2026 Chicago Marathon Elite Field: Des Linden

Des Linden at a Glance

Profile

• Born: July 26, 1983 (age 43)
• Country: United States
• Sponsor: Brooks

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:22:38 (Boston, 2011); 2:25:55 on a record-eligible course (2012)
• 50K: 2:59:54 (Dorena Lake, Ore., 2021)
• Half-marathon: 1:10:34 (2011)
• 10,000m: 31:37.14 (2011)
• 5,000m: 15:08.64 (London, 2011)
• 3,000m (indoor): 8:51.08 (2010)

Records

• 50K world record (mixed race), 2:59:54, 2021: still current, and the first 50K under three hours by a woman. The separate women-only record is Emane Seifu Hayile’s 3:00:30 (2023).
• American masters marathon record, 2:27:35, Chicago, 2023: since beaten. Sara Hall lowered it to 2:26:06 in February 2024 and to 2:23:45 later that year.

Major Marathon Podiums

• First: Boston, 2018 (2:39:54)
• Second: Boston, 2011 (2:22:38)
• Second: Chicago, 2010 (2:26:20)

Championships

• Olympic Games: London 2012 (did not finish); Rio 2016 (seventh)
• Pan American Games: 10,000m silver, Toronto 2015

Chicago Marathon History

• 2008: fifth
• 2010: second, 2:26:20
• 2023: 2:27:35, an American masters record at the time

2026 Results

• Black Canyon 50K (Feb. 15): 13th woman, 4:30:21
• Marathon des Sables (April): third woman, 30:16:32
• Boston Marathon (April 20): 2:35:49
• London Marathon (April 26): finished

Des Linden ran what she called her last professional marathon in Boston in April 2025, and 18 months later her name is on the elite start list in Chicago. The organizers’ July announcement explains the return in a single line: the two-time Olympian is using Chicago as part of her preparation for a first 100-mile race later in the fall. Her personal best of 2:22:38 is the third-fastest among the American women entered, behind Sara Hall and Susanna Sullivan, in a field led by Brigid Kosgei and defending champion Hawi Feysa.

Two Decades at the Front of American Marathoning

Linden came out of Arizona State in 2005 and spent the next six years building toward the top of the sport, racing then under her maiden name, Desiree Davila. Her breakthrough was the 2011 Boston Marathon, where she was side by side with Kenya’s Caroline Kilel over the last six miles and lost by just two seconds, 2:22:36 to 2:22:38. Fifteen years on, that is still her best time. Boston’s point-to-point course does not count for records, so her official record-eligible mark is the 2:25:55 she ran in January 2012, the race that sent her to her first Olympic Games.

She did not finish the marathon in London that summer. Four years later in Rio she placed seventh, and in between she won a silver medal in the 10,000m at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

The win that defines her career came in Boston in 2018. Linden ran 2:39:54 and finished more than four minutes clear of Sarah Sellers, and no American woman had won Boston since 1985. Americans took seven of the top 10 places that day.

Two years later she was fourth at the 2020 Olympic Trials in Atlanta, one place off the team. In April 2021, aged 37, she went looking for something new and ran 2:59:54 for 50K on a course at Dorena Lake, Ore., the first time a woman had broken three hours for the distance. World Athletics ratified it as one of its first official 50K world records, and five years on it still stands.

Her History in Chicago

Linden finished fifth in Chicago in 2008. Two years later she crossed the line fourth in 2:26:20, and was eventually moved up to second after the results of Liliya Shobukhova and Maria Konovalova, the two Russians who had finished ahead of her, were annulled for doping. It was Konovalova’s ban, handed down in 2015, that promoted Linden to the runner-up spot, five years after the race.

She came back in 2023, a few months after turning 40, and ran 2:27:35 to break Deena Kastor’s American masters record of 2:27:47, set in 2015. She said afterward she was not confident she had it until the last 200 meters, and we covered the race at the time. Hall took the record four months later, running 2:26:06 at the 2024 Olympic Trials to finish fifth, and lowered it to 2:23:45 in Valencia that fall.

Life After the Professional Marathon

Linden closed her professional road career at the 2025 Boston Marathon, her 12th Boston and 29th marathon overall, running 2:26:19 for 17th place at 41. “I’m not done running. I’m just done moving all the chips in on the marathon,” she told NBC Sports that day, and MH reported on her farewell the same week.

A month later, Arizona public radio station KJZZ asked her about running 100 miles. She said she had once ruled it out completely, then added, “I’ve learned to never say never, because that means it’ll probably happen,” in the interview.

She laid out her spring on Nobody Asked Us, the podcast she co-hosts with Kara Goucher, and then went and did all of it. On Feb. 15 she ran the Black Canyon 50K in Arizona, finishing 13th woman in 4:30:21. In April she took on the Marathon des Sables, six stages across the Moroccan Sahara, including a 100K day that was the longest stage the race has ever held. She finished third woman in 30:16:32, behind France’s Maryline Nakache, a result we covered at the time along with the 100K stage itself.

A week after leaving the desert, she started Boston from the mass start and ran 2:35:49. Six days after that she finished the London Marathon, closing out a three-week stretch that took in the Sahara, Boston and London.

What to Expect From Des Linden in Chicago

Chicago is a step toward something longer, and Linden has not said publicly what time she is aiming for. The organizers’ release ties her entry to the 100-mile debut but does not name the race.

How fast she can still run a marathon is the thing to watch. Her 2:26:19 in Boston last year, at 41, was faster than the 2:27:35 she ran here in 2023, though Boston’s course means it cannot count for records. Chicago is flat and record-eligible, which makes it the better measure of where her road speed stands now.

She will have familiar company on the start line. Sara Hall, the fastest American woman in the field at 2:20:32 and now the holder of that masters record, was born three months before Linden, so two 43-year-olds will line up together in Grant Park. Goucher, her podcast partner, will be calling the race as an analyst on the NBC 5 Chicago broadcast.

The professional women start at 7:30 a.m. CT on Sunday, Oct. 11.