No matter what happens in the sprints or throws or jumps, the Millrose Games has always been about the mile. And tomorrow’s 102nd edition, highlighted by fan favorites Bernard Lagat and Kara Goucher, will be no different.
Lagat – the only 1,500- and 5,000-meter double world champion in history – is as experienced in the 11-lap race as any runner. He won his sixth Wanamaker Mile title last year, and tomorrow he’ll aim to tie the legendary “Chairman of the Boards” Eamonn Coghlan with a record seventh crown.
“If I win, I become co-chairman. If I can break it, I become President of the Board,” quipped Lagat, who expects a tactical race. “I really love running anywhere you have a lot of people who cheer the sport, and here you get that exactly.”
Coghlan joked that he has “plans with the Irish carpenters at the Garden to make sure the boards are loose,” before praising the U.S. star and saying it’s time somebody took down his long-standing mark.
Goucher, on the other hand, is a relative Garden novice. She’s more like New York’s prodigal daughter returning home. The 30-year-old was born in Queens and briefly lived in Waldwick, N.J., before moving away when her father was killed.
She grew into a top 10,000-meter runner and became the first U.S. woman to win a world championship medal in the event in 2007 in Osaka. She dropped down to win last year’s Millrose mile, kicking off a great year in which she ran third in the New York City Marathon in 2:25.53, the fastest debut ever by a U.S. woman and fastest time by an American woman ever in New York.
“I just love running in New York,” said Goucher, whose simple strategy is to stay close and kick late. “It’s electric. The fans are always into it. I love being here. I was born here and any opportunity to run here I jump at it.”
