I’m of the view that running is often misunderstood, usually viewed through the lens of social media, paces, splits and PRs. The data we consume almost always falls short of the full scope of what we go through as athletes.
Last night at an event with Des Linden, hosted by NY Custom PT, this thought was amplified. Interviewed by the very handsome Stephen Alan Wilson, Des skipped the stats and dropped truth bombs for over an hour. She provided a perspective not always heard of the woman who won Boston in perhaps the most torrential weather that race has ever seen.
Her win in Boston earlier this year is indeed what many people know her for. And that’s not unreasonable given she ran 26.2 miles in 2:39:54, through 37 degree (Fahrenheit for the avoidance of doubt!) temps, 25mph headwind all while the skies dropped several inches of freezing rain, in a race where a whopping 4.2 percent honorably pulled out, in large part due to the elements.
In preparation for photographing the evening alongside the very talented Jody Bailey (@run_photographs), I read a number of articles on Des. Not surprisingly, the focus was on stats with an occasional reference to her Midwest training background. For those in attendance, the stats were truly unnecessary.
All that seemed to matter both to Des and the audience was her mental attitude during the many years of her career, how she pushed through the ups and downs, her resolute commitment to supporting her team, fellow female runners and our wider running community.
I left the evening in awe of the person who let us into her mind and hopefully a little clearer about why I run, why I signed up for the NYC Marathon, run this company and why I'm a part of this community. It wasn't recorded on Strava, but the evening definitely happened!
It was an honor to photograph this event. The pictures in this album come from both myself and Jody Bailey. Please feel free to use and share! We only ask that you tag both @baklinerunning and @run_photographs on Instragam. And ya know, give us both a follow if you haven't already!
I will lead by example! The cover photo of this post is from Jody Bailey of @run_photographs.
(Note: The ~215 photos may take a few seconds to load. Here is a direct link to Flickr album in case you're having trouble.)
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