Adam Goucher retires

Goucher was a racer like Pre. At least he can say he went out to qualify for the OTs and did it for a 5th time. He was one of the best the US had from 2000 all the way to a finals in the 2007 World Championships. Injuries may have kept him from being even better. But no one with a career like that should walk away unhappy and it sounds like he is at peace with it. Sorry to see his comeback end, but it happens to everybody eventually.

Out with a whimper.

heard hes switching up his event to the Warrior Dash in hopes of a national championship.

Interesting First Paragraph:

"I have always craved touching myself. Masturbation has a magnetic pull for me. Even more than the finish, I crave the start. I yearn to toe that line and measure myself not only against my competitors and the clock, but also against my previous limits. Fapping represent hope. It represents a dream, and all the preparation it took to get there. I have jerked it at state championships, NCAA championships, USATF championships, World Championships, and at the Olympic games. Each tug has had that pull for me. Each has represented a dream and a journey."

Chris Lear's book made Goucher a running 'rock' star like Pre was. After Kennedy, Williams and the 2000 OG marathon disaster, he was one of the leaders of the new generation distancerunners that fans actually were interested in. In the era before video-blogs, personal website, social media a real book put distancerunning back on the map for trackfans.

The real star of the book was Adam Goucher and all fans knew him by reading the book. He lived up the hype by getting in some fast times and qualifying for the Olympics.

I met him twice and he was a really nice guy. Sorry to hear that he has to retire. I hope he will stay involved in the sport.

That blog post was a cut-and-paste from every self help article i've seen. I was actually a little bit sick into my mouth reading it.

Not sure why this is even on here. He has been irrelevant for years. The 2008 Olympic Trials was his all-time low - Salazar getting him into the race without qualifying and then Goucher blaming others for not running fast enough during the race. He has always had a sense of entitlement.

Wasted talent.

Wait, what?! What happened to his big trials "comeback", flipping everyone off as he crossed the finish-line?

Good riddance to this hype machine and never-was.

Man are you a suckup. Coulda, Shoulda, Wouldas are losers. Not rock stars.

i was a goucher fan. sorry to hear his injury problems persist.

he had a successful career. not by the lame letsrunner standards, but c'mon, he ran in the olympics and won an ncaa championship. not bad.

I wonder if he'll take on the kenyans from the retirement home. Will he flip them off too when he crosses the finish line?

The problem with your statement is Goucher never was a Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda. He did it man. He won everything in sight at the National level, broke records, and was a multi time finalist at the OG and WC. He was right there in the hunt for a medal in 2007 on the last lap and he ALWAYS ran fearless no matter who was in the race.

If Rupp, Ritz, Teg, Hall never run again because of injuries, would you call them all Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda, losers? Goucher has accomplished in his career as much as any American born distance runner in the last 20 years.

If you don't realize that, you're a pretty poor/uneducated fan of the sport.

People here defaming Goucher's career obviously were born yesterday.

That guy had a great career. I know I'm jealous of what he accomplished. Also his wife is bangin' hot. Dude out kicked his coverage fo' sho'.

Anyone bashing what Goucher accomplished needs to look at their own situation first. If your arent even the #1 runner on your XC team, hold your tongue before you spout off a buncha BS.

I'd take that dude's career in a heart beat.

The low level of intelligence by some posters here never ceases to amaze me.

Just about everyone would kill to be a 'wasted talent' or 'never was' if they could have a career half as good as Goucher's.

He's a hero to every high school cross country runner in Colorado and STILL has the fastest time ever run in the state for 5k XC.

categorically wrote:

The low level of intelligence by some posters here never ceases to amaze me.

Just about everyone would kill to be a 'wasted talent' or 'never was' if they could have a career half as good as Goucher's.

He's a hero to every high school cross country runner in Colorado and STILL has the fastest time ever run in the state for 5k XC.

So what if he's a hero to every douche in Colorado? And what other decent runners has the state of Colorado produced since Goucher? Ryan Deak?

Goucher has achieved godlike status among people who read Running with the Buffalos one too many times. Which is twice.

Goucher had a nice career - he ran some fast times, but frankly, never performed well on the world state. He made a grand total of ONE olympic team. He never finished in the top 10 in a championship track event (OG or WC).

He was always a guy who people rooted for because they thought he should be better than he actually was. It continued with this OT marathon qualifying nonsense. Hopefully the guy becomes a stay at home husband.

Last post was 0/10, but for the record

He got 6th at World XC short course one yr. Not too shabby...

First, as someone who is defending Adam, I have to say, Lexmark, your "If your arent even the #1 runner on your XC team, hold your tongue before you spout off a buncha BS" is some of the biggest bunch of nonsense I read on these boards. You don't need to be a good runner, let alone someone of Goucher's abilities, to be a critic. Would love to agree with you because you support my point about Adam, but can't agree with your methods here. We all, positive and negative, can have our opinions about Adam regardless of how well we run. Just like I can say Tebow is a pretty bad QB (at least right now) even though I can't throw a spiral to save my life.

On to the topic at hand. To the last guy... first off, I'm from CT, but even I know that Brent Vaughn was a Colorado HS kid. Lots of very talented runners come out of Co... you don't know about them because they never put up huge HS times because of the altitude. The fact that you think Ryan Deak is the best Colorado runner outside of Adam is a joke.

Second, Goucher was great long before Running with the Buffaloes came out. He was Collegiate Distance running from day 1 at CU. I remember being in college and being in awe of him. I All Americans in college who were in awe off what he could do on a track and over cross country. The reason why RWTB was a hit was because of Adam... Adam wasn't a hit because of RWTB. Everyone who read RWTB when it first came out read it for 2 reasons: To learn the secrets of Wetmore and Colorado and to learn about Adam Goucher.

You my friend, either weren't around during that time, or were and had your head in the sand. AG was/is one tough sob who ran 13:10 right after college and grabbed the reigns from Kennedy. It has nothing to do with RWTB or what he COULD do.

Was there talent unfulfilled? Sure? Did he potentially ruin his career by injuring himself doing yard work for Wetmore and then doubling in the 4k and 12k cross while injured? Possibly. But that doesn't change his legacy as one of Americas best.

AG and Ritz are 2 of the gutsiest, grittiest, toughest runners this country has produced and they have shined at the highest levels of our sport.

Not sure how ANYONE can disrespect that.