The 116th Boston Marathon: Scorching Endurance

olive branches was given to the winner. In the 1980s, however, runners refused to run the race without a cash prize, thus the implementation of prize money in 1986. This year, the winners received a cash prize of $150,000 apiece.

    Until 1972, women were not officially allowed to enter the race because it was believed that they were physiologically unable to run these distances. Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb is recognized as the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon in 1966. She did so disguised as a man by wearing her brother’s Bermuda shorts and a blue hooded sweatshirt. She hid in the bushes near the starting point and started running only after half of the runners had begun. During the race, the men realized that she was a woman, but the crowds cheered her on and she completed the race ahead of 290 of the event’s 415 starters.

    Forty years later, men and women of all ages braved the heat and the long distance to complete what was surely was a race to remember.