Col. Nye & Sefra Alexandra are off on winter sojourn
Synopsis – Sefra Alexandra | Seed Huntress
Production Assistant - Andrea Hagarty
© 2020 Spartan
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Spartan Up Podcast. We are your grit and resiliency partner. We're coming at you every week, sometimes all week. |
| 0:06.4 | And so if you can, subscribe on YouTube so that you get alerted immediately |
| 0:11.2 | when these powerful guests come into our radar. Now today we |
| 0:15.4 | interviewed, we had the pleasure of interviewing this woman, Kara Gousher. |
| 0:18.8 | Olympian. Incredibly, not just an Olympian, she's a two-time olympian in three different |
| 0:23.1 | distances five k ten k and marathon mind blowing those are three epitomizes |
| 0:28.0 | Spartan totally different distances she came third at the Boston Marathon, truly an unbelievable world-class athlete, |
| 0:36.4 | but what's going to be more important for our listeners and our viewers, who she is as a human being. |
| 0:40.0 | She shows so much integrity and just resilience in who she is in life and the things she's taken on. |
| 0:47.0 | We'll talk about that and I think you're all going to find it. |
| 0:49.0 | She makes us all better people. |
| 0:50.0 | Stay through to the end because we had the pleasure already of listening to her and at the end Johnny and I are going to distill some thoughts. We're going to highlight the things that are takeaways for you so that you could be an olympian at home. You might not take there in the |
| 1:04.3 | Boston Marathon but you'll be better. This episode of Spartan Up is brought to you by |
| 1:08.0 | True Form runner. Conquer your next race with a complete training solution from |
| 1:11.8 | Spartan and True Form. |
| 1:13.5 | The Spartan True Form trainer will redefine your running, improve your form, and reduce injury. |
| 1:18.1 | Save 10% with the code Spartan 10 at trueform runner.com slash Spartan that's true form runner |
| 1:25.4 | dot com slash Spartan I'm Dr. L. Chief Mindock for Spartan I'm here with Kara Goucher who I'm sort of fan geking out a little bit because I've started trail running recently in my move to Colorado and I'm sitting here with like an amazing ultra runner, beast marathoner, now trail runner. |
| 1:57.6 | So let's start, let's like rewind and not start there, but start just from the the beginning like tell me a little bit about |
| 2:03.2 | yourself yeah I mean I am a runner through and through I started running when I was six |
| 2:09.2 | with my grandfather I ran in high school I ran ran in college, transitioned to be a professional, was really a track |
| 2:16.6 | runner for a big bulk of my career. |
... |
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