Hitch a Ride

The 2025 Boston Marathon

Words Jeff Merrill

In the final 2 miles of the Boston Marathon there were only 2 players left in the game. Sharon Lokedi had been bitten by Hellen Obiri before, first in a tactical affair in the 2023 NYC Marathon where she placed a close third behind the champion Obiri, and then down Boylston last year, when the former 1500m star Obiri turned on the jets and pulled away leaving Lokedi with the silver. In Paris last year, Obiri bested Lokedi by the slim margin of 4 seconds to take the bronze medal, leaving Lokedi empty handed. In those 3 races, Lokedi had lost to Obiri by a combined total margin of 22 seconds.

At the 2:06 mark with roughly 2 miles to go, Lokedi moved to the front and pressed. The injection of speed uncoupled 10k road world record holder Yalemzerf Yehualaw from the group and left just known nemesis Obiri stalking Lokedi. Having been bit before by the sting of Obiri’s speed, Lokedi was not to be fooled again. She might not have been able to match Obiri in a drag race down Boylston, but she could twist the knife and send them both deeper and deeper into the red. Not wanting a groundhog’s day scenario, Lokedi did just that, committing to a hard pace and seemingly burning reserves without concern for what could be saved for a kick. She already knew what the outcome of that scenario would be.

What we as an audience were treated to was the evolution of an athlete and enactment of learned strategy in real time. Lokedi took the race into her own hands and didn’t leave it to chance. If Obiri could, in fact, hang with her, Lokedi would have been able to walk away having tried something new, played her best hand and been beaten in a different fashion. She could go back to the drawing board with new information in search of an even narrower path to victory. But that is not what happened.

Hanging onto Lokedi, Obiri’s high-punching arm swing became even more exaggerated as the the pace took its toll. In an effort to stay close, she clipped Lokedi’s feet multiple times. She was on the ropes. Lokedi still had the energy to gesture to Obiri her displeasure with the contact, motioning with her hand to the side and giving some words while keeping pace. Obiri could not respond.

Daylight appeared between the two around a mile to go and that was all she wrote. Once the gap opened, it only grew. Lokedi turned right on Hereford alone, and then onto Boylston. Covering the final 2 miles at roughly 5:05 pace earned Lokedi not only the win, but the course record- 2:17:22, two and a half minutes faster than the previous.

John Korir gave the family another win, following in his brother Wesley’s footsteps. Wesley won in the blazing heat of 2012 in 2:12:40. John made a decisive move at mile 20 to separate himself from the lead pack and cruise home uncontested. His time of 2:04:45 is the second fastest winning time in the race’s history, thanks to his explosive move in the Newton Hills and to the early efforts of Conner Mantz, who took the opening mile out in 4:37 and the first 5k in 14:20.

Speaking of Mantz, he and his compadre Clayton Young continued their ascension through the leaderboard of World Majors. Prior to this race, Mantz and Young had placed 6 and 7 in Chicago in 2023, 8 and 9 in the Paris Olympics in 2024, and 6 and 7 in New York City last fall. The hope for American fans was that they would break into the top five, and maybe, on a miraculous day, deliver a win. The win did not come to fruition, although Mantz was only 23 seconds from it and a brutal 4 seconds from second place. He grabbed 4th place (2:05:08 PR)- his best finish in a major to date, and Young battled in for 7th (2:07:04 PR), matching his best. Their fellow BYU alum, Rory Linkletter snagged 6th (2:07:02 PR) in a massive breakthrough performance for the Canadian, whose best placing in a major prior to Boston was 15th in NYC last year. The success here, along with their performances is that it will keep the law firm of Mantz and Young hungry. The climb is not over.

Rounding onto Boylston, Young said after the race that Linkletter pulled up beside him and said: “Let’s tango.” That’s the racing spirit.

Jess McClain led all American women into the chute (2:22:43). She finished 7th, with Annie Frisbie close behind ing 8th (2:23:21), Emma Bates in 13th (2:25:10), Dakota Popehn in 16th (2:26:09), Des Linden in 17th (2:26:19), Sara Hall in 18th (2:26:32), Tristin Colley in 19th (2:26:39), and Sara Vaughn in 20th (2:31:07). 8 American women in the top 20.

“I didn’t think I had anything left to prove, anyhow, I just wanted one more good day.” -Des, Nobody Asked Us Podcast

“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth”

-Lou Gehrig, Farewell speech to Yankee Stadium

Des Linden hung up her spurs last weekend when it comes to marathoning.

Sports have an uncanny ability to shrink a lifetime into a few years. Some get more than others. When you’re in it, it is all consuming, a torrent of highs and lows punctuated by the grind of getting there.

And then it’s all over in a flash. Retirement, making some of the fittest individuals on the planet feel old.

Des Linden first ran Boston in 2007. It was her very first marathon. In her 19 year career in the distance, she has fittingly finished the 26.2 mile distance 27 times- an over-achiever. In those bouts, she’s come top 10 16 times. She has come top 5 in 12. She made 2 Olympic teams and raced on 3 continents. Through all of it, Boston became the place that cemented her legacy. Following her maiden voyage in ‘08, she raced there 12 more times. 13 times from Hopkinton. 13 times through Wellesley. 13 times past Heartbreak, and 13 times right on Hereford and left on Boylston. She placed 2nd there twice, and split those silvers with a 4th before winning it all on one of the harshest days in race history in 2018. On April 21st, she announced her retirement from the distance to the world in a full page spread she took out in the Boston Globe. She then ran the fabled distance for the final time on the course where she made her name and catapulted herself to legendary status. She finished in 2:26:19- nearly 2.26.2 on the nose.

One more good day.

As our bodies shrink from their primes and we get ever closer to the grave, that thought will take up more and more real estate in our minds. When you’re a young buck, coming up with the fire to prove something, every race is a career maker. You live by the sword and die by the sword, with the sides of the blade being good days and bad.

It is difficult to fully appreciate the amount of good days in the early days. We tend to be too preoccupied with proving it to fully appreciate the act of floating and the ability to push resilient bodies over and over and over. Those that can grow and navigate the highs and lows eventually get to a place where that is all noise in another room, and you can truly love the process, and then, all you want is to take advantage of the feeling that comes when the angels greet you on a good day.

When you’ve stared into the eyes of the dragon, fought it back and conquered paradise, what a skilled practitioner really wants is not the adulation of the crowd, but to feel the clean swipe of a sharpened sword again, and then to hold onto that feeling of invincibility, because once you leave the garden, you may never come back, at least not to what it was before.

To finish a career on a good day, and leave the garden on your own accord, in bloom rather than staying too long to see it deteriorate is a privilege- not one given, but one earned. To make it to the point in a career like Des has and be able to focus on feeling and execution, and to be disciplined enough to deliver on a good day is to go out on top.

Marathoning, the world of running, sports, our communities and the world as a whole is a Ship of Theseus. It is constantly changing. The people in it change as individuals, and individuals come and go, reshaping the environments we know little by little. Much of it we don’t even notice. Des Linden’s retirement from marathoning brings this reality to the forefront. United States marathoning will be a different place without her, and has become a different place because of her.

On to ultras and the trails.