Kara Goucher plans for a summer marathon

Courtesy of Nike

I just talked to American running phenom Kara Goucher, who finished third in Monday 20's Boston Marathon. The buzz for the past two days has been that she's begging her coach and marathon legend Alberto Salazar to let her race the London Marathon this weekend—which would be a totally unusual two marathons in one week. (The elite women finished about 10 minutes slower in Boston than they typically do, thanks to gusty winds--the race was basically a 20-mile warm-up followed by a hard 10K for Kara, so she's not too sore or beat up.) Kara told me that today at about 1:15 CST, she had a conference call with her coach and her husband: "We finally laid it to rest. Literally just an hour ago, [London] is done."

What about Chicago in October? It's flat! It's fast! It's in the Midwest! (Kara grew up in Minnesota.) Nope. "Right now I'm thinking what's the best move to get what I want out of my personal life. I'm considering one more race, but it'd be before Chicago." Personal life? "I want to have a baby!" she laughed, noting that she'd planned to take time off to start a family after Boston. But after a disappointing--for her--third-place finish on Monday, Kara's looking at racing one more marathon this summer before she takes that break.