1st U.S. woman to win since ’85 beats cold, rain
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 runner-up, 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 second-place finisher Sarah Sellers but the slowest time for a women’s winner since 1978.
She is the first American woman to win the event in 33 years.
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 and was the slowest since Jack Fultz overcame temperatures in the high 90s to win 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.
Runners donned hats and extra layers, and the lead packs tried to draft off the media truck to avoid the rain that was hitting them horizontally at times. Wheelchair winners Marcel Hug of Switzerland and American Tatyana McFadden, both five-time champions, said they were unable to see through the spray that spun off their wheels.
“It was just tough, it was so freezing,” Hug said through chattering teeth as a volunteer draped a second towel around his shoulders. “I’m just very glad that I made it.”
McFadden said she wore two jackets, with plastic bags between layers to stay dry, and hand warmers against her chest. The wet roads made it treacherous to turn and impossible to stop.
“You can’t put your brakes on right away, so you had to be tedious on the turns,” she said. “I couldn’t even see because the wind was so strong.”
On the fifth anniversary of the finish-line explosions that killed three and wounded hundreds, Linden became the first U.S. woman to win since Lisa Larsen Weidenbach in 1985 — before the race began offering prize money that lured top international competitors.
Linden nearly ended the drought in 2011 when she was outkicked down Boylston Street and finished second by two seconds. This time, she made the turn off Hereford with a lead of more than half of a mile.
Linden, 34, 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.
When four-time Olympian and reigning New York City Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan fell behind after needing a bathroom break, Linden let her draft so she could catch up to the pack. Later, she helped Molly Huddle reconnect with the group.
“And it turned out I was in third, and I thought, ‘Well, I probably shouldn’t drop out,’ ” said Linden, who also earned $150,000.
Sellers, who finished 4:10 behind, is a full-time nurse who had to train before or after work. She said she didn’t believe it when she was told she had finished second, or that she earned $75,000.
“Yeah, I’m in shock about that,” she said. It was the second competitive marathon for Sellers, who was a distance runner at Weber State.
Canada’s Krista Duchene was third, with a total of seven Americans in the women’s top 10 and six in the men’s.