The Woman Who Stole Victory In The Boston Marathon

The baffling story of how Rosie Ruiz cut the course and became a Boston Marathon legend

Photo by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash

Making international headlines right now is Scottish ultramarathoner, Joasia Zakrzewski, facing calls for a lifetime ban for cutting the course in an ultramarathon from Manchester to Liverpool. She traveled 2.5 miles by car in a 50-mile race, which Zakrzewski attributes to being injured and wanting to drop out. She then accepted the third-place trophy when she came across the finish line, a mistake she attributes to arriving in Scotland from Australia too late and being severely jetlagged.

But at least Zakrzewski ran at least 47 miles of the race. Accepting the trophy was unethical, and it’s crazy she wasn’t caught sooner given tracking data shows she ran a mile in 1 minute and 40 seconds. She was disqualified. Cutting the course is a big deal and I get race officials and the running world have to make a big example out of it, but Zakrzeski’s sins pale in comparison to the most egregious course cutter of all time.

Likewise, this Monday was the 127th Boston Marathon, the most famous and popular marathon in America. It was also the marathon in my lifetime where I experienced the most hype — sub 2 hour marathoner, double Olympic champion, and the best marathoner of all time, Eliud Kipchoge, ran the race and was expected to wipe the floor with his competition as well as the course record. And so it was such a shock when Kipchoge was dropped and finished in sixth place.

But Kipchoge isn’t even the most famous runner in the illustrious history of the Boston Marathon. That title belongs to someone who cut the course, cheated, and only ran a half mile of the race: Rosie Ruiz.

In the 1980 Boston Marathon, Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was unexpectedly dominating the Boston Marathon’s women’s race. She wasn’t even allowed to start at the front of the race with the elites because she was a relative nobody, but the 27-year-old hospital worker looked like a decisive victor by mile 18.

But Gareau did not win, and few people outside the running world know who she is today.

Someone even more unknown, Rosie Ruiz, “won” the Boston Marathon after cutting the course…