Des Linden Finishes Her First 100-Miler at the Javelina Jundred

Des Linden finished her first 100-mile race late Saturday night at the Javelina Jundred in Arizona, crossing the line in 16:58:00 as the ninth woman and 39th runner overall, according to the race’s official live results. For a good part of the day, the 43-year-old was leading it.

Linden started cautiously on the opening loop at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, outside Fountain Hills. She was about two minutes and 45 seconds behind defending champion Heather Jackson at Coyote Camp, 26.1 miles in, iRunFar reported, with four other women between her and the leader. Over the next two loops she moved past all of them. She reached mile 45.3 in first place in 5:53:12, was still in front at mile 56.9 in 7:31:26 with a five-minute gap on Katie Asmuth, and finished her third lap, 60.3 miles, in 8:01:12.

Heavy rain the night before had left mud and a few washouts on the course, and the field ran under overcast skies, on-and-off storms and heavy humidity, with the temperature peaking at 75 F.

Linden needed 1:22:37 to cover the 4.3 miles from the start/finish area to Coyote Camp on the fourth loop, a pace of 19:17 per mile, after she had run every earlier section at between seven and nine minutes per mile. Carla Molinaro of the U.K. had moved into the lead by then. Linden kept going, though her pace never came all the way back: the 6.5 miles into Jackass Junction on the fifth and final loop took 2:14:00. Her last 39.7 miles took 8:56:48, almost an hour longer than her first 60.3.

Speaking on Nobody Asked Us, the podcast she co-hosts with Kara Goucher, Linden said a 14-hour finish would be “amazing,” as The Ultra Minute noted in its race-week preview. Only two women got under that mark. Jackson defended her title in 13:48:29, passing Molinaro after the 95.3-mile aid station and winning by 55 seconds. Molinaro was second in 13:49:24 and Asmuth third in 14:06:34.

The first two women and men earned Golden Tickets into the 2027 Western States 100. Rob Molke won the men’s race in 12:11:30, just 78 seconds off the course record Will Murray set in 2025, with Noah Dusseau second in 12:12:57.

Linden closed her professional road career at the 2025 Boston Marathon, seven years after becoming the first American woman in 33 years to win there. She ran her first trail ultra at the Black Canyon 50K in February, then went to the Sahara for the Marathon des Sables in April, where she finished third woman in 30:16:32 over six stages that included a 100K long day. Her first ultra came on the roads in April 2021, when she ran 2:59:54 for a 50K world best.

Linden has kept a foot on the roads as well. She lined up at the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 11, the race where she set an American masters record of 2:27:35 in 2023, and ran 3:10:10 there as a training run for Javelina, according to iRunFar.

Ninth place leaves her outside the Golden Ticket spots, which roll down no further than fifth, though Western States has been on her mind since she stepped off the roads. When she announced her retirement in 2025, she told iRunFar she planned to pace a teammate there and would use the trip to decide whether to aim for the race herself: “Getting a feel for the event and the experience will tell me a lot about if I want to focus my attention there or not.”