BOSTON — Des Linden finished 17th among the women Monday afternoon in the 2025 Boston Marathon, crossing the finish line in 2:26:19. But it was early Monday morning, when many people were just getting out of bed, that Linden delivered some news that would soon have everyone buzzing from Hopkinton to Copley Square.
In keeping with a longstanding Boston Marathon tradition, which is that you just never know when there’s going to be a big surprise, Linden’s surprise arrived with the morning paper. Literally. As a means of announcing she plans to step away from professional marathoning, Linden, 41, took out a full-page color ad that ran in the Monday edition of the Boston Globe.
It’s important to note that Desiree Nicole Davila — married name: Linden — grew up in California. She’s not some zany Boston sports fan whose teenage bedroom was festooned with posters of Cam Neely and Nomar Garciaparra. She probably knows next to nothing about Boston’s tricky traffic rotaries, and even less about its trickier politics.
What Linden does know, and she’s known it for years, is that anyone who does the Boston Marathon is forever changed. Whether you run it to win it or run it to finish it, the Boston Marathon pulls you in and never lets go. It’s true for the qualified…
