Mind Gains


February 11, 2010
Media: Mind Gains

Her head has always messed with her. For as long as she can recall, it's thrown hammers at her feet. Some runners have trick knees or fragile hamstrings. She has an undermining psyche. When she toes the line in a 10-K, the runners around her wonder if she'll set an American record. Inside her head, though, she's wondering if she can finish without walking. Her mind spits out doubts like a pulsating sprinkler. Chck-chck-chck-chck. It tells her she's not worthy to compete at nationals, at the World Championships, at the Olympics. Look at the women around her. She's out of her league. There's a world record holder. There's a gold medalist. Compared to them, who is she? She is Kara Goucher, one of the most accomplished American runners of her generation. A decade ago, she won NCAA national titles in 3000 meters, in 5000 meters, and in cross-country. Five years ago, she became the first woman to join the Nike Oregon Project, an elite squad coached by running legend Alberto Salazar and based at the company's suburban Portland, Oregon, headquarters. In 2006 and 2007, she was a monster in the middle distances: the top-ranked American at 10,000 meters, second at 3000 meters, and top-five at 5000 meters. In 2008, she decided to try her first marathon, an out-of-the-way road rally known as the New York City Marathon. She came in third. Last year she ran Boston—her second 26.2-miler ever—and missed breaking the tape by a mere nine seconds.

And still she has doubts.

"I have a lot of negative chatter in my head," Goucher tells me in a recent interview. "If I don't rein it in, my mind will tend to obsess about what everyone else is doing in the race around me. I'll start comparing myself to everyone else." When she does that, she says, she saps the strength from her own legs. She morphs from great into okay. When she can block out the critical self-talk, she runs like a champion.

Goucher's struggle exemplifies a hidden challenge that every distance runner faces: the wrestling match with the mind. I traveled to talk with her in Portland not because the struggle is easy for her but because it's hard. At 31, she seems to have it all: Top rankings, a long-term deal with Nike, a supportive husband (three-time national cross-country champion Adam Goucher, an Oregon Project teammate), and the beauty of a young Julia Roberts. Yet she's been remarkably candid about her battles with the mental game. "Everyone has their weakness," she says. "Mine is confidence. It's something I've struggled with for years."

Bright, articulate, and witty, Goucher operates with a high degree of self-reflection. She's one of those rare elite athletes who's comfortable letting the public peek under the hood. Goucher was a psychology major in college. So not surprisingly, she's curious about what's going on in there.

Goucher also represents the next evolutionary phase of the Nike Oregon Project. Nine years ago the shoe company hired Salazar to put together a dream team of American distance runners who might, at long last, challenge the dominance of the Kenyans and Ethiopians. In the past, Salazar has experimented with high-tech strategies to gain speed. From 2001 to 2005, he set up some of his runners in a house that used oxygen-thinning technology to simulate a high-altitude atmosphere, which accelerates the production of red blood cells. Now he's targeting the mind. Three years ago, the Oregon Project coach brought in a sports psychologist, Dr. Darren Treasure, as a consultant to tune up his team's mental game. Treasure's input proved so valuable that last autumn Salazar persuaded the psychologist to relocate to Portland and work with the Oregon Project full time.