Desiree Linden breaks women’s 50K time record

Distance runner Desiree Linden took her achievements to a new height Tuesday, becoming the first woman to run 50K under three hours.

Linden, who was inducted into the Arizona State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018 (the same year she won the Boston Marathon), covered the 31-mile course outside Eugene, Oregon, in 2 hours, 59 minutes, 54 seconds. That easily bettered the women’s 50K world record of 3:07:20 set by Great Britain’s Aly Dixon in 2019.

Running sub-3:00 was “what we circled,” Linden said. “To be me that was the big high-end goal. It’s nice to achieve that. Aly Dixon took a nice chunk of time off (the 50K record). She’s been so supportive of this effort. It speaks to women in sports and women in running specifically. We want to push things forward, we want to see progress and recognition. We got a little bit of pushback on hyping this event, but that’s the point. Let’s get people excited. I hope this record does move forward.”

Linden, 37, was at 1:15.47 at 13.1 miles and 2:31.12 at 26.2, the ending point for her usual marathon distance. “I was a little bit disappointed to be at 2:31 because I’m used to marathon times,” she said. “Around 24 miles or so, I felt like this is about to get very, very tough. It’s not just get to the (marathon) finish line, it’s pass through and then you have actual abyss you want to take on (beyond marathon distance). At this point it was like try and lock in 5:46/5:47 (miles) for the rest of the day.

“I was very conscious of I want this to be under three hours.”

Linden was fourth at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:29.03, missing out by one place on her third Olympic berth. She was unable to finish the marathon at the 2012 Olympics due to a stress fracture and finished seventh at the 2016 Olympics in 2:26.08. Her marathon personal best is 2:22.38 at Boston in 2011.