Celebration Running Pioneer: Bobbi Gibb

Celebrating the Early Women Pioneers of Long Distance Running

Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb: The First Lady of Boston

Running History: April 19, 1966

Roberta Bingay age 23 becomes the first women ever to finish the Boston Marathon. Her time was 3:21:40 finishing in 126th place out of 415 starters.

 From 1966 through 1971, women were banned from entering the Boston Marathon because of their gender. In 1996 the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) retroactively recognized as champions the women who finished first in the Pioneer Women’s Division Marathon for the years 1966 – 1971.Bobbi Gibb won this division also in 1967 (3:27:17) and 1968 (3:30:00).

Bobbi grew up in the suburbs of Boston and watched the 1964 Boston Marathon with her father. She felt the following after viewing: “I felt I had discovered an ancient, lost, yet civilized world of runners. They were in sync with the most primitive human traits. They seemed so natural, so graceful, like animals. That afternoon something inside me decided that I was going to run the Boston Marathon someday. It was like an instinctual edict from my soul.”

 After the race she met the press and said the following:

“I told them that I simply loved to run, and that I didn’t run the marathon to threaten anyone. I did it because I wanted to change the perception that women couldn’t do it. I said I thought women could be feminine and strong and athletic at the same time.”

 Bobbi Gibb would set her marathon personal record at the 1982 New York Marathon of 3:19:48 at the age of 39.

 Source: First Ladies of Running