Desiree Davila during marathon race at 12th World Championships in Athletics Berlin 2009 (Wikipedia Commons. Author: marathon-i. Source: long-distance-run.com)
Desire Linden finished first in the Boston Marathon on Monday to become the first American to win the 26.2-mile race since 1985.
The 34-year-old Rochester Hills, Michigan native ran the Marathon in 2:39:54 on a cold day filled with rain and strong winds. This marked Liden’s best finish in a marathon since she placed second in Boston in 2011, when she was only two seconds behind the winner. The last American woman to win the Boston Marathon was Lisa Larsen Weidenbach 33 years ago.
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“It’s storybook,” Linden told NBC Sports about her victory. “I’m thrilled to be here and get it done.”
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“Even on a day like today where it’s pretty miserable out,” she added, “people show up and they embrace the race.”
Yuki Kawauchi, a 31-year-old from Japan, won the men’s race, finishing with an unofficial time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. He is the first Japanese man to win the marathon since Toshihiko Seko won in 1987.
Linden reportedly waited for compatriot Shalane Flanagan less than one hour into the race after Flanagan stopped to use a porta potty. Flanagan — who won the TCS New York City Marathon in November 2017 — eventually finished sixth. Her victory in New York made her the first U.S. woman to win the event since 1977.
Though many runners likely found the weather conditions brutal, Kwauchi seemed unencumbered by them, and even believed they may have helped him win.
“For me, these are the best conditions possible,” he told the New York Times after the race.
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Temperatures in Boston on Monday (Patriots’ Day) were in the 40s — which statistics seem to demonstrate are close-to-ideal temperatures that allow many racers to finish the marathon faster. However, this data does not take the wind factor into account.
Linden, an Arizona State product, is a two-time Olympian who represented Team USA in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Summer Games in the women’s marathon. She also finished second in the 2010 Marathon in Chicago and won silver in the 10,000 meters event at the Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015.
Here are the men’s and women’s times for the top five finishers of the Boston Marathon:
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