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Gibb, nevertheless, ran unregistered and finished the 1966 race in three hours, twenty-one minutes, and forty seconds, ahead of two-thirds of the runners. Much later, in 1996, she would be rec ognized by the Boston Athletic Associ ation as the pre-sanctioned era women’s winner in 1966,1967, and 1968. She was the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon. Gibb’s run in 1966 challenged prevalent prejudices and misconceptions about women’s athletic capabilities. In 1967, Gibb, by then a full-time stu dent at the University of California, San Diego, ran again. She finished in three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and sev enteen seconds, almost an hour ahead of Kathrine Switzer, another female competitor who met the same prejudic es as Gibbs. Switzer, who registered for the race using her official AAU registra tion number, paying the entry fee, pro viding a properly acquired fitness certif icate, and signing her entry form with her usual signature ‘K. V. Switzer’, was the first woman to run and finish with a valid official race registration. As a re sult of Switzer’s completion of the race as the first officially registered woman runner, the AAU further enforced its rules to ban women from competing in

at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts. Gibb herself created the statue, being a gifted artist, abstract painter, and sculp turer. The life-size, bronze sculpture de picts Gibb as she crossed the finish line, wearing a pair of her brother’s Bermuda shorts, a bathing suit top, and a pair of men’s running shoes, which caused her feet to badly blister. She molded the face to reflect the pain she felt from her feet and the exhaustion. Gibb received her Bachelor of Sci ence (B.S.) degree from the University of California, San Diego, in 1969, ful filling the pre-medical requirements, with a major in philosophy and a minor in mathematics. She has stated that she was denied admission to medical school because of her gender. She then worked with Professor Jerome Lettvin at MIT on epistemology and color vision while studying law. In 1974, Gibb entered the New England School of Law, re ceiving her Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1978. She worked as a legislative aide in the Massachusetts State Legislature, stud ied natural systems, and pursued her interest in sculpture and painting. She was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1978. While raising her family, she practiced law, specializing in real and

Bobbi Gibb after finishing the 1966 marathon. Her feet were all blistered from wearing mens sneakers.

further races against men. Switzer finished the race despite race official Jock Semple repeatedly assaulting her on the street in an attempt to rip off her race numbers and eject her from the race. She wasn’t going to be stopped. As the daughter of a major in the United States, failure was never an option for her. While studying at Syracuse University, a coach once told her that a “fragile woman” could never run in the Boston Marathon. This only encour aged her further. Undeterred, she trained in secret and entered the race. In 1968, Gibb ran again, finishing in three hours and thirty minutes, first among a growing number of women, which included Carol Ann Pancko, Elaine Pedersen, and Marjorie Fish. In 1969, 1970, and 1971, Sara Mae Berman was the women’s winner, and in 1972, Nina Kuscsik was the winner of the first officially sanctioned wom en’s division event. (Sara Mae Berman and Gibb became fast friends and would go on to have a lasting friendship) In 1996, at the 100th running of the Boston Marathon and the 30th an niversary of Gibb’s first run, the Boston Athletic Association officially rec ognized her three wins in 1966, 1967, and 1968 and finally awarded her a medal. Her name was inscribed with the names of the other winners on the Boston Marathon Memorial in Copley Square. In 2016, Gibb was the grand marshal of that year’s Boston Marathon. That year’s female winner, Atsede Baysa, gave Gibb her trophy; Gibb said that she would go to Baysa’s native Ethiopia in 2017 and return it to her. As it turned out, Baysa came to Boston and Gibb returned the trophy to her at that time. In 2021, a statue of Gibb called “The Girl Who Ran”, depicting her becoming the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon was unveiled

intellectual property. She worked, for part of that time, in patent law. Gibb sculpted the 12-inch bronze figurines of a pony-tailed girl running that were given as trophies to Joan Benoit Samuelson, Julie Brown, and Julie Isphording, the top three women marathoners at the US Olympic trials in 1984. Gibb has written a memoir entitled Wind in the Fire: A Personal Journey and a book titled 26.2 Essays: An Inspiring New World View. A film based on her memoir with the same title was currently in the works. She has been included in Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in the World. In 1982 she was inducted into the Road Runners Club of America Long Distance Running Hall of Fame, and she has been interviewed for news programs and documentaries on ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, and HBO. She was included in the 1999 HBO Sports documentary Dare to Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports. In 2000, she produced a documentary on her art and running entitled Where the Spirit Leads . Gibb received the 2009 Tufts University Athletics Distinguished Achieve ment Award[34] and was inducted into The Sports Museum of New En gland Hall of Fame in 2011. Her Special Achievement Award was presented by Joan Benoit Samuelson at the Sports Museum’s 10th Annual “The Tradi tion” on June 28, 2011. Gibb had a big mission; to overcome prejudice against women in sports. Thanks to her, other women got the courage to stand up and fight for their rights. The woman knows a thing or two about changing history. “If we can do it in Boston,” she told the crowd, “We can do it in the world.”

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