All those kids get to know each other, and they go on to college and championships, and they’re going to get the contracts, and I was always kind of on the fringe of that. Probably starts with the Foot Locker days. Did you just always have impostor syndrome? You wrote that you always felt like an outsider among the elite runners, even after making two Olympic teams and nearly winning Boston in 2011. That validation was a little bit more important than having a calendar full of appearances. But for self-satisfaction and an accomplishment in my field and feeling like I’ve contributed in a way that felt meaningful and validated being a professional runner in the first place, yes. I still live in the same places, and take care of the dogs. Did finally winning in 2018 change your life? You used to sit in your hotel room on the morning of the Boston Marathon and think your life might be totally different if you could return to that space a few hours later as a champion. Professional athletics is not exactly the healthiest thing in the world. I think your overall health and well-being is the most important thing. Has your perspective on your behavior changed? You put yourself in some danger by not dealing with a serious medical condition and resisting medication. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Last month, one day after she finished as the top American at the New York City Half-Marathon, she talked about life and running. Linden, 39, who will run Boston for the 10th time on Monday, plans to try to make her third Olympic team next year. In her recently published memoir, “Choosing to Run,” the only American woman to win the Boston Marathon this century writes about that race, the up-and-down years leading up to it and her battles with hyperthyroidism, which she ignored for a dangerously long time and was still adjusting to when the gun sounded in Hopkinton in 2018.

That win is her legacy, even though she hates that word. When she did so in the frozen deluge of 2018, in a race she had planned to drop out of in the early miles, it was all the sweeter. It made her want to win the race one day even more, which did not seem possible, because she had wanted it so badly for years. She did some television commentary, went for a jog and was in her hotel room when the bombs went off. Injuries kept Des Linden out of the Boston Marathon in 2013.

Choosing to run des linden