by Larry Eder
The Boston Marathon in April 2018 was not just cold and rainy; it was bad weather of nearly biblical proportions.
The rain and the cold shut down many of the elite marathoners, who, come rain or shine, wear light racing gear and racing shoes.
Des Linden lives in Michigan. She knows that one must respect Mother Nature if one is going to train each day during the monstrous cold
that is a Midwestern winter.
The Boston Marathon had rain, wind, and 39 degrees temperatures on April 16, 2018. On that day, two of the sport’s strongest athletes, Yuki Kawauchi and Des Linden, won the elite divisions of the Boston Marathon.
Kawauchi ran 2:15.54, and Linden ran 2:39.54, making her the first American woman to win Boston in the 2000s and the first American to win since Lisa Larsen Rainsberger won Boston in 1985.
The love and affection shown for Des Linden did not appear overnight. Her gutty races, particularly in Boston, where in 2011, she placed second in 2:22:38, have gained her respect among her elite competitors, fans, and most importantly, Boston fans. The 2011 Boston race was extraordinary, as Liden and her competitors took the pace down to almost unsurvivable. A charge would happen, Des would respond, and so on. Des Linden was two seconds behind the winner.
Oh, friends, fans of Boston Marathons are a different lot, and the tough, tough athletes who compete well, year in and year out, on the streets from Hopkinton to Boston, reaching the finish line at the Charlesmark Hotel, are treasured.
Des Linden has come to Boston to compete on Monday, April 17, 2023. She has run a 1:12.21 half marathon in March and has been juggling training and a book tour for her book, Choosing To Run, which is now the number 4 Book on the NY Times Book List.
Boston Marathon week is a busy one for the 39-year-old marathoner. This writer has seen her in almost all of her Boston, NY, Chicago Marathons, and Olympic and World Champs (2009 Berlin).
Des Linden is the Chief Running Advisor for Brook Running. She is a veteran marathoner who makes few mistakes and gets the most from her training.
On Monday, April 17, 2023, Des Linden will line up again, giving it her all because it is the only way she competes. And the crowds, from Hopkinton to Boylston, will cheer madly, the only way that they can cheer, as a champion for the ages passes by over 26. 2 miles.
(Two corrections from CWL, Des Linden ran 2:22.38 PB in 2011, and she was most definitely second).
