You've Come a Long Way Baby!



"My boy" Ryan!

"The Boston Marathon" Those three words in the running community conjure up thoughts of hopes longed for, dreams to fulfill, the unforgettable milestones and history. Yet, it's so much more than being swept up in the nostalgia. As anyone knows who has ever qualified or fought to get there, it's the journey to get there that defines you. It becomes apart of your legacy,  its the culmination of miles and miles of sweat, work and perseverance. That comes, with the very least, bragging rights.With the running of the Boston Marathon just days away my thoughts are on running friends who will be there making their own story. I can't wait to read them all!  
 

"Bobbi" Gibb who ran unofficially in 1966 and clocked 3:27:17






Below is an excerpt from a letter written to the BAA by Bobbi Gibb the first woman to run Boston. Her thoughts say it all.

"as my pace dropped
the last two miles seemed interminable
I began to feel like a failure
and this is where I learned
the real meaning of fortitude,
to keep on in the face of disappointment,
to continue to do your best even when others are passing you. To see your hopes crushed and yet to continue. This is why I have as much respect for those who run and do not finish first as I have for the ones whose strength, endurance and training brings them first place"

"I appreciate the people who quietly and privately go about their lives and running without the thought or possibility of winning marathons, but whose balance, courage, and perseverance is heroic, perhaps more so for being unnoticed and unacclaimed. People, ordinary people, are extraordinary, whether given credit or not. Is the mountain flower less beautiful because it blooms unnoticed? I think not"

 

Disco was just going out of style, Jimmy Carter was president and a pair of famous New Englanders took first in the Boston Marathon. The year was 1979.