After a Near-Miss With a Distracted Driver, Kaitlin Goodman Is Back to Run NYC

Runner's World ^ | November 1, 2019 | Cindy Kuzma

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Last summer, Kaitlin Gregg Goodman felt poised for another breakthrough. She’d just signed a new contract with the Boston Athletic Association High Performance Team and Adidas.

Her training for the New York City Marathon was clicking—enough, she hoped, to improve on the 2:32:08 personal-best she’d set at the 2017 California International Marathon the previous December.

All that changed in an instant. At the end of an easy second run one early August evening, about a quarter-mile from her Providence, Rhode Island, home, a distracted driver nearly struck her. She leapt to safety, but the fall partially tore the tendon attaching her left hamstring to her pelvis.

“From the highest of highs for my running career, that really quickly flipped the switch to lowest of lows,” she told Runner’s World.

In the 14 months since, Goodman has logged hours on Providence trails on a bike she bought off Craigslist; in chiropractic, massage, and physical therapy clinics; and taking care of her rescue dog—a silver lining to a tough time.

Now, she’s applying knowledge from her master’s degree in public health to take back the roads for pedestrians and cyclists—and returning to reclaim her own spot in the elite field at NYC.

“It’s more than just the race for her,” said Dena Evans, a former coach and longtime friend and mentor of Goodman’s and the director of the Peninsula Distance Club in San Francisco. “The path has been a little bit long and windy over the last year because of these setbacks. There’s no shortage of understanding of how precious an opportunity this is.”

[GnuThere]

She’s taking over for de Nauseo?

[Larry Lucido]

A collision is a near miss.

[Larry Lucido]

“Here’s a phrase that apparently the airlines simply made up: near miss. They say that if 2 planes almost collide, it’s a near miss. Bullsh-t, my friend. It’s a near hit! A collision is a near miss.
WHAM! CRUNCH!
“Look, they nearly missed!”
“Yes, but not quite.”

~George Carlin

[TexasGator]

“A collision is a near miss.”

No.

[Telepathic Intruder]

It was a near hit.

[Tax-chick]

to take back the roads for pedestrians and cyclists

You can't "take back" something you never had. Roads were made for animal-drawn or self-powered, wheeled vehicles, horse traffic, or the quick movement of large bodies of infantry and artillery. The standard pedestrian always had to get out of the way of something bigger, faster, or heavily armed.

I think drivers should be careful about pedestrians, cyclists (including motorcyclists), and animals, but that's a soft-hearted modern innovation, not the historic norm.