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Bobbi Gibb
Summary
Roberta Louise Gibb (born November 2, 1942) is an American former runner who was the first woman to have run the entire Boston Marathon (1966). She is recognized by the Boston Athletic Association as the pre-sanctioned era women's winner in 1966, 1967, and 1968. At the Boston Marathon, the pre-sanctioned era comprised the years from 1966 through 1971, when women, who under AAU rules could not compete in the Men's Division, ran and finished the race. In 1996 the B.A.A. retroactively recognized as champions the women who finished first in the Pioneer Women's Division Marathon for the years 1966–1971.
Gibb's run in 1966 challenged prevalent prejudices and misconceptions about women's athletic capabilities. In 1967, she finished nearly an hour ahead of Kathrine Switzer. In 1968 Gibb finished first among five women that ran the marathon. It was not until late 1971, pursuant to a petition to the Amateur Athletic Union by Nina Kuscsik, that the AAU changed its rules and began to sanction women's division marathons. Kuscsik won the initial AAU-sanctioned women's division race at Boston in 1972.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gibb grew up in the suburbs of Boston during the 1940s and 1950s. She studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University School of Special Studies. Her father was a professor of chemistry at Tufts. She was already running long distances. Her running included daily commuting of the eight miles to school. She ran in white leather Red Cross nurses' shoes because there were no running shoes available for women at the time.
Before 1966, the longest Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)-sanctioned race for women was one and a half miles. Until 1972, when the first women's division marathon opened, the Boston Marathon was an AAU men's division race. Under the AAU rules, women are not qualified to run in men's division races.
Gibb trained for two years to run the Boston Marathon, covering as much as 40 miles in one day.
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