Just about 30,000 runners started out in Hopkinton, MA on Patriots’ Day to participate in the Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest annual marathon. Desiree Linden, a 34-year-old woman from Chula Vista, CA, became the first US woman since 1985 to win the marathon. She took the lead at the 34 kilometer mark and never looked back, crossing the finish line on Boylston Street in two hours, 39 minutes, and 54 seconds. She finished four minutes faster than any other woman in the race.
Training in California did not help with the fact that there were torrential downpours in the cold throughout the entire marathon. Linden admitted that throughout the race she did not think she would be able to finish, stating that she was scared the entire way through. “Even when I got into the lead [at Mile 22], I was like, ‘This is going to go horribly wrong.’ I tried to not let off the gas and get right up to the tape. When I made the right on Hereford [Street], I thought, ‘This is happening, this is for real,'” said Linden in a post-race interview. She also admitted what she said to fellow runner, Shalane Flanagan: “I might drop out today, if you need something, block the wind, whatever, just let me know.”
This was Linden’s sixth time competing in the Boston Marathon. She made her debut 11 years prior to this season. She attended Arizona State University, which was where her career as a runner began. In 2012, she had an opportunity to compete in the London Olympics, but an injury in mile two forced her to be sidelined for over a year. In the past three years, Linden had finished fourth in the Boston Marathon two times after she had come back from her injury at the Olympics.
For the first time since 1987, a male Japanese runner won the Marathon as Yuki Kawauchi crossed the finish line in two hours, 15 minutes, and 58 seconds. Unlike Linden, who won with four minutes to spare, Kawauchi took the lead over Geoffrey Kirui in just the final three miles of the race. After the race, Kawauchi said: “I’ve been running for 26 years, and in 26 years this is by far the best day of my life. It’s been a long time since an Asian has won here. The level of the sport in Asia is not at its peak right now. I hope this this will help to turn it around.”
Much like Linden, this was not Kawauchi’s first rodeo. Last year in 2017, he competed in 12 marathons and finished first five times. Both winners made references to the weather, how it affected them both negatively and positively.
Marcel Hug won the men’s wheelchair race despite being in a tight battle with Ernst Van Dyk; the two were prior marathon champions. As for the women’s wheelchair race, Tatyana McFadden was victorious, which was her fifth marathon title.
Each of the four winners stated they would have liked to have finished quicker and would not have expected to have a chance at winning had they known they would finish with the times they did. It’s evident that the weather played a major role in this race, further ensuring the fact that these four competitors displayed great perseverance on Monday.