This article is part of Outside Run’s complete 2023 Boston Marathon race coverage.
Bobbi Gibb hopes people are inspired to do what they love when they see her sculptures, many of which feature women running. From an early age, the 80-year-old artist has always embraced what she loves to do, even in the face of opposition.
In 1966, Gibb became the first woman to unofficially run the Boston Marathon. After getting a letter of rejection from race organizers, who told her “women are not physiologically able to run marathon distances,” Gibb hid in the bushes near the start in Hopkinton, jumped in, and ran anyway.
In the year leading up to the race, Gibb trained herself while traveling across the country in her van, sometimes running up to 40 miles at a time. She saw the Boston Marathon as an opportunity to change perceptions of women, who were then discouraged from having careers, let alone running in public.
“I figured, if I could prove this false belief about women running, I could throw into question all the other false beliefs,” Gibb told Women’s Running. “If a woman can run a marathon, what else can she…
