Incredible third-place finish for Canada’s Krista DuChene at Boston marathon

Canada's Krista DuChene (@kristaduchene) running for Humboldt, family in #BostonMarathon @jhboston26 https://t.co/dWCkEgHsPH pic.twitter.com/7ai3NFEFeG

— CBC Sports (@cbcsports) April 14, 2018

Canada’s Krista DuChene has placed third at the 122nd running of the Boston marathon earlier today.

Only two women ran faster than DuChene: winner Des Linden and second-place finisher Sarah Sellers, both of the U.S.

It’s probably safe to say she was not expecting to do quite this well. Maybe the Canadian-style weather, with monsoon-like rain and bitterly cold headwinds actually helped. 

And it was like a triumphal return, in a way, since DuChene had run Boston as a 28-year-old, back in 2005. 

Times were considerably slower than is typical for a major marathon today due to the extreme weather conditions. DuChene ran 2:44:20. American Des Linden’s winning time was 2:39:54.

This was the 41-year-old DuChene’s second marathon since joining coach Dave Thomas-Scott and the Speed River Track and Field Club in Guelph, Ont. DuChene was disappointed with her first performance as a master’s (40+) athlete at last year’s London Marathon (2:43:31), but felt well trained going into Boston.

DuChene is the second fastest marathoner in Canadian history (2:28:32, at the 2013 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the same race in which Lanni Marchant broke the Canadian record, which still stands at 2:28:00). She also won the Canadian Marathon Championships in 2016 (the race-within-a-race at STWM.) and was 35th in the 2016 Olympics in Rio (2:35:29).