AMAM: What does longevity mean to you and how has that evolved from the start of your careers to where you are now?
Kara Goucher: When I was racing longevity meant being on the track or being on the roads as long as possible. I just love the sport. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay healthy to continue to run at a high level.
When it was done I thought well, maybe I’ll coach high school and I just kept kind of chipping away at opportunities and taking them, and then I wound up in this broadcasting role. I’m really grateful just to be able to still be a part of the sport because I love it.
AMAM: Does broadcasting still feed the competitor in you? Grabbing hold of opportunities no matter what they look like is a certain type of competition if you frame it the right way. What does that look like for you when you’re going after things that look different than physically putting your body out there?
GOUCHER: I think when you’re an elite athlete you just want to be the best at whatever it is that you’re doing. So although I can’t race anymore, and I miss that, there’s nothing like trying to win something, you can never get that feeling back, but I think being the best broadcaster I can be, then races are good.
I get a little bit of that feeling back of what it’s like to be in those final moments. Like when you have to gut check as an athlete you get to feel that a little bit as a broadcaster. I think just being a competitive athlete it kind of applies to everything in life, right? There’s some things that you’re just gonna always do all out because that’s all, you know.
AMAM: And Des what are your feelings on longevity?
DES LINDEN: I think longevity for me is finding things to be passionate about and evolving as an athlete because our goals have to change. I think there’s a natural arc to a career with a story and it’s about reinventing yourself — finding new reasons to be motivated. It’s hard. It’s almost more work to be ten percent less than you’ve ever been before, but I think if you’re curious and enjoy it and you love the process you get to the point where you want to keep pivoting and finding new reasons to to get back out there. So that’s where I’m at now. Probably not gonna win anything, but it’s just different goals and different reasons to go and compete and test myself.
AMAM: What specifically are you still curious about?
LINDEN: I would love to know how good I can be at this age. What can I do in training to tweak and change so that I can stay there or maybe see little improvements in different areas. I’m just curious about what I can do with my body. I’m lucky enough to still be healthy. I think once you stop training really hard and you just take your foot off the gas for a second it goes away.
I’m very fortunate to be able to be healthy enough to train hard and still see some splits that look kind of fun. So it’s keeps me out there, and I think you know, I want to see if I’m gritty and tough the last 10k. Does that go away because you’re older? I think you can still be gritty and tough. So that’s the thing that’s challenging me.
AMAM: What secrets do you have or that you feel like you can attribute to your health and lack of injuries?
LINDEN: What we need is to just chill out, you know, like you need to think long game. A lot of people want results right now and they go all in and it’s mentally exhausting. I think one thing in my career I’ve always been good about is taking breaks. A lot of people are like no I just can’t wait to get back out there, and test myself, and push. I love my two weeks off like sometimes it’s three and then I get motivated again and can turn it back on. Knowing how to take a break and being confident that not gonna set you back but it’s gonna hopefully add years to the end of your career.
AMAM: You’ve really blended the idea of longevity in your careers with this joint venture in podcasting. How do you both view the podcast as a way to stay connected to the sport? Does it feel more like a fun project, a hobby, or perhaps even an obligation?
Also, do you feel a sense of responsibility to have your voices heard in this space, especially as women? There aren’t as many women contributing to the conversation in the same way you two are and you both share very candid — authentic perspectives.
GOUCHER: I think it’s been really fun. I think there’s a little bit of glory days moments with it where we can talk about things we’ve experienced, and I think that’s something that’s missing from the sport. You’ve been in those rooms you’ve been in those situations and you can talk about it from experience not just like a person who’s held the microphone up and like studied the sport or studied journalism. You know both sides of it. So it’s fun to share those experiences. And then we also know that there’s a lot of problems in the sport there’s a lot of things that are not being talked about and we have a platform and we can get into the weeds as much as we’re comfortable with. We haven’t gotten any lawsuits yet. So that’s good. We pissed off a lot of people but you know, they’ve been willing to reach out and be like let’s have a conversation, which is great. Those are the things that help move the sport forward.
LINDEN: Our sport is incredibly selfish when you’re doing it. It’s my training my food my sleep, whatever it is and now it’s like this is a way to share that experience, and then also see if we can change things for the next generation so that we’re giving back, which takes a little bit of that selfishness away, which is nice.
GOUCHER: We just did an episode on the women’s world record in Chicago. And there were so many things that were driving me crazy, and it gave me an outlet. It gives us a chance to say the things we want to say. It gives us a platform to say it whether the people agree with it or not.
It’s been really good for my mental health to be able to just like say what I want to say, but I also think again it’s fun to see [the podcast] succeed and to kind of be a leader in the space. To show that people care about running in a big way, right? Like we’re hitting all the top Apple charts, people want to hear from women. We are the experts in this arena. So it’s just been super fun and it doesn’t feel like work to me.
