On a May morning in 2017, Charlevoix resident Des Linden stood at an Old Mission Peninsula roadside.
A year prior, Linden had placed seventh in the marathon at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. A month prior, she had placed fourth in the Boston Marathon.
Now Linden was at Traverse City’s Bayshore Marathon, but she wasn’t running. Instead, she was holding a hot pink placard with words proclaiming, “I trained for MONTHS to hold this sign.”
She borrowed it from neighboring spectators.
“I was like, ‘Hey, can I hold it for a while, and cheer for some people?’” Linden said. “‘It’s a great sign.’”
The strangers happily handed it over.
“And then some people were realizing it was me and getting excited,” she said, “and they were like, ‘Who did we just give our sign to?’”
Eleven months later, the person they gave their sign to was on the verge of something no American woman had achieved in the past 33 years. She was about to win the Boston Marathon.
Linden details the surprising twists of that race in her debut memoir, “Choosing to Run.”
As she readied for the book’s April launch, as well as the 2023 Boston Marathon, Linden spoke about what it means to her to live in northern Michigan and how it prepared her for the history-making win.
Northern Michiganders will only have to glance at a video of the 2018 Boston Marathon to instinctively understand why Linden had an advantage that day. In an online clip that has been viewed over 100,000 times, Linden runs down Boylston Street toward the finish line.
More than 26 miles into the race, she is still wearing her warm up jacket. In a closeup, wind pelts rain into her face, and she wipes water from her eyes, the road behind her defocused by the freezing downpour into a grey blur.
Lisa Taylor, who recently retired as the executive director of the Traverse City Track Club, was a spectator near the finish line.
“We were surrounded by people … who were all just having a blast together, trying to stay warm,” Taylor said. “When the pack included Des … we started talking about how she trains in Michigan … you should keep your eye on her … don’t count her out.”
Taylor watched most of the race on a jumbotron, finally seeing Linden in person as she turned onto the final stretch of Boylston.
“The rain was coming down hard … there were tons of spectators, and then just this little figure motoring down the road all by herself. You could tell she was cold. But to just see a little bit of a smile on her face when she finished, and holding her arms up — it was almost unreal.”
Linden said the weather that day was an asset.
“You don’t expect race day to ever be like what Boston was,” she said, “but it’s also relative to so much that I’ve run in … It’s just another day in northern Michigan paradise.”
Linden’s relationship to northern Michigan goes far beyond a strategic training advantage.
In her book, Linden shares details for the first time about the serious health issue she faced in the months leading up to her Boston Marathon victory. She said it was important to her that she include the role northern Michigan played in her diagnosis and recovery.
“It was a really healing place for me when I was dealing with this health crisis — and kind of an identity crisis in like, ‘What am I going to do if my running career is over?’ Just feeling at peace in Charlevoix … that really solidified that it is home for me.”
Linden said activities unrelated to running meant a lot to her during this time.
“I remember just leaving our backyard and pushing out on a kayak onto Lake Michigan and just kind of paddling towards Fisherman’s Island. No agenda, no anything I was trying to accomplish, but just being out there. It’s not even that far from the shore. But I just felt like I was able to relax and think and kind of regroup and find myself.”
Linden’s choice to live in Charlevoix is unusual for a professional runner. Many American runners live and train in high-altitude locations like Flagstaff or Boulder.
Nor did Linden grow up in Michigan. She initially moved to Rochester Hills in her early 20s after a childhood in San Diego and college at Arizona State.
It was while she was training downstate that she met her now-husband, who brought her up north for the first time on a visit with his parents.
In winter.
“I was surprised by it … the first time, it was this gnarly winter storm, and it was so much worse than downstate, that it’s like, ‘These people are wild!’ … I feel like the power had gone out, or for some reason they didn’t have hot water, and I was like, “I don’t know about this place, this is rugged living.’”
But Linden also noticed the landscape.
“The terrain, the rolling hills — as a runner, I [thought], ‘This is really special. You could do great training out here.’”
The following summer, Linden returned.
“And then I was like, ‘Oh, I get it. This is just absolutely stunning.’”
Beyond the beauty of the Great Lake, Linden said the vast body of water reminded her of the ocean where she grew up.
“It was something I didn’t realize I missed until I was standing on a shoreline.”
A few years later, she and her husband celebrated their wedding in Petoskey, then bought a place on Lake Michigan. Eventually they decided to move up north full time.
To hear Linden talk about her favorite easy run is to know how much she appreciates the place she calls home.
“You get to this dirt road that leads into the trails … and you just feel like you’re in nature. It’s canopied over with green,” she said.
“It’s kind of mushy trails, so you’re watching your footing … it’s quiet … and then you pop out into Fisherman’s Island State Park … and the water of Lake Michigan is out on your left, and that’s when you get a sense of what the weather is that day as it’s coming off the lake … It just runs along the water so you’re able to see everything out there. You can see the island … the freighters … or if there’s sailboats out, you know it’s a nice day.
“And it’s just out and back. So there’s not a lot of distractions, you get to just lock in to what’s going on around you. You turn off your mind out there and just be in it.”
To hear northern Michigan runners talk about Linden is to know that the community here appreciates her, too.
Taylor called Linden gracious, citing her guest appearance at Traverse City Central’s cross country camp, as well as her participation in numerous Traverse City Track Club events, from speaking at a dinner, to doing a pre-Bayshore Marathon podcast taping, to running the National Cherry Festival Cherry Kids Fun Run.
“She showed up with all the kids … with a USA jersey on,” Taylor said. “She stood at the front of the start line, and I remember some sixth grade boys were looking at her like, ‘This is where the boys line up. What are you doing here?’ … It was funny, like, ‘Oh, if only you understood who you were standing next to.’”
Taylor said Linden did more than encourage kids along the run that day. She also set an example.
“In every small little community … there’s maybe an Olympic-caliber athlete walking in your midst. What makes the difference between whether or not that is achieved is exposure to the possibilities of what you can be. I think having somebody like Des right there, the kids can go shoulder to shoulder with her at the beginning of a little run … it can make people feel like it’s possible to do something great.”
Linden also contributed a running race of her own to northern Michigan last fall. MoMitt Bike Fest event director Jon Houlberg, who is presently planning the 2023 event, collaborated with Linden to put on the Dirty Des X, a trail and gravel course totaling nearly 8 miles with more than 1,000 feet of elevation gain. In addition to organizing, Linden played another role on race day.
“She did the first lap with everybody,” Houlberg said. “Having Des there was exciting for runners and for cyclists … I think a lot of people were stoked that they had the chance to start off the race running next to her.”
Beyond writing, racing, and contributions to the northern Michigan running community, Linden is known for unflinching advocacy of clean athletics, recently teaming up with fellow Olympian Kara Goucher to release an open and honest podcast series on the running industry. According to Chartable, the show debuted as the No. 1 podcast in all of sports.
When asked what would surprise running fans about Linden, Houlberg talked about her ability to stay grounded.
“Even though she’s a two-time Olympian, Boston Marathon champion, she’s never too good for anybody or any moment. She can just enjoy the present very easily.”
Taylor said people might be surprised to know that Linden is an avid reader.
“One of the things I’ve really enjoyed in knowing Des is getting book recommendations … I love what she reads! … I would say her thoughtfulness, her introspection as a person, is something people don’t get a chance to see.”
As if anticipating how both Houlberg and Taylor would answer the question, Linden shares in her book that she was once asked about her fantasy running partner.
Her answer was Joan Didion.
Linden then quotes this passage, from Didion’s 1975 commencement address at the University of California, Riverside:
“I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment.”
The next time northern Michiganders see someone gliding along a dirt trail, they may want to take a second glance.
They may be witnessing one of the greatest runners of our time, living in the world, looking at it, and — except when it comes to signs — making her own work.