"But instead, I said, 'All the more reason to run it!' " "At that point, I could have said, 'Well, too bad, I guess I won't run,' " she says. So, after running nearly every day for 700 days, getting married, moving to San Diego and even logging two 30-milers, she was ready for Boston - only to find out that women were banned. Standing enthralled at Mile 13 at Wellesley College as the runners passed by, she made a secret promise to herself: "I will train. She had been training for Boston for two years, ever since she'd watched the 1964 race. "I could run 30 miles at a stretch!" she says.Ī lifelong runner, Gibb ran in the woods as a kid in the Boston suburbs, played field hockey in high school, and ran 7 or 8 miles a day with her cross country-runner boyfriend at Tufts University for no reason other than running made her feel "as free as a bird - such a sense of peace and wholeness and health." Fifty years ago, opportunities for females in the work world and society in general were limited, but in running? Not physiologically able? "Women aren't allowed, and furthermore are not physiologically able."
"This is an AAU Men's Division race only," wrote race director Will Cloney. Instead, she found that her request for an application to that year's Boston Marathon had been denied. In February of 1966, 23-year-old Roberta "Bobbi" Gibb opened her mailbox and eagerly tore open the letter from the Boston Athletic Association, expecting to see her race number.
How Bobbi Gibb changed women's running, and finally got credit for itĮditor's note: This story originally appeared at. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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