Anyone who saw Grant Fisher race for the bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 10,000 meters knows how special the race can be. The event in part inspired elites Kara Goucher and Des Linden to host “Save the 10,000 with Des and Kara” in 2025. The invitational was meant to help professional runners chase minimum qualifying standards—33:20 for women, 28:35 for men—for the 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. “We just want to show that the event is awesome,” Goucher says. “There’s a lot of exciting things and storytelling that can happen in a 30- to 33-minute race, and we just want to show that.” But even for runners who aren’t going to finish a 10K in 30 minutes (and very few can!), preparing for that distance can boost a marathon or half marathon training block . Running at a 10K pace will build your aerobic fitness, endurance , and mental toughness, which can then make you faster and stronger when you go back to the longer distance training.…