It’s a busy time to be Des Linden. In a few weeks, the 39-year-old veteran of the professional marathoning scene will be lining up to once again compete in the Boston Marathon, the race she won in 2018. Although she was already a two-time Olympian, breaking the tape on Boylston Street was a career-changing moment that garnered her a level of celebrity and industry clout that most runners can only dream of. In a sense, Linden is still basking in the afterglow of that victory five years ago; the offers for speaking engagements and appearances at running event expos continue to roll in. Her memoir, Choosing to Run, comes out next month. She recently launched a podcast with Kara Goucher.
The charmed trajectory of Linden’s career has come alongside a vast proliferation of running media which, in turn, has impacted what it means to be a professional athlete in the sport. When she turned pro with minimal fanfare in the mid-aughts, social media was in its infancy. Now, it’s a ubiquitous, de facto obligation for (almost) every elite runner who wants to earn a living wage. What does that transition feel like from the…
