Free Republic

There are a lot of things that make Desiree Linden’s victory at the 2018 Boston Marathon a race story for the ages. There’s the headline you’ve been seeing everywhere: She’s the first American woman to win the race in over three decades! And if you saw even a single picture taken on Marathon Monday, you know that she ran in some of the worst weather in the race’s history. (In case you didn’t, here are 15 pictures that captured the 2018 Boston Marathon.)Then, there’s the comeback component: Linden was two seconds away from victory at the 2011 Boston Marathon, and...

Shalane Flanagan became the first American woman to win the New York City Marathon on Sunday since 1977, pulling away from Mary Keitany in the last three miles of the race for her first major marathon victory. Keitany had won three straight New York marathons, but Flanagan pulled away from the Kenyan great with about three miles to go and finished with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 26 minutes, 53 seconds, about a minute faster than Keitany. The last American woman to win New York was Miki Gorman, who won consecutive titles in 1976-77.