First woman to officially finish a sanctioned marathon in the United States

On August 10, 1959, Arlene Pieper Stine, a 29-year-old mother and fitness studio owner from Colorado Springs, became the first woman to officially finish a sanctioned marathon in the United States when she crossed the finish line of the grueling Pikes Peak Marathon in a time of 9 hours, 50 minutes, and 20 seconds.

The Pikes Peak Marathon was, and remains, one of the most physically demanding marathon courses in the world, ascending and descending a 14,115-foot mountain. That Pieper chose this extraordinarily difficult course for her historic run makes her achievement all the more remarkable. At the time, the long-distance running establishment — including the Amateur Athletic Union and Boston Marathon organizers — widely excluded women from official marathon competition, citing unfounded fears about women's physical capacity for endurance events. Women would not be permitted to run the Boston Marathon officially until 1972, and the Olympic women's marathon was not introduced until 1984.

Pieper's finish predates these milestones by over a decade, making her a genuine pioneer whose accomplishment went largely unrecognized for decades. She trained by hiking and running trails around Colorado Springs, and her participation was reportedly encouraged by race organizers connected to her family. Her finish helped quietly challenge assumptions about women's endurance capabilities, and though it took decades for wider recognition to arrive, her achievement is now enshrined as a foundational moment in the history of women's distance running.