Running Shorts

Des Linden to visit Winston-Salem for Twin City Track Club's Frosty Fifty, Winter Seminar

Eddie Wooten -

Des Linden, the American running legend, will run in the Twin City Track Club's Frosty Fifty 25K and will be the speaker at the club's winter seminar Jan. 7 in Winston-Salem.

The Frosty Fifty's 25K, 50K and relay will start at 7:55 a.m. Jan. 7. Registration is open; click here to learn more and to sign up.

Linden will be the guest at a mix-and-mingle session, which will include a bourbon tasting, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. that afternoon at the Salem Lake Marina, then will speak from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Innovation Quarter in downtown Winston-Salem. Ticket prices are $50 for the meet-and-greet and $25 for the seminar, with track club members receiving $5 discounts off each. There's also a discount for selecting both events. Click here to learn more and to sign up.

Linden, 39, who scored a Boston Marathon victory in 2018 in a remarkable run through heavy rain and into a strong headwind, will race Sunday in the New York City Marathon.

Linden's memoir, "Choosing to Run" with author Bonnie D. Ford, is due in April, and her story will cover her rise in the sport and her Boston victory, the first by an American woman in 33 years.

“It’s my relationship with the sport and my place in professional running, which I don’t think is a traditional path by any means,” Linden, told Runner’s World's Sarah Lorge Butler in August.

Linden, a 5-foot force of nature, competed in the marathon at the 2012 Olympics in London and took seventh place in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro. She also has runner-up finishes at the Chicago Marathon in 2010 and in Boston in 2011, coming up just short of winner Caroline Kilel in the latter. Linden also has run a women's world-best for 50K in 2:59:54.

“Like, I’m actually pretty talented," she told The Athletic in 2018 after the Boston win, "but if my success gives people a reason to believe in themselves, then, OK, I’m good with whatever they want to call me.”

Linden has endeared herself to the running world for her love of bourbon; her spirit on Twitter; and her passion for pro sports, notably baseball's San Diego Padres.

Linden's run in the Triad will be her first. But she already has a relationship developed with BOA Nutrition, a North Carolina-based endurance nutrition company whose CEO, Jon Pritchett, works in Winston-Salem's Innovation Quarter.

Linden, a San Diego native and an Arizona State alum, also will continue the club's tradition of attracting national guests for its seminar. Past visitors have included Bill Rodgers, who won the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon four times each; Frank Shorter, the last American man to win the Olympic marathon; Olympian and run-walk advocate Jeff Galloway; South African Olympian Zola Budd Pieterse; Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray; and Olympian Abbey D'Agostino Cooper. The club has also hosted Donnie Cowart, a Winston-Salem resident, sub-four-minute-miler and marathon runner, and Olympian Blake Russell, a Winston-Salem native.

Abbey D’Agostino Cooper: Putting her heart on the line
Abbey D’Agostino Cooper, the 2016 Olympian who nearly made the team for Tokyo in 2021 after a series of injuries, visits the Twin City Track Club for its Winter Seminar. Here’s what she had to say.
Running ShortsEddie Wooten

Linden's run in New York City on Sunday will be captured in ESPN's coverage airing from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on ESPN2. The broadcast also will be available via the ESPN App on smartphones, tablets and connected streaming devices and ESPN.com on computers with subscriptions from affiliated pay-TV providers.

The Frosty Fifty weekend again will include racing on two days:

• Night 5K, 5:30 p.m. Jan. 6

• 25K (15.5 miles, two 12.5K loops), 50K (31 miles, four 12.5K loops) and Gwyn's Grace 50K Relay (four-person teams, 12.5K loops), 7:55 a.m. Jan. 7.

A list of previous Twin City Track Club winter seminar speakers (visor tip to the club's Er Ralston for the information):

2022: Abbey D'Agostino Cooper

2020: Donnie Cowart and Sarah Rapp

2019: Dave McGillivray

2018: Pete Rea, Nicole DiMercurio and Joe Stilin

2017: Mark Remy

2016: Bill Rodgers

2015: Uta Pippig

2014: Zola Budd

2013: Jack Daniels

2012: Bart Yasso

2011: Gary Allen

2010: Dick Beardsley

2009: Blake Russell

2008: Frank Shorter

2007: Zika Palmer

2006: Jeff Galloway

2005: Andrea Fisher

2004: Joan Nesbit Mabe

2003: Mike Esposito

2002: Joe Rubio

2001: Noel Ruebel

2000: Don Kardong

1999: Keith Brantly

1998: Gordon Bakoulis

1997: Mark Conover

1996: Hal Higdon

1995: Jack Daniels (with last minute stand-in John Dunkelberg)

1994: Roy Benson

1993: Joe Henderson

1992: Wayne Cannon & Robin Tanner

1991: Jim Young

1990: John and Francie Goodridge

1989: Bill Harmon

1988: Bill Harmon