Who runs the world?
Desiree Linden wins Boston Marathon, first U.S. woman to do so since 1985
BOSTON — After slogging through just a few miles of icy rain and a near-gale headwind that made her feel like she was running in place, Desiree Linden decided she’d seen enough of the Boston Marathon for another year.
“My hands were freezing, and there are times where you were just stood up by the wind. It was comical how slow you were going, and how far you still had to go,” Linden said.
“At six miles I was thinking, ‘No way, this is not my day,’” she said. “Then you break the tape and you’re like, ‘This is not what I expected today.’”
A two-time Olympian and the 2011 Boston Marathon runnerup, Linden decided to stick around, outlasting the weather and the rest of the field to win the race’s 122nd edition on Monday in 2 hours, 39 minutes, 54 seconds. That was more than four minutes better than secondplace finisher Sarah Sellers but the slowest time for a women’s winner in Boston since 1978.
Yuki Kawauchi splashed through the pelting rain, temperatures in the mid-30s and wind that gusted as high as 32 mph to win the men’s race, passing defending champion Geoffrey Kirui in Kenmore Square to earn Japan’s first Boston title since 1987 and the $150,000 first prize.
Wearing a white windbreaker that was drenched and billowing in the wind, Kirui slowed and stumbled across the Copley Square finish line in second, 2:25 back, followed by Shadrack Biwott and three other U.S. men. The winning time of 2:15:58 was the slowest since Jack Fultz overcame temperatures in the high 90s to win the “Run for the Hoses” in 1976.
“For me, it’s the best conditions possible,” said Kawauchi, who competed in 12 marathons last year — six times the usual
number for an elite runner — and also works as a school administrator.
On the fifth anniversary of the finish line explosions that killed three and wounded hundreds more, Linden became the first U.S. woman to win since Lisa Larsen Weidenbach in 1985 — before the race began offering prize money that lured the top international competitors to town.
Linden nearly ended the drought in 2011 when she was outkicked down Boylston Street and finished second by 2 seconds. This time she made the turn off of Hereford with a lead of more than half of a mile.
“Probably 2011 is what put the fear in me,” Linden said. “That sprint battle is not super fun. It was nice to get it right down Boylston this time, that’s for sure.”
A 34-year-old California native who lives in Michigan, Linden said she was so broken by the weather that she wanted to drop out after a couple of miles but instead stuck around in case she could help one of her fellow Americans.