Three Women in Oncology Look Forward to Running the 126th Boston Marathon

This Blog post represents a partnership between the Women in Medicine Summit and Healio Women in Oncology. An excerpt appears blow, and please find the full length piece at Healio’s Women in Oncology Blog

Inspire. Empower. Celebrate!

These words are the slogan for the 126th running of the Boston Marathon, which will recognize and honor the 50th anniversary of the 1972 race, which featured the first women’s division in race history. In 1972, eight women met the qualifying standard and were made official entrants to the marathon. Five of those original women will be celebrating in Boston on race day, which is April 18.

Before 1972, women were excluded from long-distance running, because some experts were concerned about the impact of strenuous exercise on women’s health. As Val Rogosheske, one of the original eight who ran in 1972 noted, “They thought maybe our uteruses would fall out!” Now, 50 years later, there are more than 12,000 women registered for this year’s marathon.

We are thrilled that the three of us, busy juggling our demanding, but important jobs, parenting responsibilities and care for our families — during the pandemic — will run in the footsteps of those original eight trailblazers. Each of us has found that during the pandemic, running has been not only an important way to get exercise but also an opportunity to focus our own self-care, build resilience and develop meaningful connections with each other.

Des Linden, winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon women’s race, stated: “Remember your why. When things get hard you have the decision to bail, or you can remember your ‘why.’” Below, each of us share “why” we are running this year’s Boston Marathon.

About the Authors: Amy Comander, MD, DipABLM, is director of breast oncology and survivorship at Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham and at Newton-Wellesley, the medical director of the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Twitter: @DrAmyComander. Fundraising link.

Gabriela Hobbs, MD, is the clinical director of the adult leukemia service at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Twitter: @GabyHobbs. Fundraising link.

Sadhna R. Vora, MD, is a breast oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and a senior physician editor at UpToDate. Fundraising link.