“Boston is such a crazy race. I feel like if you can get to the start line feeling healthy and you’ve run on the course before and I’ve done that and I know it races, crazy things happen there. If I’m on the starting line, I’m going to give myself a chance. Last fall was really tough because I wasn’t fit and I didn’t totally want to be on the start line but we said, ‘Eh, we’ll just go out and try.’ I feel like I’m still building back up from just that. I don’t love my odds but if I’m healthy on the line, I’m not like, ‘I have no shot.’ I’m always going to give myself a chance.”

I believe this is 2018 Boston Marathon champion and 2x U.S. Olympian Des Linden’s third time on the show and the first since 2020 when we may have enjoyed a bit too much whiskey on the air but it was the pandemic so who could blame us. In this episode, we catch up on everything she’s been up to including training for this year’s race, her foray into broadcasting with NBC, our shared love for Formula 1, where she sees her career right now and much more. It’s always a pleasure to kick back with one of U.S. marathoning’s all-time greats.

Catch the latest episode of the podcast on Apple Podcasts. We are also on Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify.

---

Photo by Kevin Morris/@kevmofoto

---

THANKS TO FINAL SURGE FOR SUPPORTING THE SHOW

No matter if you are an athlete or a coach, Final Surge helps plan and attain both short, and long-term training success. Their free online training log is compatible with Garmin, Strava, Polar, Stryd, COROS and a slew of other apps and devices.

If you are a coach, Final Surge makes planning and analyzing workouts simple and helps streamline communication with your athletes. Some of the top coaches in the world who have been guests on this podcast use it on a daily basis.

If you’re an athlete out there hammering miles and tempo runs solo with no guidance or direction, Final Surge is also here to offer up some world-class training programs. Get yourself a training plan for that spring 5K, Half Marathon or full marathon on your calendar. They’ve got plans from Ben Rosario and NAZ Elite, Drew Hunter and Christine Thorn and the Tinman squad with their Hammer and Axe plans, hit the classics with Greg McMillan or Boston Marathon champion Amby Burfoot.

If you are a fan of the sport and are curious how the pros are training, Kellyn Taylor, Stephanie Bruce and the rest of the NAZ Elite squad share all of their training logs on Final Surge. Use code CITIUS at checkout for a discount.

Give it all a look at FinalSurge.com

---

THANKS TO THERABODY FOR SUPPORTING THE SHOW

Their new RecoveryAir JetBoots are the first of their kind as the world’s most advanced pneumatic compression system ever created. RecoveryAir flushes out metabolic waste more fully and brings back fresh blood to your legs at three times the speed of competitors. Faster cycles mean faster recovery, so you don’t have to wait for..the legs to be feelin’ great.

For more information and to get a discount visit: https://therabody.com/citius

---

WE LOVE TRACK AND FIELD

Everyone knows how much all of us in the CITIUS MAG family love track & field, and how much we enjoy sharing that love with you all. Well, we’ve got a few big love-sharing ideas in the works and it all takes place in Eugene, Oregon this summer. Hayward Field will be the home to the Prefontaine Classic, the USATF Outdoor Championships and the World Athletics Championships. We’ll be there and you should be too. Visit https://citiusmag.com/summerofhayward/ for all the information on dates and tickets.

---

SHOW NOTES AND NOTABLE QUOTES

Her timeline on moving on from the marathons to the ultras

“I would like to still be competitive or have one more or two more where you go, ‘That was really satisfying. I had a really nice buildup and put together a race that showed that I’m solid at this.’ This build-up doesn’t feel like that. We’ll see what we get on race day though. Who knows? That’s what’s keeping me in it. There are days where I’m hitting 5:35s and I’ll call Josh (Cox) and ask, ‘Ultras. What’s on the schedule?’ That’s much closer now. There’s no level of comparison there because I can’t say, ‘Well in the past I ran X for a marathon.’ When you hit that max, you say, ‘Let’s go see what I can do here’ and not have that ‘I gotta match it or be better than it.'”

On what she visualizes now in practice for Boston

“That’s kind of a thing that’s been missing for the last couple of years because racing was off the table for so long. You sort of stopped picturing it. Now it’s being scrappy in the middle. If I’m contention, I already know whether it’s a sprint finish or being out there alone, I just imagine fighting hard in the middle sections.”