“When you’re running, you don’t have to think about what your boss wants you to do that day. You’re free. You feel the energy of the universe blowing through you.”
Bobbi Gibb
My next marathon is coming up, and surprise, surprise… I’m reading a new book about running: The Running Ground by Nicholas Thompson.
It’s too early to give a verdict on the book (enjoying it so far), but there is a chapter early on devoted to the story of the first-ever woman to (unofficially) run the Boston Marathon that was surprisingly excellent.
Her name was Bobbi Gibb.
While the story of her “entering” and running the marathon itself is legendary, her path leading there was equally impressive. She essentially traveled across the entire country, from the east coast to the west, exploring and running everywhere she went, camping outside with only the company of her dog, until reaching the Pacific and jumping in. From then on, running took on a greater meaning.
Here is a summary of the day she ran the race from Wikipedia:
Gibb trained for two years to run the Boston Marathon, covering as much as 40 miles in one day.
On writing for an application in February 1966, she received a letter from the race director, Will Cloney, informing her that women were not physiologically capable of running marathon distances and that under the rules that governed amateur sports set out by the AAU, women were not allowed to run more than a mile and a half competitively.
On the morning of Patriots’ Day, April 19, 1966, her mother dropped her off at the start in Hopkinton. Wearing her brother’s Bermuda shorts and a blue hooded sweatshirt over a black, tanked-top swim suit, she hid in the bushes near the starting pen.
After the starting gun fired, she waited until about half the pack had started and then jumped into the race.
The men soon realized that she was a woman.
Encouraged by their friendliness and support, she removed her sweatshirt.
To her delight and relief, the crowds cheered to see a woman running.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
