Allison Roe wins Boston marathon

1981 was a memorable year for Aucklander Allison Roe, who became the first New Zealand woman to win the prestigious Boston race, taking nearly 8 minutes off the course record in running the 42.2 km in 2 hours 26 minutes 46 seconds. She followed up this performance six months later by overtaking the great Grete Waitz to win the New York marathon. Roe’s time of 2:25:29 was thought to be a world’s best for the marathon, but the course proved to be 150 m short.

Roe’s prospects as a marathoner had been dismissed by the legendary coach Arthur Lydiard, because at 1.73 m he felt she was too tall. Her victory in two of the five ‘World Marathon Majors’ in one year showed that on this rare occasion Lydiard’s judgement was off the mark.

The marathon for women was included in the programme at the summer Olympics for the first time in Los Angeles in 1984. By then injury had unfortunately curtailed Roe’s career. Her 1981 New York time remained an unofficial New Zealand best until 2010, when Kimberley Smith ran 8 seconds faster in finishing eighth in the London Marathon.