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NEW YORK ROAD RUNNERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 10, 2008

RICHARD FINN: I'd like to welcome everybody to what we hope to the first of several New York Road Runner and ING New York City Marathon calls as we move closer to this year's running of the race. It's almost two months away, and we're certainly looking forward to a great field. We have Kara Goucher at New York Road Runners headquarters here in New York, along with New York Road Runner president and CEO Mary Wittenberg, and we're delighted as always to have our special guest and a friend of ours, Alberto Salazar, calling in from -- is it Portland or Eugene?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Portland.
RICHARD FINN: I'm going to turn it over to Mary for a quick introduction and comment, and then we'll ask Kara to make an opening comment and even Alberto to make a comment and then we'll open it up for questions.
MARY WITTENBERG: Thank you, everybody, for joining us. It's a happy day here at New York Road Runners as we have very good news to share, as you know. We are now officially kicking off our marathon season. I can think of no better way of doing so. We are just seven weeks away, hard to believe, but here we are. It's going to be a big year, the 2008 ING New York City Marathon. The stars are aligning for it to be our best yet. It's certainly our plan, and everything we're striving for, and it's our 50th anniversary of New York Road Runners. We kicked off that celebration in June, which is our actual anniversary date. We'll go through this year's marathon and our celebration will culminate 18 months from the actual anniversary date in June. Next year's marathon will be our 40th running, and we will invite all of our former champions back.
So a big year this year, lots new. I'll highlight, as most of you saw probably right before you left for Beijing, we are going to a three-way start, effectively a staggered start to enhance the quality of experience for the 39,000 or so runners that we anticipate joining us on race day, and that's noteworthy today because the women's race will move to a 9:05 start. It's the earliest start we've had for the women over the years.
What I'll say about both fields is they're absolutely phenomenal fields. We've got a professional race this year. The women's race, we expect to have 40 top-level athletes, which is pretty much the biggest women's race we've had. Again, it will be an all-women's start, no pacemakers. It's all about women against women on race day to see where they can land in what will be I think the most competitive women's field of the year, or certainly right up there.
So this year, as I said, no better way to kick off the announcement than with a very special athlete to all of us at New York Road Runners and I would say all of us as Americans in this sport. We have had our eye on Kara Goucher for an awful lot of years, way back in high school and college, and always knew this was a special athlete and a special person. And at New York Road Runners as you know our goals are big and go beyond professional athletes, professional sports. A special person is an important part of the equation for us, and we've got an all-around star in Kara, and we are absolutely honored to host her debut.
It's significant because we think that Kara is one of the world's best distance runners. We absolutely believe that the marathon is going to be even her -- that she will have even greater success at the marathon, and she's had pretty darned good success already.
We also are excited because Alberto Salazar holds a very special place in our history in this organization and in this race as a former three-time winner, as an athlete who captured the imagination of the public and singly was responsible for a big boom in the sport at the time and especially other young athletes trying to achieve like he has achieved. So to have Alberto return as coach as one of his prize protÃƒï¿½Ã‚Â©gÃƒï¿½Ã‚Â©s in Kara, stepping to the line for her debut means a lot to us.
And last but not least, as most of you guys know, we have some 50,000 kids running worldwide and 30,000 kids running here in New York City. It is something that we're going to promote a lot, that Kara was born in Queens, New York, and we've got a lot of kids in Queens, New York, and a lot of kids in the five boroughs of New York, who just like Americans all over the nation but especially right here at home can say, oh, maybe I can grow up to be like Kara, too. To have Kara come home to a place that we know is special to her means a lot to us.
Kara joins a long list of very significant debuts. I'd say that every major marathoner in the sport, or many of them that are Americans the last several years from Alberto to member to Deena to Marla to Abdi, to Bob Kennedy, lots of top athletes have chosen to debut here, and it was no surprise to us that Kara would choose to go right to the big stage, the tough race, to make her debut. So we welcome Kara.
RICHARD FINN: Thank you, Mary. Kara?
KARA GOUCHER: I guess I'm supposed to say something. I'll just say I'm really excited. I'm just really happy for this opportunity and to debut here in New York. I'm excited about it. It's one of the most, if not the most, prestigious marathon in the world, and the fields that New York always has every year and the challenging course is just the greatest marathon, and I'm excited. I'm a little nervous, but I'm very excited to debut here, and this is a very special place for me.
I was born here, and actually my dad died here, so it's a very special place for me and my family. I couldn't be happier that it worked out that I begin my marathon career here where Alberto was king, as well.
RICHARD FINN: Thank you, Kara. Alberto, would you like to say a word or two about Kara stepping up to the marathon here in New York?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Well, with Kara I've always known, or at least for the last couple of years, that the marathon was going to ultimately be her best event. But despite maybe mentioning it nonchalantly every once in a while, I knew she was going to have to come to that realization herself.
For Kara, she first had to go from believing that she was primarily a 5,000-meter runner to realizing that she had to move up to the 10,000 first in track, and at that point I knew that moving up to the marathon was only going to happen for Kara once she really believed in her heart and her mind that that was actually going to be her best event.
You don't want to force anybody to go up while they feel they still have sort of unfinished business in the shorter events, and Kara by no means is going to abandon the shorter events. I believe that a goal for her should be to make the world championship team at the 5 and 10K again for Berlin this next year. But the marathon has got to be, I believe, her No. 1 focus in terms of long-term and for 2012.
I've always felt it was going to be her best event, but she was going to have to gravitate towards it naturally. I'm in a sense kind of happy that she's come to this realization as quickly as she has herself because now when she trains for the marathon she'll have a different mind frame. She'll be believing this is where I've really got to make my mark. So it's not just going to run a marathon just to see how it is and then go back to the track; it's knowing that this is important and that she's got to run well whenever she runs the marathon in order to have the confidence in 2012 that she can win a medal.
RICHARD FINN: We'll now open it up for questions.

Q. My question actually deals with what your actual pre-race week is going to look like just for a story for people who are going to be running the marathon out here, the Boulder Marathon. Could you give readers an idea of what you guys have planned for the week before the race and also on race morning?
KARA GOUCHER: Are we talking training here?

Q. Yeah, training and just sleep, anything diet, anything that you'll do the week before.
KARA GOUCHER: I'll just throw that directly over to Alberto because I actually don't know.
ALBERTO SALAZAR: I'll be honest. I don't even know what we're doing this first week coming up let alone eight weeks from now (laughter).
Just philosophically, obviously that last week you're resting up, so I would anticipate that Kara is going to go from her heaviest mileage period of probably somewhere around 100 miles a week to by that last week before the marathon, she'll do a maximum of 50 miles. So she'll cut down about 50 percent. She'll probably do -- going out from the race, three days before the race, she'll do some sort of long strides, like maybe seven to eight x 300 meters at 10K pace at the fastest, and then probably five or six days out from the race I'll have her run some 800s perhaps. I'm going to say at the fastest, five-minute pace. Given the fact that she's trying to run 5:20 for the race, five-minute pace is as fast as she needs to run on those.
Very moderate workouts that last week, and just enough to keep her in shape. So moderate workouts and 50 percent of the mileage she was doing before that. Food, just eating well, not any big changes, last three days really concentrating on making sure she has enough complex carbohydrates, but no carbo loading or depletion stages or anything like that. I don't believe in doing that. Maybe it works for some people, but I think it's too risky.

Q. Is that what you followed, Alberto, when you won New York, that schedule?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Yeah, I never did any sort of carbo loading in those years, and yeah, I would usually cut down my mileage to about half. I was used to running 120 during my peak training and I'd run around 60. So for Kara we'll go from 100 down to 50.

Q. I had a quick question for Kara about post-Beijing and how she's feeling mentally, physically, and obviously you're looking ahead to now 2012, probably marathon?
KARA GOUCHER: Yeah, I mean, I came off Beijing well. I physically felt fine. Emotionally I was a little tired. It was a big trip for me and a big step in my life, and I came back and took a week off and actually went crazy and cleaned my house and did all this spring cleaning that I should have done months ago.
But I just kind of relaxed and got back into it again last week. I don't remember what you originally asked me, but I came off Beijing really well.

Q. How about the finishes, 9th and 10th? Pleased?
KARA GOUCHER: I feel like they were solid performances. Obviously I wish I would have placed higher, especially in the 10,000. I feel like I let the height of the Olympics a little bit get to me, but the 5K I felt like I ran the best I could, and kind of like Alberto said earlier, it helped me come to the realization that when I ran 2:09s in the last 800 and I get left behind, that's not necessarily what my greatest strength is.
I am really excited about this marathon. I'm nervous, and I feel like this is the right step. Beijing was kind of a turning point for me where I kind of started to realize that maybe there's something different for me.

Q. Alberto and Kara, I heard Alberto mentioning 5:20 pace, so that would be right on 2:20. Is that what you'll be gearing up for?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Let me throw out there, yeah -- when I said 5:20 and I thought about that, somebody was going to quote me directly on that, what it comes out to. Yeah, to be honest, I don't really care what the time is. With Kara and with the other runners that I coach, over the last few years, one of the things that we've really tried to concentrate on is -- other than in specific situations where you're trying to run a time, that normally we just try and concentrate on the process.
We have a sports psychologist, Dr. Darren Treasure, that works with our group, and basically his feeling is that you concentrate on the process on what you're trying to achieve to be competitive. You don't really look at the outcomes in terms of even winning or running a certain time. You really don't worry about that. You concentrate on the process, what you have to do to execute your race plan, being competitive, being there, answering challenges from others in the race.
So for Kara certainly in this race, I'm going to tell her, yeah, we are going to prepare you to be able to run 5:20 pace, so if somebody runs that, I think that she can stay up. But under no means do I want her trying to push the pace to run that. I want her to just run with the pack, be competitive, answer everyone, and believe that no one can pull away from her. And if that ends up meaning that she wins or gets second or third in 2:25, great. Or if it means she wins or gets second or third in 2:20, great.
But I really don't want to put that time out there. It's about competing, and times come. When you learn to be competitive, times will come when they come. We're not going to really worry about it. But yeah, basically training pace will be 5:20 per mile pace.

Q. Can I follow up with a question to Mary, I guess? Mary, Kara is the first athlete -- I believe the press release says that she's the first one that you're announcing as far as the elite field. I mean, with so many athletes having run in the Olympics, are you finding that some of those athletes are feeling that they'll be ready to go in November? I mean, what is the post-Beijing recruiting arena like? How are you finding it?
MARY WITTENBERG: It's actually been a little bit surprising. We are way oversubscribed. We have had to turn away extremely high-level athletes. The demand has been remarkable.
We have, I think, the biggest debut class, so to speak, as we've ever had. I'll go ahead and say that Kim Smith is running, as well, from New Zealand. That's a powerful combination of Kara and Kim, and they have a leg up without having any marathon in their legs, and the post-Beijing has been interesting. From the podium group all the way through, a pretty intense demand to come back, and we've been very careful because we want pretty strong assurances from athletes that, in fact, they're ready to go.
And then beyond that we have other athletes who weren't in the marathon in Beijing. So this women's field is stacked, and we can't wait to roll it out and share it all with you.

Q. Just wondering when Kara would have started thinking about the marathon originally. Alberto said the last couple years, but were your thoughts in the marathon even further back than that?
KARA GOUCHER: Well, you know, I grew up in Duluth so I watched Grandma's Marathon. I always knew I was going to run a marathon someday, but I also said I didn't want to just run one just to run one; I wanted to run it when it was right and when I was ready. I didn't necessarily believe that that was my destiny until Alberto convinced me that it was.
Really the last couple years I've thought about it, and then last year I thought about it a lot, and I got to come to New York. Mary had me out here and the New York Road Runners and I got to ride on the lead car, and I thought about it every day since I saw Paula win last year. I thought about it every single day.

Q. I remember when I had lunch with you guys in Portland last year, I asked if there was any -- this was right after the Great North Run, and I asked if there was any chance that Kara would be running a spring marathon, and Alberto, I think you said, "Not if I can help it." What were you thinking then? I assume you wanted her to maximize her training for Beijing, and what is it you saw in her that you saw long-term that marathon would be her event?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: I guess over the last three years, just watching Kara run, number one thing is her biomechanics, without a doubt, are more suited for a marathon than for 5 or 10K. Kara has low leg swings. She shuffles a little bit, not nearly as much as I did, but much better-looking runner, not only physically but biomechanically than I was obviously (laughter).
But any ways, definitely, without a doubt -- I mean, she runs fast at the 5 and 10K, but without a doubt, she's at a biomechanical disadvantage compared to the biomechanical ability of say a Defar or a Dibaba or even Shalane Flanagan has got beautiful 5 and 10K form. So Kara has done very well there but yet despite sort of being at a handicap in terms of sort of not having that 5K or 10K form.
But through that spring, the 5K and 10K was still the goal. So running a marathon at that point would have really -- for one, she wasn't psychologically ready to do it, wasn't committed or convinced that she wanted to do it, and number two, I felt that even though biomechanically she's better suited to the marathon that she still has to optimize her speed at the 5 and 10K. The faster she is at those races, when she then goes into the marathon, it's going to feel like a jog to her, at least in the beginning. Later she's obviously going to get very tired. But in the beginning it's going to feel very easy for her. She's going to be very efficient basically.
So when I look at Beijing and she only got ninth in the 10K, which she obviously wanted to do a lot better than that, she still ran 30:55, and I wonder how many of the other marathoners that are going to be running in New York, maybe Mary can answer that, have run 30:55. Probably very few, if any.
So keeping that speed, I think, is really important. So that's why now I believe Kara can run a fall marathon, do great, take a break, and then we go back to the track again, and she waits until the next fall to run another marathon. So she continues to try and get that speed faster and faster and does some things long-term for the marathon in terms of making sure she always gets a longer run in every week, which in the past maybe was 16 miles. I think now -- year-round she's got to be getting in an 18- to 20-miler just to keep laying the groundwork for that marathon in 2012.

Q. A lot of coaches, maybe perhaps yourself included, believe that you need to keep up your mile speed, as well, to train for the marathon, and I know that in Beijing she told us that she'd also like to see if she could break four minutes for the 1,500 because she hasn't done that yet. I think her PR is 4:04 if I recall. She would like to lower her PR in the 1,500 as well as go to the marathon?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Yeah, and I think that's possible. Obviously it's very hard to -- to get her below four minutes for the 1,500, to really shoot for that, it might possibly take away from her running as fast as possible at let's say the 10K. But I think that she will improve her PR substantially -- 4:05 I think is her PR right now -- down to at least 4:02 this next year without giving anything up in the 5 and 10K. For some reason I believe that having that speed at the track races will help her when she moves up to the marathon, but at some point, whether it's 1,500 meters or 800, at some point, getting down faster in those shorter races, I don't know how much of an impact that has on her 10K, for instance, which is really -- the faster her 10K is, the easier marathon pace will be to her.
MARY WITTENBERG: Kim actually had 30:36. As I told Kara this morning, Kara has a different -- we've had a string of top American men debut here, and in every case has been a little different equation where they really -- the day had to play out -- they weren't on the exact same caliber as the field in the 5K and the 10K. Kara is absolutely right with the best of the group at the 5K and the 10K, so it is especially interesting, and she can take that kind of confidence into the race, even though it'll be double the distance she's run in a race before, so it's going to be important to realize that that speed does help.
And I think what's interesting in seeing Kara debut here is we know the importance of the cardiovascular, the muscular and the physical, but I think in the marathon the mental elements are vitally important to the success of an athlete, and I think the heart and the brains and drive and desire, all those type of elements, I think Kara is extremely well suited for this event and can feel like as she heads into it that she's competitive in those ways as well as any other athlete that's out there.

Q. Kara, can you talk about how much time you spent in Queens -- you said you grew up in Duluth, but what's the Queens, New York, impact on you choosing this marathon? Did it have any at all, and if so, what is it? And do you have any plans to take runs through Queens in preparation or to motivate you or anything like that?
KARA GOUCHER: I don't really have plans to run through Queens, but I was born here, this is where my parents lived, and I would have grown up in this area had not -- my father was killed by a drunk driver. My dad came over from Croatia when he was 13 and lived in Astoria with his family and that's where my family has been, my dad's side of the family. It's just a special city.
I wanted to run here for personal reasons. That did not weigh on my decision, but it was more like that's an added bonus, that I do want to run here. I like this city. I feel connected here, and it's just a very personal thing for me.
But I wanted to run in New York mostly because it is just an incredible marathon and it is an incredible place to run. There is amazing history here, and it's the best.

Q. Is there anything more to the personal reasons you just got into there? I mean, that's pretty strong, but is there anything else, any other personal reasons?
KARA GOUCHER: No, pretty much just that this is a place where I feel connected to my dad, so I have always loved New York City, and it is a really special place for me, so it just sort of adds an extra element to everything. But that's really it.

Q. I don't have as much background as some of the others, but I did participate in a New York Road Runners teleconference that Adam had in 2005, and it was the impression at that time that you two worked together a lot, and from what I've seen on the Nike site, you really support each other. So can you maybe briefly comment on maybe what Adam is up to, and if he's injury-free, is he thinking of going longer possibly, or how is he going to support you as you tackle this new challenge?
RICHARD FINN: I inadvertently forgot to mention that we have another guest here with Kara, and that is Adam, and if Adam would want to just briefly quickly answer.
ADAM GOUCHER: Yeah, you know, at this point I'm pretty much -- I've got a few little races coming up in the next couple weeks, and so for all intents and purposes, after the 5th of October, which will be a race that I do, a half marathon I'll be doing, I'll be done. And at that point, 100 percent it'll be doing whatever I can do to help Kara succeed and have success here in New York.
I've already talked to Alberto about this, and I will continue training at my level, but any time I can jump in and help her pace-wise or just to be there like I am on a daily basis anyway, whether it's in the weight room or going to our appointments or whatnot, I'll be there getting her ready, helping her get ready.
RICHARD FINN: Let me just add something. Early this morning Kara did run the last ten miles of the course starting just below the Queensboro Bridge and finished right at the Tavern on the Green finish line and Adam was out there helping along. So I think the support is already beginning.

Q. I just wondered, Kara, and I missed early so I apologize if this is a repeat at all, but considering the double in Beijing under difficult conditions, do you feel mentally and physically refreshed enough to tackle a fall marathon? I mean, obviously you must or you wouldn't be doing it.
KARA GOUCHER: Yeah, I mean, I came off Beijing physically fine. You know, I took a week to refresh a little bit and reflect, and physically I was totally fine. You know, this has been in the back of my mind a couple months ago; I'm really committed to running the New York Marathon. I've been training really great all spring. Strength is one of my -- that's one of my gifts right now, and that's something I have a lot of. So I was able to get through the trials fine and I got through Beijing fine and I took that little break to refresh, but coming off Beijing I actually felt hungry for more because it was sort of like this realization for me. I'm excited, and I wanted to kind of get back and get training.

Q. I have a question for Alberto, or Adam can jump in there, too. When you look at fast 10,000-meter runners, some names come to mind, guys like Mark Nenow and you mentioned Kennedy, they had great 10,000-meter times but weren't able to translate that into the marathon. With Kara, why is it that you think Kara is going to be able to make that transition when some people aren't?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Several things. Kara recovers better from workouts than any other runner that I've ever had. She just bounces back. I mean, everybody else, they recover well. You can't be good at this level with the group that I have, making the national team level or being top five in the Olympic Trials, whatever, unless you have the ability to recover from workouts. But Kara really has an ability where she can run a super-hard workout, and like three days later she's completely recovered.
I'll ask everybody else, and everybody does pretty much the same workouts, the guys and the gals. The guys obviously say, my legs are still sore or I'm still tired, and Kara will say she feels fine. So her recovery is really good. I think as a marathoner that's real important because obviously the volume is -- you have to do a higher volume than you normally do for track.
So a lot of runners when they move up to the marathon and they increase that volume they get too tired or they don't recover as well. With Kara I don't think that's going to be a problem.
Number two, once again, when we go back to the biomechanics of it, sometimes there's runners that are very good at 10K. But biomechanically they may not be as suited for the marathon. They may pound the ground too hard. That's why Selasse has kind of been an enigma to me, a guy with such a 5K and 10K-type biomechanics has been able to handle the marathon, but it took him a while to get to that point. If you remember I think he struggled in his first couple of marathons, came down with calf problems and so on at the later stages of the race.
But anyways, with Kara, I believe that her form is such that she's going to be able to go the distance and her legs aren't going to get pounded up too much.
Number three, she's very physically strong. When you see Kara -- I believe that there's two type of basic marathoners. One is the very light marathoner who's just hardly touching the ground, and then the other type is the one that's kind of strong and muscular and can take the pounding. So even though Kara doesn't have a stride that causes a lot of pounding, she's very strong physically. Her legs are muscular, her upper body. She's very strong, and so I think she can take the punishment of a marathon physically.
Mentally, Kara is maybe the toughest runner that I've ever had. Her husband right there is very tough, too, but Kara is very tough. She's very tough, she's very focused. When Kara finishes, no matter how hard an interval is, and sometimes when I give her too much and maybe she even dies in a workout, when she finishes, she shows no emotion. She'll just turn around and say, what's next. So mentally she's very resilient like that.
Adam will yell at me if I screw up on the workout if I have him run too fast and it ends up it blows up because obviously it was my mistake. Galen Rupp will kind of pout and stuff and he'll probably yell, too.
Kara, no matter what happens mentally, she just accepts it and says, okay, what's next. I think for a marathoner, that's what you need to do. You've got to -- that ability to focus, even if it's just in a shorter workout, helps you in the marathon. You've got to keep your eye on the goal, and it's very easy to lose focus in a race that's long. Mentally Kara has the best focus of anyone I've ever worked with.
All those things combined I think are what point to a great marathoner, and again, we won't know for certain until she runs that race, but just everything that I can see, that I think about scientifically, it shows that she should do it, that she should be great at the marathon, and just my gut feeling. It's just something I'm convinced about. Bill Squires, who was my old coach at the Greater Boston Track Club when I was 16 or 17, after training with him for a year, he told me the marathon is going to be your best race, and he was coaching Bill Rodgers and I was training with Bill Rodgers at the time, and he was convinced about it, and I doubt he thought about it all that much, he just knew it right away.
Same thing with Kara, just seeing her these last three years, I've known from the beginning that the marathon was going to be her best race, but we had to wait and let her come to that realization herself.

Q. I have just a more general question I guess I wanted to direct to Alberto. It seems like there is a youth movement among the world's elite marathoners. This seems to be moving away from what in the last few years people were waiting until-- their late 20s or even early 30s were considered the peak years, and now you have people running outstanding times at 20 or very early 20s. Do you have thoughts on that?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Well, I think in the past that some people have waited too long, until their career is on a downturn. I think it's different for everyone. You know, I believe that you need to -- once you feel like you're as good as you're going to get in the 5 and 10K, or pretty close to it, and if you're not satisfied where that puts you, and then if you feel that the marathon may be your best event, there's no reason to wait around because you never know what the future is going to hold, and you may think, well, I'm going to wait another three or four years. You never know, three or four years later maybe you're running a much slower 5 and 10K, and now it's too late, you're past your peak to even run well in the marathon. I believe in the past a lot of people have basically just waited too long and they're past their prime and perhaps for whatever reason they're on a downturn, their training hasn't gone well or it's changed over time, and they're not as good a runner as they were before.
And again, looking at Kara here, I think Kara, that realistically, when things go normally well, she's a top-five runner in the world at 5 and 10K, that that's what she can expect. When things go great, she could possibly medal. When things don't go great, she's looking at ninth or tenth, but she's looking at somewhere top-five-in-the-world caliber.
She's got to decide for herself, am I satisfied with that, being in the top five in the world and sometimes being able to slip in there for a bronze, or do I want to go to another event where perhaps I have a chance to be the best in the world, and perhaps even if I don't run great, I can still get a bronze. And that's really something that a runner has to decide for themselves and believe, and I think it took Beijing for Kara to finally believe that.
I was never going to tell her, well, you can't medal, I think at best you're top five, because you never know what can happen. She got a bronze last year, so it could happen again this year. I'm not surprised, and in a way I'm kind of relieved because it makes the decision a lot easier for her given what happened in Beijing.

Q. I'm just wondering, between now and November 2nd you have a race planned at the U.S. women's ten-miler. Will that be the only race between now and the marathon?
KARA GOUCHER: I will be running just one race between now and the marathon, just training.

Q. Alberto was talking about 100-mile weeks, and that is primarily what the next two months are going to encompass in training?
ALBERTO SALAZAR: Correct, and obviously there's got to be a taper there. She's going it -- she's got to get up to 100 a week pretty quickly and perhaps get four or five weeks at that level and then start cutting down about three weeks out. She'll also do a lot of cross-training, too. She'll do the equivalent of another 20 miles a week of cycling and also an elliptical trainer. She'll do a lot of running on an underwater treadmill, as well, try and get the mileage and the overall volume up as much as possible without getting her injured.
RICHARD FINN: Again, we'd like to thank everybody, thank all of our special guests, Kara, Adam, Alberto, everybody on the call. We thank you for your coverage and look forward to working with you. Many of you we've worked with in the past. We look forward to working with you more in the future. Please let us know if there's anything else we can do.
MARY WITTENBERG: Thanks to everybody. We've got a big seven weeks ahead, and like the athletes, we're ready to just get it done and move on to what we think is going to be quite a big weekend and really made extra special by having Kara in the field, so thank you to Kara and Alberto and Adam, and looking forward to seeing all of you. Talk to your editors. We want you here in person.

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