Forums >General Running>WSJ Story on Des Linden
UM 45 Ohio 23
Des Linden is going for an audacious double in 2020—and, if all goes well, a triple.
The two-time Olympic marathoner and 2018 Boston Marathon champion will run in the U.S. Olympic trials Feb. 29 in Atlanta. Fifty-one days later she’ll line up for the April 20 start of the Boston Marathon.
If Linden finishes among the top three women at the Olympic trials, she’ll run a third marathon in just over five months: the Tokyo Olympic women’s marathon on Aug. 8.
The sponsorship windfall she will receive from running Boston factored into Linden’s decision. But in the end, she simply didn’t want to choose between two hugely important events as she approaches the end of her career.
“I mean, I’m 36. I don’t have anything left to save it for,” Linden said. “I want to go out in a blaze of glory. This is it, you know?…I’m passionate about it, and I think I can do it.”
any professionals run just two marathons a year, both because the 26.2-mile distance batters the body and because race organizers pay handsome fees for top runners to be rested and focused on their events. Linden’s age—she’ll turn 37 two days after the Tokyo Olympics begin next July 24—means she probably has one last shot at the Games and few chances to earn income from major marathons.
Linden was seventh in the 2016 Rio Olympic marathon. She started the 2012 Olympic marathon with an injury but didn’t finish.
Though qualifying for the U.S. Olympic marathon team would bring Linden between $55,000 and $80,000 in prize money, she would earn $150,000 for winning Boston. And for Linden, just showing up is even more valuable. Officials at Boston Marathon sponsor John Hancock and Linden’s agent, Josh Cox, declined to discuss specifics due to confidentiality agreements, but top runners often earn more in appearance and promotional fees than they do in winnings.
In a statement, John Hancock Chief Marketing Officer Barbara Goose said organizers “fully support” Linden’s decision to run the Olympic trials and Boston.
Linden said she began considering the idea of attempting the trials-Boston double about a year ago with her coach, Walt Drenth.
“He’s like, ‘That’s ridiculous. Just pick what you really want to do,’ ” said Linden, who lives in Charlevoix, Mich., and trains part-time in Arizona. “I’m like, ‘I can’t. It’s so hard.’ Then we started looking at the time frames between things. And he just started getting this bigger and bigger smile. He’s like, ‘Yeah, you could probably do it.’ ”
Linden’s shoe sponsor, Brooks, endorsed the plan. Linden spent much of the past year with 2020 in mind, running easy mileage from April to August then quickly ramping up to the New York City Marathon on Nov. 3. She finished sixth, the top American woman.
Linden said she’ll keep her training plan flexible to prepare for 2020, listening to her body and adapting as needed.
Running another marathon in close proximity to the Olympic trials is rare but not unprecedented. On Nov. 6, 2011, Meb Keflezighi came in sixth in New York then ran and won the Olympic trials on Jan. 14, 2012, 69 days later.
Linden is 36 years old, the same age as Keflezighi at the time. He finished fourth at the London Olympic marathon in August 2012.
“I didn’t chat with him, but it was certainly something we looked at, like, OK, he had a lot of mileage under his belt, super-accomplished runner, and he was able to manage a quick turnaround,” Linden said.
Many runners wouldn’t consider what she’s attempting. Jared Ward, who finished sixth in the 2016 Olympic marathon, said the trials will be his only spring-season marathon in 2020.
Galen Rupp, who won bronze in the 2016 Olympic marathon, also is concentrating on the trials. When asked last week whether Rupp would run the 2020 Boston Marathon, Rupp’s agent, Ricky Simms, replied in an email: “The US Olympic Trials are February 29. The Olympic Games marathon is August 9. I don’t think you will see any US athletes doing a marathon between these two events.”
Linden acknowledged that her plan to sandwich Boston between the trials and Olympics would prompt “a jaw-drop. There will be a variety of opinions on it, I’m sure.”
Other countries don’t force runners to decide between more lucrative marathons that form the cornerstones of their earnings and the Olympics because most nations hand-select their Olympic marathoners. The U.S. is rare in holding a marathon trial the year of the Games.
Linden is part of a renaissance of American women at major U.S. marathons. At New York in 2018, she and Shalane Flanagan commanded the highest appearance fees of any runners, male or female. Flanagan, a four-time Olympian who won New York in 2017, retired from professional racing in October and is coaching for Nike’s Bowerman Track Club.
With other elite Americans skipping Boston to focus on the trials, Linden is in even higher demand than usual. She’ll be the headliner.
“It’s not like there’s nothing in it for me, but I really am very passionate about running Boston and have been for a long time,” Linden said. “It’s fun to be there. I don’t think I’ll have any problem getting off the couch a couple days after the trials and being like, ‘I gotta go train again.’ I think I’ll be fired up about it.”
Interval Junkie --Nobby
Smart? F-no. I mean, how can she possibly hope to carry her gigantic brass gonads over the tape at all three races?
2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do
The big question is whether she will be buying the jacket.
Dave
Are we there, yet?
Habits of current elite marathoners not withstanding, this is not as crazy as it sounds. Look back at Bill Rodger's marathon race schedule and also remember he ran a lot of shorter races as well.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Look at Yuki Kawauchi
Inquiring minds want to know!
Look back at Bill Rodger's marathon race schedule and also remember he ran a lot of shorter races as well.
"Rodgers' most remarkable year on the road racing circuit came in 1978 when he won 27 of the 30 races he entered, including the Pepsi 10 km nationals (with a new world road 10 km best time of 28:36.3), the Falmouth Road Race, and the Boston & New York marathons."
Trails
“I mean, I’m 36. I don’t have anything left to save it for,” Linden said. “I want to go out in a blaze of glory. This is it, you know?" Really are you going to die or something. That's one of the stupidest things I've read lately.
Disagree. That was my favorite part of the story. If you are an athlete at 36, and still at elite level, you are on borrowed time. She’s just saying she’s going to do what she wants, and if the schedule causes her to blow up any of the races, so be it.
finnegan begin again
I'm curious why it seems so stupid to you? I'm lost on the context of your statement
"... the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value..." Thomas Paine Dec 23, 1776 The Crisis
Adversity is the first path to truth. Lord Byron
"No one plans to fail…..they fail to plan" Skinny Pete
That at 36 she has nothing left...competition is all well and good but that's not all there is in life.
she can peak for the trials.... and possibly make the team...
she can run Boston... and see how the cookie crumbles.
300m- 37 sec.
Perhaps we each read it differently. I thought she was speaking as a competitive professional runner regarding her competitive opportunities. But, maybe I misinterpreted her remarks
Problem Child
It’s about as stupid as a professional winning the super bowl then playing longer than others to win a second. Just ask John Elway and Tom Brady and Payton Manning. Payton was 40 when he won the last super bowl. Tom was 41. Yeah it’s pretty stupid to be old and want to go out in your own way as a professional athlete. They should just bow out quietly shouldn’t they?
Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.
VDOT 53.37
5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22
+1. It was also my favorite part of the article. I don’t think she meant it as she has nothing left to live for, she’s just talking about her elite competitive career