NEW YORK -- Kara Goucher, who last year became the first American woman to win a world championship in the 10,000 meters, will make her marathon debut in New York on Sunday.
New York is the city where her Croatian-born father went to high school, where her parents built a life together and started a family. It is also where he was killed by a drunk driver in 1982.
According to news reports at the time, a car went airborne, jumped the divider and smashed into Mirko Grgas' vehicle on Harlem River Drive in Manhattan, just blocks from where the marathon course passes.
He left behind a young widow and three little girls. Kelly was about to turn 6, Kara was almost 4 and Kendall was only 5 weeks old.
Patty and the kids were visiting her parents in Duluth, Minn., when she got the news. They returned to New Jersey only to pack their belongings, then permanently moved to the warm comfort of her family.
"I don't know how I would've survived without them, physically and emotionally," said Patty, who now works as a victim's advocate for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "They just helped me so much."
Kelly, about to start first grade, grasped what was happening the most. She remembers Kara tagging along when she had to say goodbye to her best friend before the move.
"She was sad because I was sad," Kelly said, "but I'm not sure she understood the gravity of what was happening."
Kara's memories of living in the New York area are few and fuzzy. She recalls the layout of their house in New Jersey, and the image of her father coming home from a practice of the soccer team he coached.
Then, there are the stories she's been told so many times they seem like her own recollections. Like when she was about 2 and her father planned to take her to a movie, but she was being petulant. He had broken both arms playing soccer, and when he threatened to spank her, she shot back that he wouldn't be able to with his arms in casts.
Kara knows from her mother that she came home crying, saying she wanted a dad, a couple of times when she was 6 or 7. But her memories of childhood are overwhelmingly those of a happy and stable life -- of grandparents who always attended her meets, of baby-sitting for her younger cousins who lived down the street.
These days, their grandparents cheer from the stands at University of Minnesota Duluth soccer games, because Kelly is an assistant coach.
"It wasn't until high school that I realized how unique it was," Kara said. "My grandparents were at all my races; they knew all my friends. My friends would say, 'Your grandparents are so cool.' To me, that was normal."
Not until she started college at Colorado, away from the cocoon of her extended family, did Kara begin to feel something was missing.
"My life had been so fulfilling with my family in Minnesota that I never felt alone," she said.
She asked her mom for mementos of her father, and Patty was able to dig up photos, documents, even a tape with his voice on it. Then, after her sophomore year of college, she and her sisters accompanied their aunt on a trip to Croatia, where her father grew up before coming to the U.S. at 13.
It seemed like everybody they ran into there turned out to be his cousin.
"People would come up and start crying," Kara said. "My little sister apparently looks just like him."
Their paternal grandparents spoke little English, and they were usually quiet when the sisters saw them in the U.S. But in Croatia, they were full of life.
"My aunt didn't open up much about my dad (before the trip)," Kara said. "Ever since then, boom, she'll tell you everything."
As Goucher runs through the streets of New York on Sunday, the sights won't be any more familiar to her than to most other out-of-towners. But she will also know that under this skyline resides the history of her parents, her family, herself.
"It's so different from how I grew up," Goucher said. "It's fascinating to me that my mom was there, my dad was there, and this was the life they loved."
New York Marathon
What: The largest marathon in the world, with 37,850 runners in 2006.
When: Sunday at 9 a.m.
Where: It runs through all five of New York City's boroughs.
History: The first N.Y. Marathon was run in 1970 with 127 competitors. The annual race is now so popular that participation is limited to 37,000 runners, with preference given to previous competitors and others selected by lottery. Over 315 million viewers worldwide watched last year's race.
Defending champions: Kenya's Martin Lel won the men's race in a time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 4 seconds. Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe won the women's race (2:23.9).
