Cake of the Week: Boston Cream Pie

Well here I am back again, for my sixth (and final!) academic year in Boston. Though this city is small, it is somehow big city famous for a number of things, most notably cold, colleges, clam chowder, the Charles, cannoli, and Boston Cream Pie. 

Until a couple weeks ago, however, I had never tried the city's signature dessert! (Except in undergrad dining hall, which is obviously not a great example of anything.) So for our innagural Wednesday dinner party of the semester, RoommateRachel made clam chowder and I experimented with pastry cream and made what I must say was a de-freaking-licious Boston Cream Pie, following the classic Omni Parker House Recipe. 

Let's talk about this "pie" for a bit, as it is confusing. First things first, Boston Cream Pie is not a pie at all. It is a two-layer sponge cake filled with pastry cream and covered in chocolate ganache. It originated at what was then the Parker House in downtown Boston in 1856. And here's a fun fact: the Boston Cream Pie has been distinguished as Massachusetts’ official state dessert over Toll House Cookies and the Fig Newton. That's some pretty stiff competition!

This recipe constituted a few firsts for me: my first sponge cake, and my first pastry cream. Both turned out excellent. The sponge cake is shockingly simple and really delicious -- just some eggs and flour and sugar. And the pastry cream, OH THE PASTRY CREAM. That is all.

Some notes about the recipe: since I have to work with the pans I have, instead of making the cake in a 10-inch pan (who has that??), I did two layers in 9-inch pans. Also, the original recipe made about twice as much pastry cream than was needed. The recipe below is adapted to be what you should do. The original recipe I adapted from is here.

Boston Cream Pie

Sponge Cake:

• 7 eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons butter

Pastry Cream:

• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup light cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon dark rum (or vanilla)

Chocolate Ganache:

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup light cream
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds for garnish

Directions:

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Separate egg yolks and whites in large bowls. Add ½ of the sugar to each bowl. Beat the whites until stiff peaks form, and beat the yolks until they look light in color. 
3. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture. Gradually fold in flour with a spatula. Fold in the butter. Pour this mixture into two 9-inch round greased cake pans. 
4. Bake  for about 20 minutes, or until spongy and golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool fully.
5. For the pastry cream: In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the butter, milk, and light cream to a boil. 
6. While this mixture is cooking, combine the sugar, cornstarch and eggs in a bowl and whip thoroughly. 
7. When the cream, milk, butter mixture reaches the boiling point, slowly whisk in the egg mixture and cook to boiling. Boil for one minute. 
8. Pour into a bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap. Chill overnight if possible. When chilled, whisk in 1 tsp. dark rum or vanilla. 
9. For the ganache: once cake and pastry cream are completely cool, immediately before assembling the cake, heat cream in the microwave until it's very hot but not boiling. Add in chocolate chips and let sit for one minute. Stir until smooth.
10. Assembly: This one's pretty straight-forward. Spread pastry cream in a thick layer on top of the first cake. Top with the second cake. Spread ganache over the top and sprinkle the top and sides with slivered almonds. The cake will look messy. It's supposed to. And trust me, no one will care. 

Weekend Report: Jess Gets Married!

This weekend key components of BU Cross Country and Track reconvened in Boston for the super-exciting long-awaited event of Jess and Zac's wedding!

Back story: They met in February 2006 at the Valentine Invitational Indoor Track Meet (let's take a moment: awwwwww), and have been dating pretty much ever since. We were all there when it started (Jess: What do you think of that UMass boy over there? Introduce me!), and I'm happy to report that many of us were there to celebrate with them this weekend.

The center pieces involved vegetables, well duh.

This is the 4th BU runner wedding, and as always, it was SO MUCH FUN! Teammates came from Colorado, New Hampshire, Texas, and Toronto -- people need to keep getting married so we can all see each other more often...

I happen to find myself in the position of sole Boston(ish) local (besides Jess and Zac of course), so my house is the guest house! Amy arrived from Colorado and John from DC on Friday night. We went to dinner at Redbones, a well-reviewed barbecue place in Davis Square that definitely lives up to the hype!

Oh hello Pulled Pork Sandwich!

Then Saturday morning Abbey came in from Colorado on a red-eye before we met up with Camille (from Texas, representing the non-distance runner side of the team) to all drive to Amherst. 

The weather was perfect and they had a beautiful ceremony outside...

...followed by an awesome dance party reception inside that may or many not have involved jumping up and down like crazy people for five hours straight, fueled by regular trips to the Candy Bar and Dessert Table.

Jess looked beyond beautiful of course. And considering that she and I email and text pretty much constantly, I feel like I have been IN her and Zac's relationship since the beginning. So excited for them!

And though the wedding may have ended Saturday night, the weekend of fun continued through Sunday! A group of us headed back to Boston to take advantage of the glorious weather downtown. 

We got pizza at Upper Crust, walked to the Harbor, walked all the way to the Bunker Hill Monument along the Freedom Trail (Why? Because why not?), and then hit up Border's in Harvard Square, just for old time's sake. It was a pretty epic and awesome day. 

Amy and Abbey, back in their natural habitat.

Weekends like this make me so happy to be back in Boston, and so sooo happy to have such silly friends! Also, again (how many times can I say this in this post?) SO HAPPY FOR JESS AND ZAC!

Weekend Report: Running from Somerville

As my last post implied, my first couple weeks of grad school have been a bit rough. But what is the best way to deal with problems, from academically-induced stress to homesickness to group project frustration to it's-too-hot-to-sleep tiredness to eww-I-have-to-make-new-friends anxiety? Running well duh!

So on Tuesday night I decided to run a route I knew would remind me that a) I live in Boston, and b) I like Boston. My old routes (from college) are all Allston/BU-based and quite the hike from where I live now, but there is some middle ground along the Charles River.

This is not my bike, but it's the best picture I could find of the view I was going for.

Running "River" makes me feel like cross country (yes, that is an emotion) and reminds me of some of my best (and worst) college running experiences. Ugh I can distinctly remember barely hanging on as my teammates picked up the pace and picked up the pace and picked up the pace in an impromptu race along the bike path that no one acknowledged but everyone knew was happening but no one was going to be the girl to say let's slow down. Clearly freshman Mollie was dying and falling off the back. Silently. But I also associate River with the most beautiful fall and spring days and feeling fast and awesome as we sped past all the casual joggers.

The stretch between Harvard Square and the BU bridge is definitely not the most scenic stretch of the bike path, but it offers views of rowers and water (well duh) and you run through some very green riverside parks along the way, so it's not too bad!

Just getting to the river took me 20 minutes (2.6 miles), and considering my current state of fitness, anything longer than 40 minutes is pretty looooong.  So I only spent a third of my run on the river. But it was nice, and once I get into higher mileage I will get further. Plus there is a HILL in the first mile (on Lowell Street) that is no joke. I recommend it for all you Boston/Cambridge/Somerville runners out there!

Here's a link to the out-and-back route, from Davis Square to Harvard Square to the BU Bridge and back.

Oh and I recognize this is a Weekend Report about my run on Tuesday...but just go with it. All I did this weekend was work on a group project and go for meandering runs, so my Tuesday run struck me as the most interesting to share with you all.

Best of the Week #101

I am wearing Boston today, and it’s not too late for you to put on some BU/Sox/Celts/Bruins/whatever gear you have “as a small way to show unity and support for all of the victims and their families of this past Monday's unspeakable act.” Still sending my love to Boston!

This Best of the Week post will not be a round-up of Boston news…because I know that’s just too much for me and possibly for you. But on a slightly more positive note, “Photos: Afghans send sympathy and love to Boston, whose pain they know all too well.”

• Documentary filmmaker Beth Murphy, a Bostonian and marathoner working in Afghanistan, took the photos for “To Boston. From Kabul. With Love” after receiving a text from her husband about the bomb blasts that killed three and injured scores of others near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. His messages assuring her that he and their young daughter were okay, Murphy wrote in a blog post, reminded her of the many similar message she herself had sent during her trips to Afghanistan.

And on a less positive note, from The Onion (note: satire!!!), “Jesus, This Week.”

• “Seriously, can we wrap this up already?” Maryland resident James Alderman told reporters, echoing the thoughts of all 311 million Americans, who have just about reached their weekly goddamned quota for carnage, misery, confusion, heartbreak, and rage. “Because, you know, I’m pretty sure we’ve all had our hearts ripped out of our chests and stomped on enough times for one seven-day period, thank you very much.”

Ok moving on and bringing a bit of levity into our lives...

Awwww happiness. "27 Dogs That Will Do Anything For Kids."

Pretty cool: "Resistance Isn't Futile."

• For the second straight year, amateur and professional photographers from around the world have submitted images for Washington-based NGO Freedom House's "Images of Freedom and Repression." Out of hundreds of submissions, Freedom House has selected 25 to be auctioned at an event in Washington, D.C. on April 18. Three photos were selected as winners. Here is a selection of the images, which capture the daily struggles and aspirations of people living in some of the world's most repressive countries. 

This strikes me as a total win-win. You quit. Your office gets cake. What more could anyone want? “How to Quit Your Job With Cake.”

Haha go Jezebel, saying exactly how I feel better than I can say it myself: "F$@# Cupcakes."

I asked Buzzfeed Food's Rachel Sanders how she felt the cupcake had impacted U.S. culture. "This is getting a little deep, but I believe they tap into our American cultural tendency toward selfishness and emotional isolation," she typed to me via Gchat. "Like, what other culture needs a kind of cake that is literally impossible to share; if you even try it just disintegrates into crumbs and sadness? You are going to be alone forever, so go ahead and carbo-load."

Thursday was National High Five Day, which is weird, but ooook sure why not?

PSA MUST READ: From a Reddit thread entitled, What are some useful secrets from your job that will benefit customers?

• When purchasing items on the internet (especially airline tickets), use incognito mode on your browser.
• We use your own cookies against you: raising the price on tickets the more times you check, as you shop around for better deals. That way you’ll think the price is going up or that seats are being actively sold – thus increasing your urgency to buy, and punishing you for trying to get a good deal.

I’m sorry but this is too funny.

From the Twitter-verse, thank you Philosoraptor

• Mindblowing ™ ‏@RealFactsOnLife4m: Round Pizza. Square box. Triangle slices. I'm confused.
• Also: "You look tired" pic.twitter.com/JobZ8xYpqz

I grew up with backyard chickens and I’m pretty sure they’re the easiest “pets” ever. And they lay eggs. Win and win. “Pros and Cons of Raising Backyard Chickens.”

HAHAHA. Time to get ready for Beach Season?

How I Exit Awkward Situations (and how I feel about this week):

Again, love to Boston!!!

Re-Post: The Places I've Run: "Marky Mark" (Boston, MA)

This is a re-post from March 2011, after a weekend trip to Boston. 

Four years of college cross country, indoor, and outdoor track mean that I’ve probably run more miles in Boston than anywhere else. Every day at 3:30 my team met at the TTC (Track and Tennis Center) to go for a run. Some days we piled into one of BU’s big red 15-passenger vans and our coach drove us to a park, or trails, or a reservoir. But mostly we ran from the TTC. The routes were passed down to me by the previous generation of BU Track girls and they all have names: River, Jamaica, City, Riverway, Science Figure-8, GC Sans GC, Fresh Pond, Res to Res, and my personal favorite: Marky Mark.

This run is named for the actor Mark Wahlberg (who started his career as a rapper: Marky Mark). Allegedly he has a house on Sargent Street in Brookline, thus this run is named for him (so the story goes). I like it because it’s one big loop, has minimal stoplights, and is a nice combination of streets and trails and dirt and ponds. The shortest version (mapped below) is 6.6 miles. This version starts and ends at the BU TTC (100 Ashford Street, Boston, MA). Of course you could start/end anywhere along the loop! 

You can add on by running around Jamaica Pond (which makes the route total to 7.6), and/or around the Brookline Reservoir (1500m/1 mile-ish around) as many times as you want. 

When I was in Niger, sweating to death running around Le Stade, I imagined myself running Marky Mark. And when I’m on a treadmill I often picture this run. Why do I love it so much? I have no idea…if you’re ever in Boston you should try it and see for yourself!

If you can't see the map, click here.

Best of the Week #56

Let me start this Best of the Week by saying that I love Boston in the springtime, and major congratulations to all who ran that horrifically overheated race!

My most popular post this week was Hip Flexor and Piriformis Stretching and Strengthening (and in running news, I ran 7 miles on Tuesday night! And then pooled the rest of the week.). 

Speaking of Boston, I loved Cris’s post, “Why'd they do it? (brain droppings on Boston).”

• And every once in a while, you exceed even those dreams, and stun yourself with the time on the finish clock.  And that rare moment is addictive -- as soon as it's over, you're chasing the next hit. 

Graph of the Day: Tweets in Translation.

By now I’m pretty sure everyone on the interwebs has seen “The 21 Absolute Worst Things in the World.”  This is a nice follow-up from the New Yorker:

• I contend that “The 21 Absolute Worst Things in the World” is an ingenious specimen of thisness, and it also partakes in another quality of great literature: it points out that lonely experiences of aggravation (dunking a big cookie in a glass that turns out to be too small, fitted sheets that slip off a mattress) are actually universally shared. 

I love this TED talk on "The power of introverts." Definitely worth watching/listening to the whole thing!

Is this person me? Possibly… “Warnings for my future husband”

• I talk to my mom every day. We talk about everything. This will never change.
• I don’t play well with others in the kitchen. I will try to boss you around, even if you are making your great-grandmother’s recipe that you’ve made 200 times.
• I don’t like carrying things. Especially when going out. I will probably ask you to hold any of the following items in your pockets: my phone, cash, ID, keys, lipgloss. Unless my dress has pockets, in which case, I will make a HUGE deal out of the fact that my dress has pockets and I don’t need to ask to use your pocket space. Because, have you seen this? It’s a dress with pockets!

For some reason watching the making of this insane cheese ball is mesmerizing. 

This very long but interesting Sports Illustrated article: “To Run In Kenya, To Run In The World - 

The Mercurial Life and Mysterious Death of Sammy Wanjiru.” 

• The result of this concentration of prize money in the marathon has been a dominance unparalleled in modern international sports. Though a power in distance running since the 1960s, Kenyan men have made the marathon their own since Wanjiru's bold example in Beijing. It's the kind of supremacy that usually exists when just one country truly values a sport: Japan in sumo, Canada in curling. Between April and November 2011, Kenyan men broke course records in the five most prominent marathons—Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and New York City—by a collective sum of six minutes and 22 seconds. It's hard to come up with any measure sufficient to characterize the strength of the Kenyan marathon army, but try this: Sixteen American men in history have run faster than 2:10 (a 4:58 per mile pace); 38 Kenyan men did it in October.
• In the Chinese capital, Wanjiru changed the marathon forever. Runners could once coast the first 20 miles of major marathons, but since Wanjiru's bold example, the race has started when the race actually starts. Thirteen of the 17 sub-2:05 finishes in history have come since Wanjiru's epic performance at the Olympics. Expect Kenyans at the London Games to try to break the rest of the world from the gun. That will be Wanjiru's legacy.

I’m not especially afraid of heights, but I get a little dizzy just looking at this picture of a super-high suspension bridge in China. Note (from LLC): Keep in mind that Chinese structures have a habit of falling down…and that they are terribly dangerous drivers…

Thanks to East Coast Calling I just discovered and enjoy parts of this tumblr: "As You Like it, Notes on the complexities of like liking someone."

• When a tall chick sees a short chick dating tall dude, they have the same reaction that a black chick has when she sees a white chick dating a black dude. It's like "bitch get your own! We only have so many good ones!" 
• Internet dating is like shopping at a thrift store.  There are a few gems here and there, but mostly its just pit stained T-shirts and old underwear. 
• Guys. Wear Suits. You think Clint Eastwood was like “nah, I think that dude is her boyfriend” NO. Suit.

The Chork, for the chopstick impaired. Brilliant or ridiculous? I think both!

An argument that Bad Leadership is not the Problem in Africa. 

• However, Banda’s, or any other good leaders’ skills are insipid if they are used to lead a nation of bad citizens. Citizenship, not leadership, is the concept that we more urgently need to examine. Good leaders can be in charge of bad citizens namely and as a result achieve little long-term solutions, but good citizens can”t elect, accept or rejoice bad leaders.

If you’re in DC and want an event this Saturday, I plan on attending this in Dupont: Dance in the Circle. 

Happy Weekend!

Bobbi Gibb: The First Woman to Run the Boston Marathon

This year’s Boston Marathon marked 45-years since the 1967 race where Kathrine Switzer registered as K. V. Switzer to hide her gender and race officials tried (and failed – she finished in 4:20) to physically remove her from the course. Switzer holds the honor of “the first woman to enter the Boston Marathon,” (5 years later in 1972). However, the honor of “the first woman to run the Boston Marathon” goes to Bobbi Gibb, who ran unofficially in 1966.  


I interviewed Gibb and wrote the following profile when she was in Boston to shoot off the gun for the Elite Women’s start in 2006 commemorating her first marathon’s 40-year anniversary. 


“I hid in the bushes and waited for the race to start. I let about half the pack go by and then I jumped in. I have to give them credit, it didn’t take long for the men around me to notice,” an older woman with wild blonde hair relaxes into a plush chair at the Fairmont at Copley Plaza on the eve of the 110th Boston Marathon. “’Is that a girl? Hey girl, are you going to run the whole thing?’ they asked me.” She pops a few peanuts into her mouth and explains that at first she was afraid they would be angry, that they would throw her out of the race. But Bobbi Gibb quickly learned that not everybody adhered to the typical 1960s stereotypes. The runners welcomed her, a woman, into their elite circle saying, “It’s a free road, she can run if she wants to.”


On April 17, 1966 Bobbi Gibb became the first woman to run a marathon. She did so in defiance of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), world running standards, and common stereotypes. By finishing the Boston Marathon, Gibb called into question all restrictions on women, and contributed to the women’s movement of the 1960s.


For most of the twentieth century, women’s athletics were severely limited. People did not believe that women could exercise like men could. Until 1910, doctors believed that women breathed differently than men, making them unfit for strenuous exercise. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, is quoted on the official Olympics website saying, "It is indecent that the spectators should be exposed to the risk of seeing the body of a women being smashed before their very eyes. Besides, no matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks," as his reasons for banning women from the Games.


When Women’s Track and Field was introduced to the Games in 1928, women ran up to 800 meters. However, when several women collapsed at the conclusion of the 800-meter race, officials banned women from running any distance greater than 100 meters. “It was believed that women would do themselves irreparable damage to their procreational capabilities, so no longer events were held," says John Thresher, president and CEO of Athletics Canada. Women ran no further than 100 meters until 1948 when the Olympic Committee introduced the 200-meter dash. In 1964, only two years before Gibb ran her first marathon, women competed in 100, 200, 400 and 800-meter races.


While growing up in Massachusetts, Gibb knew absolutely nothing about competitive running. Nothing “inspired me to start running,” she laughed, in response to my question. “It’s not that I started running, I actually never stopped running,” she explained. “I just loved to run since I could stand.” In high school she played field hockey, one of the few sports available to girls, and in her spare time she ran with her dogs, exploring the woods around her house.  While attending college at Tufts University where her father taught, Gibb met a man on the cross country team. “After a while I was keeping up with him. We’d run all over Boston…. I felt so happy when I ran – so relaxed.”


In 1964, a friend’s father suggested she watch the Boston Marathon. “A marathon!” Gibb exclaims, mocking her own naiveté. “I hadn’t even heard of marathons.” But after watching the race, she was inspired. “I saw the marathon and fell in love with it. I started to train in nurses shoes.” (In the 1960s nobody made women’s running apparel.) Unlike contemporary marathoners, Gibb had absolutely no formal training, coach, or idea of what she should do. In the summer of 1964, she traveled across the country in a VW van accompanied by her dog, a malamute named Moot. “I’d run two, three, four hours a day,” she said. “I was running 30 to 40 miles at a stretch.”


Gibb does not approach the sport with the same attitude as other runners. “Running is not a chore or punishment to Bobbi, it’s a joy,” explained fellow marathoner Dave Dial. Dial and Gibb run together in their hometown of San Diego. “She’d be quick to pause and say, ‘Wow, look at that rock formation,’ or, ‘look at that flower.’” Gibb’s offbeat style may surprise many runners. She doesn’t run for time but for the connection with nature, for her love of “the earth, the sky, the trees.” And Gibb did not compete in marathons for her own personal glory, but to open up fields closed to women. Dial explained, “Some people do things for fame or money, but Bobbi did what she did out of love.”


As an undergraduate, she attended art school, but Gibb wanted to study math and science so she enrolled in UCSD for pre-med, until, “They told me I was too pretty and I’d upset the boys in the lab.” That fall of 1966, she mailed her marathon entry to the BAA. Gibb was shocked when she received a letter from the race director, Will Cloney, stating, “women are not physiologically able to run such distances and furthermore are not allowed to do so.” Gibb was unaware that the race was closed to women, but she knew she could destroy the false claim that women could not run 26.2 miles. “I was angry and upset,” she said. “So I decided to run the marathon anyway.” Reflecting on it 40 years later she still gets excited at the injustice. “It’s a Catch-22!  If you’re not allowed to do something how can you prove to people that you can do it?” Gibb knew that “somebody had to do something” and saw her opportunity to “blow the whole thing wide open.”


According to the BAA’s website, the Boston Marathon is the oldest annual marathon in the world. The race was inspired by the first modern Olympic marathon in 1896, and was first run April 19, 1897 by only 15 competitors (ten of which finished). The race is now held every Patriot’s Day, which falls on the third Monday in April. It attracts entrants from all over the world, numbering in the 20,000s. In 1966, before the running boom of the ‘70s and ‘80s, there were 540 entrants.


On the day of Gibb’s first marathon, she convinced her mother to drive her to the start of the race. She knew that she was about to make a huge social statement for women, and “when you do something that far out of the social norm you don’t know how people will react.” Once the runners around her realized Gibb was a woman and accepted her, she began to relax and enjoy the run. Spectators along the way cheered enthusiastically for “the girl.”


“When I got to Wellesley, the girls went crazy,” remembers Gibb, a smile of satisfaction on her sun-tanned face. Even though she has told this story countless times, it is clearly a fond memory. “I felt like I was setting them free – I was really doing it.” She ran the race conservatively. “I felt a great sense of responsibility because I didn’t want to risk failing and setting women back 15 years,” explained Gibb. Blisters from her first pair of real running shoes and dehydration challenged her in the last few miles. Nevertheless, Gibb finished in 3:21:46, placing her 126th out of 540 male runners.


She described the finish in Copley Square, “The governor of Massachusetts came down and shook my hand. He’d heard on the radio that I was running and wanted to congratulate me.” The press was all over Gibb and her family for the next few days. She took a taxi home from the race, and when she arrived her street was lined with cars – she found her parents in the midst of a crowd of reporters.


“I didn’t realize it would take so long to change the rules.” She ran the Boston Marathon unofficially in 1967 and 1968, waiting for the day the race opened to women. “I thought, I’ll keep doing this until everyone believes a woman can run this race,” she said. Each year more women ran. In 1967, Katherine Switzer snuck into the race by lying about her gender. She ran under her initials, K.V. Switzer, and had her coach attend her pre-race physical and registration. When race officials realized their mistake, they tried to physically remove Switzer from the course. Gibb didn’t know about Switzer until after the race, and was appalled to hear the drama Switzer’s lie had caused. “I wish I’d known Kathrine was running, then we could have done it together. I didn’t want the race officials to see women runners as a problem because then they would never let us run.” In 1968 a total of five women ran, all without official numbers. “It was really positive that year,” Gibb smiles. “It felt like a celebration.”


The BAA did not open the Marathon to women until Title IV forced integration in 1972. Title IV states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In 1972 at the 76th Boston Marathon, eight women entered, and all eight finished. Official BAA records state that Nina Kuscsik was the first women’s champion, finishing in three hours, ten minutes and twenty-six seconds.


Gibb is pleased with the lasting effects of her marathons. “I wasn’t trying to be a role model, but I did want to inspire people. I did it in order to prove that women could run 26.2 miles and to call into question every other false belief about women.” Gibb’s race was a pivotal event in the women’s movement. According to Gibb, within two months of her marathon the National Organization for Women, dedicated to eliminating gender discrimination, was started in New York. In 1972, the Olympic Games in Munich included the 1500-meter run in Women’s Track and Field for the first time. The women’s marathon was not added to the Olympic schedule until 1984, when American Joan Benoit won the gold medal.


“Bobbi’s done a lot of things in her life, and she’s done it all on her own terms,” says Dial. After 1968, Gibb decided to focus more on her education, earning her law degree and working as a lawyer for 25 years. “The most important thing for women is to get an education,” she says.  When reflecting on women’s rights today, she says, “Things have really moved in the direction I wanted them to move in,” but Gibb recognizes that women have a way to go. “People still don’t believe that women can really think. And in part it’s the fault of women,” she lectures. “I’d like to see women taking themselves and their minds more seriously.”


When Gibb ran her first marathon, she knew she was making a huge social statement, but even so she tends to shun attention. Gibb’s independent spirit has shaped her life and affected the lives of those around her. She has recently returned to her interest in biology and is doing research for an ALS lab in Cambridge. She laughs and says, “About ten years ago I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up.” She hopes to publish the books she has written, and continue to work on her art and sculpture. But Gibb will never forget her love of running. She was planning on running the Boston Marathon this year for her run’s 40th anniversary, but the race organizers asked her to shoot off the start gun for the Women’s Elite race instead. According to the BAA, 7,625 women finished the Marathon this year. Gibb’s reaction to the magnitude of women’s running today is uplifting. “I see women running and they look so strong and confident. I feel like they’re all my daughters. That’s the reason I did all this – so women could feel strong and confident.”

Weekend Report: Chix Gets Married!

Welp it’s official - I’m in that 20-something phase when everyone starts to get married. Luckily I love weddings! (How could you not? Friends + love + dancing + cake = fun!)

The bride was my college friend/teammate, C--- aka Chix. Chix was the first runner I met at BU, and by random chance we lived across the hall from each other freshman year. After I stopped being shy-freshman intimidated by her running awesomeness, we became great friends! Almost every night, Chix, Jess, and I met in the dining hall “late-night” to drink diet soda and split a snack as a study break. And giggle excessively, and make guacamole, and talk about sandwiches, and a certain now-Mr. Chix’s legs!

Her wedding was my second visit to Fitchburg (I spent Thanksgiving with her family one year), and as expected, the Chix family delivered and Fitchburg did not disappoint!

Chix looked absolutely beautiful, and we danced like fools all night (it’s amazing how when you reconvene old friends and teammates we suddenly lose any acquired maturity  and regress to our 2005/6ish selves…sheesh).

(Yes, that is the bride crowd-surfing. Who says runners aren't fun?)

The day after the wedding was the most gorgeous Boston day ever! Jess, Erin, and I meandered around Coolidge Corner, then walked down to Newbury and Boylston Streets to do some shopping. (I got amazing sandals. They were expensive, but I walk 2-6 miles per day, so good sandals are a must.)

Jess's boyfriend Zac met us for dinner at Mr. Sushi in Coolidge Corner. Cheesy name, but amazing food! Erin, Jess, and I all ordered the Hai Dup Bap, a gi-normous bowl of delicious veggies (daikon, carrots, sprouts, cucumber, etc) topped with big chunks of sushi grade tuna, salmon, and roe. 

It comes with miso soup, brown rice and mix-in toppings. So. Good. (I wish the pictures could do it justice…but you’ll have to use your imagination.)

(Jess and Zac. This couple can eat.)

I arrived back in DC early Sunday, enough time to get my productive-face on and do some work/studying/pool running.


It was a great weekend - Congrats to the MAX to Chix and Mr. Chix!!!!