People will say that in 1980, Rosie Ruiz “came out of nowhere” to win the women’s race in the Boston Marathon. But it soon became clear she came out of the crowd a half mile from the finish line.

In the week that followed, it was revealed she also didn’t finish the October 1979 New York Marathon, despite her recorded 2:56.31 finishing time. As more revelations followed, Ruiz became the poster girl for cheating, and is still vilified online to the this day. But the story was a lot more complicated in that, some of it rooted in the stodgy culture of the Boston Marathon in that era and the misogyny that still colored it in 1980, eight years after women were finally allowed to run. Maureen tells the story.

Rebecca also gives NNW treatment to “My Cat from Hell.”