Lisa Rainsberger answered the phone in her Colorado Springs home a second or two after Desi Linden crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon Monday morning and said, “I’m crying.”

When Linden hit the tape on Boylston Street and won America’s most iconic road race, Rainsberger was no longer “the last American woman to win the Boston Marathon,” but her tears were joyful ones. Rainsberger, who won Boston on a hot day in 1985 and beat the second-place woman by eight minutes, was thrilled to shed the distinction that set her apart in the sport.

“I couldn’t be happier for Desi,” said Rainsberger, a longtime coach in Colorado Springs whose daughter, Katie, was a 10-time Colorado state champion for Air Academy and is now a sophomore at track powerhouse Oregon. “It’s just going to be a great statement for the future of all our little girls who are growing up, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a runner.’ She is gutsy, she’s a bourbon drinker, she’s a beer drinker, she’s a blue-collar girl, she’s living in Michigan. It doesn’t get any better than that.

“I can’t even think right now, I’m just so happy for her.”

Conditions in Boston were miserable with temperatures hovering near 40 degrees and rain pelting runners, sometimes in sheets driven by an easterly wind that fought the runners all the way from Hopkinton. Linden won despite doing something remarkable, slowing down in the middle of the race when American star Shalane Flanagan stepped off the course for a potty break and waiting for Flanagan to catch up before ramping back up to race pace. Flanagan won the New York City Marathon last year, becoming the first American woman to win it since 1977.

Linden and Flanagan were marathon teammates at the past two Olympics.

“Oh my gosh, I respect her so much for doing that,” Rainsberger said of Linden’s support of Flanagan. “Who does that, really? But Shalane was a winner of New York, and Desi was smart to go, ‘OK, I’m going to stay with her, I’m going to help her, we’re going to work together.’ ”

Now Rainsberger no longer has to face questions about why Americans can’t win at Boston. Meb Keflezighi, a naturalized American from Eritrea, became the first American man to win since 1983 when he won in 2014.

“It’s a very valid question, and it’s one that used to be asked a lot,” Rainsberger said. “Initially I kind of liked having it, I liked the tagline of saying I was the last American to win the Boston Marathon. But then it started to get ridiculous, because then I would have to start to make excuses. I’d have to say, ‘Well, it’s not because the Americans can’t win, it’s not because we’re not capable.’ Then you’d have to explain the whole drug (doping) scene, why Americans aren’t winning.

“It got to be a real negative thing, it became making excuses. In the past couple of years, the sport has gotten cleaner. And I think with this win today, it’s going to continue to put it out in the open that you can do it clean.”