Chula Vista can claim bragging rights to the Boston Marathon’s newest women’s champion.
Desiree (nee Davila) Linden, a 2001 graduate of Hilltop High School, became the first American woman since 1985 to win the prestigious race when she timed 2:39:54 Monday during inclement weather in the northeastern city.
Media across the country is hailing Linden’s achievement as a history-making event.
“This is storybook stuff,” she explained in a post-race press conference. “I mean I got into this sport because of the Boston Marathon.”
A challenging headwind and a temperature of 37 degrees made for the worst weather conditions for the race since 2007. Many early favorites were unable to cope with the driving wind and rain.
Linden admitted she thought about dropping out of the race at one point.
“During the national anthem I was kind of replaying that whole scenario where at six miles I thought, no way, not my day,” she said. “It was definitely the toughest conditions on the cold side that I’ve run in. Obviously, the heat is a whole other factor. I guess if I had to pick between the two, I would just take a day off.
But the 26.2-mile endurance race was hardly something to joke about.
“Early in the race, I was feeling horrible,” she admitted. “Honestly, I felt miserable. (But) sometimes when you pick it up and just forget about how you’re feeling, you can turn it around.”
Linden took the lead at the 20-mile mark and never looked back. She won by more than four minutes to take home the first-place prize money of $150,000.
“I didn’t ever look back,” she recalled. “I was just trying to gauge it by the excitement of the crowd, and run in fear.
“The last couple steps, oh, this is for real. This is hands down the biggest day of my running career. If it hadn’t been difficult I don’t think it would mean as much.”
This was Linden’s sixth attempt at winning the Boston Marathon.
Her previous best finish came in 2011 when she placed runner-up by a scant two seconds during a furious final sprint with Kenya’s Caroline Kilel.
Linden’s time of 2:22.38 set a personal record by four minutes and was the fastest time then ever run by an American runner at the event.
Linden placed 19th in 2:44:56 in her first attempt in 2007 and finished ninth in 2014 with a time of 2:33.54
Most recently, she finished fourth in both 2015 and 2017, timing 2:25.39 in 2015 and 2:25:06 in 2017. She finished just a fraction less than four minutes off the lead in last year’s race.
She did not compete at the infamous 2013 Boston Marathon in which two bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 265 others, including 16 individuals who lost limbs.
Local legend
Linden is remembered in her hometown as a highly focused and talented individual who wasn’t shy to help out her high school teammates whenever the need arose.
While at Hilltop High School, she earned four letters in track and field, cross country and soccer.
Linden burst onto the high school running scene in 1997 with immediate fanfare.
She was a three-time San Diego Section and league champion in cross country (1998-2000), four-time league runner of the year.
As a senior, she won section track and field titles in both the 1600- and 3200-meter races. She timed 4:58.0 in the shorter distance and 10:46.59 in the longer distance.
She also won the 1600 section title as a junior in 4:59.02.
She helped Hilltop capture San Diego Section Division II track and field championships in 1998 and 1999.
She was a finalist at the California high school track and field championship meet all four years she competed. She placed eighth in the 1600-meter distance as a freshman and sophomore, fifth in the 1600 as a junior and fourth in the 3200 as a senior.
As a senior she set league records in the 800, 1600 and 3200 distances and also set the meet record in the 3200 at the Mt. Carmel Invitational.
“She was an outstanding talent — a CIF caliber runner,” commented former Hilltop coach Chip Holmes, who coached Linden during her freshman and sophomore years. “She helped us to two CIF championships.”
An accomplished distance runner, her specialty in track and field was the two-mile distance but she also competed regularly in the mile distance.
“If I needed her to do it, she also ran the half-mile,” Holmes recalled. “She was outstanding as an individual but she would always be willing to help out in anything to help the team win a meet.”
Linden’s victory in the Boston Marathon has understandably swelled campus pride at the west side Chula Vista school.
“What an awesome day for the Hilltop community and for Chula Vista,” longtime Hilltop High School athletic director Nancy Acerrio gushed. “We are so very proud of Desiree and her resilience. She has proven to our students that if you stick to it and work hard you will be rewarded!”
Linden attended Arizona State University following her high school career. She finished her Sun Devil career as a two-time All-American in track and cross country.
She finished third in the 5,000-meter distance (16:59.93) at the 2005 Pac-10 collegiate championship meet.
She began competing professionally in 2006 and currently trains with the Hanson-Brooks Distance Project, an Olympic development program for post-collegiate distance runners, in Rochester Hills, Mich.
Now 34, she has continued to compete at a high level on the professional racing circuit. At five feet, one inch tall and weighing 100 pounds, she remains light on her feet and can easily transport herself over long distances.
A two-time Olympian, she competed in the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, taking seventh place in the latter.
She is not ruling out a third attempt at qualifying to compete in the Olympics. The 2020 Summer Games are scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan.
Career highlights include:
- In 2008, she finished second in the Houston Half-Marathon to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials, where she finished 13th.
- She finished fifth at the 2008 Chicago Marathon in 2:31.33 and finished 10th at the IAAF World Championships in the marathon, setting a personal record by three minutes. Her time of 2:27.53 was the second-fastest for an American woman.
- She finished second at the 2010 Chicago Marathon, setting a personal record by one minute with her time of 2:26.20 as the fastest American woman.
- She finished third in the 10,000-meter distance at the 2010 USA Championships with a time of 32:22.32.
- She made her debut on the Olympic scene in 2012 when she finished second in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston to qualify for the 2012 London Games.
She began the race in the rain at the London Games but was one of 11 runners among the field of 118 entrants to not finish the race. She withdrew after just 2.2 miles due to pain in her hip and groin areas that had plagued her for the previous month.
Her Olympic failure was attributed to a stress fracture of the femur.
However, she did not give up her Olympic dream.
She finished fifth in the 2013 Berlin Marathon, winning her age group in 2:29.15.
She finished fifth at the 2014 TCS New York City Marathon in 2:28:11 as the fastest American woman.
She won a silver medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in the 10,000 meters.
She placed runner-up to Amy Hastings at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:28.54 in Los Angeles.
Her perseverance was finally rewarded with her top 10 finish at the 2016 Rio Games.
More Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon is held annually on the third Monday in April on Patriot’s Day and winds through eight towns.
The race is the world’s oldest marathon, first contested in 1897, and one of six world major marathon races.
The men’s course record is 2:03:02 set by Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2011; the women’s course record is 2:18:57 set by Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo in 2014.
The total purse at the 2018 Boston Marathon was $830,500. A total of 29,978 runners registered for Monday’s race.
Seven of the top eight finishers in the women’s race were Americans.
The second-place finisher, Sarah Sellers, 26, of Arizona, received $75,000. The third-place finisher, Krista Duchene of Canada, received $40,000.
Sellers finished in 2:44.04; Duchene crossed the finish line in 2:44.20.
Japan’s Yuki Kawauchi won the men’s race in 2:10:46. He is the first Japanese man to win the race since 1987 — the year he was born.
Six of the top 10 finishers in the men’s race were Americans.
