F40-44 at Boston 2025: Desiree Linden Wins the Age Group in 2:26:19

• Linden takes it in 2:26:19 (5:35/mi), edging Sara Hall by 13 seconds in a race that came down to the final miles between two of the fastest women in the F40-44 field.
• Hall's 2:26:32 included the 7th-fastest women's split on the 20K–Half segment, a stretch where she held gender position 16th — but Linden's stronger second half, featuring the 7th-fastest women's split from Half to 25K, proved decisive.
• Sharon Cherop ran 2:34:47 for 3rd, flashing early speed (15th-fastest women's split on the 5K–10K segment) before fading from 10th among women to 30th by the finish — a textbook front-loaded effort.
• Stephanie Bruce closed in 2:36:09 with the 8th-fastest women's split on the final push from 25.2M to the finish, moving from 41st among women back to 36th — the strongest finishing kick in the top five.

The headline story in the F40-44 group is a 13-second duel between Desiree Linden and Sara Hall, both averaging 5:35/mi across 26.2 miles on Patriots' Day in Boston. Linden, running from Michigan, made her decisive move in the back half — her Half-to-25K split ranked 7th among all women in the race, and she steadily climbed from 22nd among women at the half to 17th by the finish. Hall, based in Arizona, was the stronger runner through the early-to-middle stretch, posting the 7th-fastest women's split between 20K and the half, but couldn't quite hold the gap when it mattered most.

Behind them, the race told a different story. Sharon Cherop arrived with early aggression — sitting 10th among women through the first 10K — but the pace caught up with her, and she crossed in 2:34:47 for 3rd, having dropped to 30th in the women's field by the tape. Keira D'Amato (2:35:57, 4th) and Stephanie Bruce (2:36:09, 5th) were separated by just 12 seconds, with Bruce's late charge — the 8th-fastest women's closing split in the field — nearly swallowing D'Amato in the final mile.

Rena Elmer (6th, 2:37:48) and Kate Bazeley (7th, 2:39:33) rounded out a strong top seven, all finishing under 2:40. Melissa Perlman brought it home in 2:42:28 for 8th, while Amber Thielbar (2:53:05, 10th), April Lund (2:53:24, 11th), and Dianne Fisher (2:53:41, 12th) formed a tight cluster separated by just 36 seconds across three places — a quietly competitive battle playing out well behind the leaders in a field of 1,718 F40-44 finishers.