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Each autumn since she became a professional marathoner, Desiree Linden has raced on the flat surfaces of Chicago or Berlin, or started her way back after the World Championships in late summer, or, after the 2012 Olympics, coped with the one serious injury of her life.

The one thing she hasn’t done is the New York City Marathon.

“I didn’t necessarily feel I was ready for it,” she told Runner’s World Newswire this week.

Linden, formerly Davila, is best known for her second-place 2:22:38, two seconds behind the winner, at the 2011 Boston Marathon, and for another second at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. After her 2:23:54 in Boston this past April – good for just tenth place in the deepest women’s finish in the race’s history – she’s a solid favorite to be the first American woman finisher in New York on November 2.

Desi Linden runs in the 2014 Boston Marathon. Robert James Reese

Linden, 31, has eagerly anticipated taking on New York’s challenging course, and the hills of its second half, for a long time.

“But I feel when I was starting out it was more about learning the event, learning about how to cover the last 10K, learning how to compete on the way in,” she said. Linden and her coaches thought those matters could be better learned on easier courses.

What’s more, in New York City, “it’s an all-women’s start,” Linden said. “If you’re not ready to run with that front group, it’s going to be a lonely day. I wanted to be ready for that before I headed over there.”

With the training she’s done since her 2:23:54 in Boston, Linden feels she’s further along in her efforts to regain her form of 2011 after struggling with the femoral stress fracture that knocked her out of the 2012 Olympic Marathon after a couple of miles.

“Coming off that injury you miss a lot of time,” Linden said. “We’ve spent a lot of time rebuilding that and I think it’s finally coming along.”

Linden credits Phoenix-based chiropractor John Ball with helping her regain world-class form.

“He’s been able to work out a lot of the scar tissue that was kind of holding me back," she said. "My stride feels a lot more normal. I feel like going into Boston, I was kind of fighting against myself at times with hip tightness and things like that. I feel really smooth right now.”

Gauging her capabilities for New York City, Linden said, “I would love to be top five, top three. You can’t control the field. But I’m pretty dialed in to 5:30 [per mile] marathon pace. That translates to 2:24 and change, maybe. Which is respectable on the New York course. It puts you in the hunt.”

Joining Shalane Flanagan in the quest to become the next U.S. woman to break 2:20 might have to wait until after the 2016 Olympics.

“When you start counting backwards [in terms of available marathons prior to the Olympics], the chances are pretty limited," Linden said. "The goals are getting on the team, one; try and get a medal, two; and then you start worrying about PRs and stuff after that.”

Linden would like to race on the track in 2015 as part of her return to world-class running. Her best track season, when she ran 15:08 for 5000 meters and 31:37 for 10,000, came in 2011, months after her runner-up finish in Boston. That track speed “is something I’ll have to get back to, especially if I land on that Rio team,” she said. In the marathon, “if you want to be looking at the medal, you have to be able to run semi-quick.”

For years, Linden has been the one world-class female runner in the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project in Michigan. That could change by the next Olympics.

“We just got a new crew in," Linden said. "Katie Kellner is running really well on roads. She’s out of Cornell,” where she was an Ivy League 10,000-meter champion. “Megan Goethals, a Rochester [Michigan] superstar, just joined up” after a college career at the University of Washington. “They’re in this adaptation process where they’re getting training partners who can push hard every day. If they can stay healthy, both of those two could be pretty incredible.”

Linden evinces a calm equanimity that she manages to convert to competitive ferocity once the starting gun goes off. An altitude-training stint in Kenya before Boston this year may have bolstered her psychologically as much as physically.

“The trip came at a good time," Linden said. "It got me excited about running again. You’re with this culture and these people who absolutely love it.

“There’s no special trick to what they’re doing. It’s just running. It’s nice to know you just have to keep putting in the work. They’re doing the same thing we’re doing here. It takes time.”

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