The Boston Marathon is a beloved part of Boston history, holding the title of the world’s oldest annual marathon since its inception in 1897. From only 18 local entrants in its first year, the marathon has grown to nearly 32,000 entrants in the 2025 race — and almost half of them identify as women.
Despite their high participation, women have only been allowed to compete since 1972.
The trailblazers’ names are on posters, t-shirts and books displayed throughout the city during marathon festivities: Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Gibb, the first woman to complete the full marathon in 1966 when she snuck onto the course in her brother’s clothes; Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the marathon with official registration after she entered using her initials to avoid being detected as a woman; and Joan Benoit, who held the fastest time by an American woman for 28 years after beating the all-gender competition record by over eight minutes in 1979 and later went on to be the first American woman to win the Olympic marathon.
Their heroism and confidence has inspired female athletes and fans for decades, but their initial exclusion is not forgotten.
“When Kathrine Switzer, when Bobbi Gibb, even Joan Benoit, when they were at their peak, running, it wasn’t common. Women didn’t go out and run in the streets. When Kathrine Switzer registered for the Boston Marathon under her initials, at the time, there was still science saying that if women ran more than a mile, they would have their uterus fall out,” said Crystal Chinea, who will be running her third Boston Marathon April 21.
Chinea purchased Switzer’s 2009 book “Marathon Woman” after listening to her speak at the marathon expo in Hynes Convention Center and said it inspired her during her training. Originally from Fort Worth, Texas, Chinea said runners like Switzer were role models to her growing up.
“Where I grew up, at that time … it was common for men to tell you what you couldn’t do because that’s what they were taught. So [running marathons] meant breaking out of that mold and showing people what I’m capable of doing,” Chinea said. “Now, women running marathons isn’t a big deal. Even when I was younger, it wasn’t a big deal. But in my community, it was something that people told me I couldn’t do. Some people thought it was insane, crazy, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m gonna do it then.’”
Now that women running marathons has become the norm, Chinea said female runners have more opportunities to inspire other women like her. “We have a bigger power to inspire [others],” Chinea said. “[Both] the people that I look up to and running itself have really taught me that.”
Patricia Soden, a 63-year-old nurse manager who traveled to Boston from Florida, witnessed the increase of female marathon runners first-hand.
“The community of women here [in Boston] is wonderful. I see a lot of women running today and the number of women runners that are doing the Boston Marathon is increasing every year,” Soden said. “There are definitely a lot more [women at the marathon] right now because there is not a fear anymore… Now, they can do any marathon.”
Soden herself is part of Boston Marathon history. She is one of the 119 members of the Boston Quarter Century Club who have run 25 or more consecutive Boston Marathons. She first qualified for the Boston Marathon in 1993 and has raced every year since — a total of 32 races. After the passing of her husband Bert this year, a fellow runner who inspired her to qualify for her first Boston Marathon, Soden said she will run her final Boston Marathon in his honor.
“This year means that I’m still able to do [the marathon] no matter what, and I’m doing it to honor my husband,” Soden said. “It was so important for him to do the Boston Marathon that being here one more time for my 32nd means the most to me.”
But not all of the Boston Marathon’s history is uplifting. During the 2013 marathon, two homemade bombs were detonated near the finish line, killing three and injuring over 500 in the largest terrorist attack on United States soil since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. In an interview with CBS News five days after the bombing, Soden said she crossed the finish line a mere four minutes before the bombs were detonated.
Susan Griffith, an orthopedic surgeon from Doylestown, Pa., first ran the Boston Marathon in 2012 and was pleased to finish with a time that qualified her to return. She had no idea that the following year would be remembered as one of the deadliest tragedies in state history.
“When I ran Boston in 2013, I ran a great time. It was a beautiful day, perfect conditions for running. I came out of the gates and I felt great the entire time… but right after I finished the marathon, there was a lot of turmoil, a lot of things going on,” Griffith said.
Griffith recalled significant police presence as she walked back from picking up her bag of extra gear. At 2:49 p.m., she heard loud noises that she first assumed were signal cannons, which are sometimes set off during races to mark the start or end of an event. She asked a nearby spectator about the noises, who said it was most likely a simple gas line explosion. Her husband, who had been waiting in a department store less than 500 feet from where one of the bombs had detonated, asked a nearby police officer what had happened. The officer confirmed that a device had been detonated.
Griffith and her husband rushed to their hotel just in time for the building to be completely closed off. Confused and shaken, Griffith said she was bombarded with calls from loved ones as reports of the attack began to spread despite cell service being shut down in Boston for fear of cell phone detonators.
“I didn’t know what happened. I still thought it was just this gas line thing, so I was sitting there [in the hotel] and everybody was calling our cell phones to find out if we were okay,” Griffith said. “My family was calling and I had no idea why. In Boston, everyone, even the media, was silent about everything. So everybody else in the country knew about stuff before we knew about it.”
After returning to Pennsylvania the following day, Griffith learned that another runner in the marathon, a friend from high school, had been struck by shrapnel from the second device. The runner was on the schedule at Griffith’s orthopedic surgery practice and Griffith was tasked with extracting the metal shards of the bomb lodged in her friend’s calf muscle.
“I actually removed the shrapnel from her leg the following day,” Griffith said. “The FBI was there in the room with me, so when I removed the shrapnel, I put it in a container and then they took it off to be part of the evidence.”
Merely two days after the procedure, Griffith and her friend made a powerful decision that would make Boston Marathon history: The year after the bombing, they would run in Boston again.
“We ended up running, the two of us, for the next marathon. We ran together for at least half of it, and we raised money for Shriners Hospitals for Children, for kids that were amputees,” Griffith said, referring to the 16 victims who lost limbs in the explosion.
Griffith went on to run the Boston Marathon a total of four times, up until 2016. Despite the traumatic memory of the bombing, she said the atmosphere and history of the event kept her coming back.
“[2013] was obviously the most memorable time, but it’s a great marathon. When you’re there, the history of the marathon carries through. … Every person in Boston is a fan that day, and it’s just wonderful. I have nothing but good things to say about running the Boston Marathon,” Griffith said.
Griffith also said that now that women in distance running is normalized, running marathons has offered her space to cope with stress and feel confident.
“It’s a way that women tend to cope with the stresses of motherhood or working, and I’m a little bit of both,” Griffith said. “But also, I don’t feel awkward with it. There are certain things in my life that have been awkward — like I’m part of the 2% of female orthopedic surgeons. There’s a sisterhood there with my work because we’re working with men all the time, because we’re the zebra. But I’ve never felt that when I’m running in events, not ever.”
Vaidehi Patel, a third-year health science major at Valparaiso University, will run her first-ever Boston Marathon and first major marathon April 21. She said running has offered her an escape from the stress of studies and life, and she had hoped to run the Boston Marathon before graduate school.
“I wanted to do [the Boston Marathon] before grad school because that’s when I’ll have to focus, and I’ll have less time for running. That was my goal. And then luckily, I made the time and was able to qualify for it,” Patel said. “Running is an escape pretty much from everything that’s going on. Campus life, all my work between my jobs and school as well as other things. It’s my time to detach.”
Patel said she finds inspiration in the confidence women running the marathon before her had.
“Males are naturally faster, so for some people, it’s easy to say, ‘This dude can run this or this, he’s so much faster than me.’ But it’s the same race course and women can do it too. You see all these women breaking records like Benoit. We have that in us. It’s not like we don’t,” Patel said.
As race day approaches, Patel said her main goal beyond winning is simple: to enjoy the experience of a race with over 100 years of history.
“It’s my first big marathon, so I told myself that if all fails, I know what I’m able to do, and I’ll do the best I can knowing that I put all my training out there on the course,” Patel said. “If I get too tired, I’ll just run with my heart and take in the experience Boston has to provide.”
Editors note: This article was updated April 22 at 8:28 a.m. to remove the name of Susan Griffith’s patient. The News regrets including her name, which was not directly disclosed to the reporter but was previously reported on by other outlets.
