Joy Beat

Arun Rath: Let’s be honest — the news is heavy. It’s important, but exhausting. The Joy Beat isn’t here to ignore reality or give you an escape. We’re here to provide a balanced take on reality because every day, real people are finding real solutions in their communities and spreading so much-needed joy.

These stories are happening all around us, and they deserve just as much space as the headlines that weigh us down. So, from our newsroom to your ears, we bring you the Joy Beat.

Today, we’re celebrating the joy of movement and exercise — not just because of the endorphins and surge in dopamine exercise brings, but because it can bring people together. And, as we’ll hear in a moment, break some glass ceilings as well.

We’ll start with a Boston legend: Bobbi Gibb. First, get your head around this — 1.5 miles was the maximum distance women were permitted to run, per the Amateur Athletic Union in 1966. According to them, women were physiologically incapable of running a marathon, and allowing them to compete in the Boston Marathon was too much of a liability.

So, when Bobbi Gibb received the notice that she was disqualified from participating, her desire to cross the finish line only grew. And, at just 23 years old, she did just that. She crashed the race by hiding in a bush near the starting line and finished with a time of three hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds.

She managed to break through not just the finish line but a glass ceiling for women runners everywhere. We’re lucky to be joined by Bobbi today. Bobbi, welcome to the Joy Beat!

Bobbi Gibb: Oh, thank you so much. I love this show. You do such a wonderful job.

Rath: Thank you. We’re thrilled to have you on to be our source of joy for this week. I want to start off because, you know, we know the historic story — hiding in the bushes, slipping into the stream of runners — but I think it’s hard for people now to imagine what it was like in terms of what you were facing because it seems insane now that women are not allowed to run in the marathon and everything I said in the intro.

So, tell us what you were up against. What was the level of hostility?

Gibb: Unbelievable! I mean, it’s really unbelievable for people now. I was born, actually, in the middle of World War II, if you want to know the truth. During the 50s, when I was a kid growing up, I could see the life pattern that women were forced to lead and how unhappy they were.

My own mother was drinking wine and taking tranquilizers. I mean, she had dreamed of being a reporter and traveling the world, and here she was, washing dishes and scrubbing floors. Her greatest joy was, you know, what kind of curtains to put in the living room. So I said, “I didn’t want to live like this. I can’t live like this, Mom. I’m going out into the wilds of Canada and live with my dogs and horses.”

For women, it was very difficult to get into medical school or law school. Women were thought to be incapable — mentally and physically — of just about everything except having babies! It was so ridiculous to have these stereotypes. I always think it’s who a person is, not what group they belong to.

We have the right to become all of who we are, and we were forced into these silly little stereotypes, each not being able to fulfill our own full destinies. So, I rebelled against this. In fact, a professional woman was looked upon as an oddity in those days.

Rath: When 23-year-old you was there, you know, crouching and hiding in the bushes, how worried were you about what the reaction would be from other runners and the spectators when they realized — as they did ahead, at a point — that you were a woman?

Gibb: I didn’t know what I was getting into. I knew I was doing something I wasn’t allowed to do. I was afraid I might be arrested! I knew if officials saw me, they’d throw me out.

The other runners could be hostile. They could easily shoulder me off the course. Spectators could be hostile. Sometimes, when you do something this far outside of the social norm, people can be hostile. So I didn’t know what I was getting into.

I had my brother’s Bermuda shirts on and a Blue Ridge sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, and I thought, “Well, once I get into the race, I’ll see what the situation is and figure out what I need to do.” Because by that time, I knew I was going to make a social statement.

I had received that letter that you spoke of that said women are not physiologically able, and they’re not allowed. It was a men’s division race, and of course, there were no marathons for women, so I didn’t know what I was getting into. But I had this weight of responsibility because I knew if I tried this thing and failed, it was going to set women back another 50 or more years, so I felt I had this mission.

I had this mission because I thought if I can prove this false belief about women wrong, it’ll throw into question all the other false beliefs that have been used for decades — for centuries — to keep women locked up in this little box where they’re not allowed to fulfill their destinies or develop their potentials or, you know, just about anything. It was very, very limiting.

Rath: You were so young, but it sounds like you had a really good idea — a great grasp of what a big deal this was.

Gibb: Yeah. It’s sort of like Thoreau’s tradition of civil disobedience. When you see something wrong that’s unjust and is making everybody miserable, you almost have an obligation to try to make it right. I’ve always spent my life trying to make the world better for everyone. I kind of have a vision of what the world can be and what human beings can be.

Rath: Some powerful Amazonian self-reliance in there, too.

Gibb: Yes.

Rath: So, tell us about the people — how the runners and the crowd reacted in the end?

Gibb: Well, I jumped into the middle of the pack. At first, the men didn’t realize I was a woman, and I was running along, keeping up with them very well. We were on a sub-three-hour marathon for most of the race, but, at the very beginning, within, I would say, three or four minutes, maybe five minutes at the most, the men behind me were studying my anatomy from the rear.

I have to give them credit; they figured out I was a woman. You know, I could hear them talking, “Is that a girl?” And I wanted to keep it upbeat and light. I wanted to end this stupid war between the sexes and show that men and women can enjoy all of life together, so I wanted to keep it upbeat and friendly.

So I smiled and turned around. “Oh, it is a woman!” And then they’d say, “Well, I wish my girlfriend would run.” “I wish my wife would run.” I mean, these men were very supportive and friendly. They were like my brothers — they were great.

I said, “I’m afraid if I take off this sweatshirt, they’ll see I’m a woman and throw me out.” And these guys said, “We won’t let them throw you out. It’s a free road.” So they were protective as well as being friendly and nice.

Rath: It seems of a piece of everything we think is good about marathons as a sport, right? I mean, what other sport — if your competitor falls down, do you stop to help them up?

Gibb: Yeah. And what other sport can the professionals — playing at the top of their games — they’re a spectator, the next year they’re a participant? It’s amazing. It’s the most democratic of all sports, which I love. I’m in love with democracy and human rights and everything that means freedom for the individual, respecting autonomy and the Bill of Rights.

I mean, I’m really … I really love these things, and I can’t help but think that the whole world and all people would be so much better off if we all had human rights, and we all had civil rights and were all friendly and not threatened by each other.

Rath: Bobbi, we’ve come a long way since 1966 in women’s sports — both professionally and at the scholastic level — but, obviously, we’re not where we should be. What’s your take on where we are and your sense of progress right now?

Gibb: Well, there’s men and women, which is great, and we have come a long way. Women are in most of the professions now, and men are fine pushing the baby carriage and being in the delivery room and having feelings, which is wonderful. We’ve come a long way in our human development, but we have a long way to go.

I see the next step as a raising of human consciousness worldwide, which includes, of course, gender consciousness but also human consciousness. We can’t keep fighting each other. We can’t keep killing each other. I mean, to me, the horror of one person killing another is beyond belief! We should be beyond that by now. We can’t do this — we can’t do this to each other. We can’t keep killing each other; we should be beyond that by now. It’s just tragic.

And, you know, competing for resources — if we cooperated together, we would create so many resources and so much abundance and so much ecological and environmental well-being here on planet Earth. We would be amazed. We would be so much better off, so we need to raise our consciousness, become more living and be more aware of our place in the universe.

When you look at the care that goes into everything — to make one molecule, to make one atom, to make one photon — the exquisite care and detail and all of this is just incredible. It has to be coming from love. It’s not coming from hate. It’s not coming from fear. It’s coming from love. When you tune into that love, you feel that. That’s the basis of joy in your life, your sense of awe and wonder and of, “Wow, we are alive on planet Earth. Isn’t this great? Let’s celebrate!”

This has always been my feeling, and I think if everybody could turn into that love of the universe and love of the earth and love of each other, we’ll go a long way to guiding and really creating the world we want to live in.

Rath: That’s beautiful. Bobbi, I feel like I want to have you on the show every week.

Gibb: I would be honored.

Rath: Bobbi, thank you so much for joining us.

Gibb: Oh, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you.

Rath: That’s Bobbi Gibb — writer, artist and the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.

Next, we head to Brockton to meet Dave and Judy Gorman, who have brought the joy of movement and exercise to kids through their program, Kids Road Races. For nearly five decades, they’ve hosted races for children in the community and have kept it accessible, charging just $1 per child. Take a listen to their nomination:

Caller: My daughter has been doing it for a couple of years. She’s nine. They’re just … It’s a really supportive environment for kids, and everyone cheers for everyone else while they’re coming in. It’s like, just incredibly supportive and positive.

There are people who ran it as kids who are back with their kids — you know, even some people’s grandkids. People have been doing it for years and years. It’s incredible; it’s a great energy. My daughter will miss them very much.

Dave and Judy have made a lot of kids really happy and inspired a love of running, exercise and being outside. This is like, the most joyous thing I’ve ever been to.

Rath: Kids Road Races has offered children and their families an introduction to healthy physical activity. But, after 47 years, Dave and Judy are calling the race — Kids Road Races has completed its final season.

We’re lucky to be joined by them both. Dave, Judy, welcome to the Joy Beat!

Dave Gorman: Thank you.

Judy Gorman: Thank you.

Rath: First off, before we take a look back to how this all started, congratulations on completing your final season! Tell us a bit about how you’re feeling.

Dave: Mixed emotions. You know, we’ve been up there for 47 years every Saturday, so it’s mixed emotions. We met some great friends, and you hear from the kids, “What are we going to do if you’re not here?” and all this stuff. We did our part, we feel.

Judy: It all started many years ago when my son was five years old. We brought him up to the park to run. There were some races going on, and he really loved it. He just took off and ran a nice race.

Then, the man who was doing it needed to give it up, so Dave said, “Well, we’ll do it for, you know, a couple of years until somebody else comes along. And there was the beginning of it. Correct, Dave?

Dave: It was a part of the community school program, and they did away with it at the school because of budget cuts and all that. They did away with the money to fund the races in the park.

My good friend was a guy who was doing it, and I ran cross country with him at Brockton High, and I was up there and he said they’re going to stop it. And I said, “No, you can’t stop. I’ll do it, somehow, someway.”

So, here we are.

Rath: So, you two stepped up. Did you have any idea at the time that it would be a lot longer than a couple of years?

Dave: No, I didn’t, because I thought someone else would do it because they didn’t like the way I was doing it. The funny thing is, it started off as a quarter road race — it was 25 cents — and then, we had to go up to 50 cents. And then, I had to make this big, big decision to go to a dollar.

And I said that if we went to a dollar and then had to go any higher, I wouldn’t do the races anymore. So, it’s been a dollar ever since.

Rath: Talk about how it grew from that point.

Dave: Well, there’s nothing like that for kids around, you know what I mean? There’s nothing like it, there’s that Little League Baseball that gets all this stuff, but we did something we felt was affordable for kids and families to do because everything gets so high, everything gets so expensive.

Everybody can run. They need a pair of sneakers. They don’t need a baseball glove, they don’t need this, they don’t need cleats. Just give them a pair of sneakers, come up and run around the park.

Judy: Also, over the years, we did find out that if they were grown from different towns, or even here in Brockton, and they enjoyed running, they often brought their children up to try running. So, it was a place to see and feel out if the child would like running. And many of them did, and it started growing. We had many children that came to the races.

Dave: From all over — you know, Quincy, Brockton, Middleborough, all over the South Shore. We even had a couple kids — one came from Worcester every Saturday, and one came from Newport, Rhode Island, to run a dollar race at D.W. Fields Park. It was unbelievable.

Rath: At this point, when you got to the last races of this season, how many of those kids are you seeing that had their parents running in it before them?

Dave: Oh, a great deal.

Judy: Yeah. Over the last couple of years, we saw a lot of the parents and grandparents up there, supporting the children that were running.

Dave: Yeah, they just … It was unbelievable. The kids that ran 40 years ago were bring their kids. There were grandparents — their mother and father were back, too, and they’re grandparents now — and they were having a ball.

Rath: What was it like interacting with those grandparents at this stage? It must be wonderful.

Judy: Oh, it was wonderful.

Dave: It was good to talk to someone my own age.

Judy: No, it was really, really nice and very heartfelt. It was a nice, warm feeling we received.

Rath: Yeah. It was unbelievable with the parents and all the stuff … We were praised up one side and down the other. “Thank you for doing this, my kids would never run and they did well.” I even got a letter this week from Florida from a lady that ran, oh my God, it had to be 35 years ago, and her granddaughter ran her first race up here. She was five years old.

She sent me a letter thanking me because the girl would have never kept running if it wasn’t for Kids Road Races. She sent me a letter saying that her granddaughter now is running for Orlando University on a track scholarship.

Rath: Wow.

Dave: So that made us feel pretty good.

Rath: I bet, that’s wonderful. Dave, I understand you were a runner growing up, right?

Dave: Yeah, I ran cross-country at Brockton High. I ran quite a bit when I was a younger kid.

Rath: It must mean a lot to you, in terms of what it meant for you growing up, to be able to spread that on to others.

Dave: Yeah, it’s pretty good. Both my kids started running — that’s why I had to keep it going. So they were running, and they were pretty good. Mike, my son, is still running. I think he’s 47 years old.

One Christmas, I bought him a running log, and so far, since he’s been running, he’s run, I think, 57,000 miles. And he ran many marathons — he ran the Boston Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon — and my daughter has also run a marathon. She wasn’t as fast as him, but she plugged along, and she’s run five marathons, so I think they get it in their blood.

I think the highlight of this year is that we had five grandchildren come up and run.

Judy: One granddaughter did age out because she’s 15 — the program is for 14 and under — and we have the ten categories. Five for the boys and five for the girls. Each week, we give out ribbons in those groups for a second and third. They look forward to the ribbons each week, or just improving their times.

It doesn’t have to … you know, they don’t have to get a ribbon. We have a nice clock out there at the shoot, and kids seem to enjoy that.

Dave: I don’t know who’s happier up there, the kids or the grandparents and parents. Oh my gosh. You know, the race starts right on top of a hill, and you can cut through the woods and see the kids, probably, with about a mile to go.

Once the race starts, everybody runs back to see the kids at the mile marker, with a mile to go, and then they’re trying to run back to try and beat the kids back to see them finish. It’s pretty comical.

Judy: It’s a little challenging for the parents.

Rath: Two races going on at the same time.

Dave: Yeah. We had so much support over the years from different people, and they said you can’t let this stop. And I mean, now, it is stopped, and I don’t know where it’sgoing to. But you know, I think we did our 47 years.

But D.W. Park is a beautiful, safe place to run. And thanks to the Brockton Mayor and Brockton Police Department. They send their detail every week to make sure the kids are safe. They block the traffic. There’s no traffic in the park. And we called on the Avon police this year. They came down and covered the end of the park, so the kids were very, very safe.

We have a follow car and a lead car and all that stuff. Having the kids safe is the biggest thing we try and do, and so far, everybody made it. We didn’t lose any kids.

Judy: Everything went off well.

Dave: And everything went off well.

Rath: Tell us a bit more about the last race. It must have been a big celebration.

Dave: Unbelievable.

Judy: We had a feeling that we’d have a lot of people there coming to support, and we had over 200 people at the park.

Dave: We had the district attorney, the mayor, the representative, city council … I was going to put in my name and run for something! I think I could get a lot of votes, I don’t know, but oh my God, it was unbelievable. I walked around all day with people coming in and talking to me and saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

I had tears in my eyes most of the day, and now I’m thinking and getting tears in my eyes again. But, you know, it’s very nice.

Judy: We had many grandparents that we had never seen. Lots of weeks, the parents bring them up and all, but this time they brought their families. The whole family is up — grandmothers, grandfathers and siblings, aunts and uncles, too.

Dave: You know, we’ve done this for 47 years, but we also do different races. We’ve done the Jingle Bell Run, which is, I think, held at Christmastime, through the Brockton Enterprise Helping Hands fund to raise money for charity during Christmas. Over the 21 years we did — 21 years, I think — they’ve raised over $400,000 to raise money for charity.

We’ve done that constantly. We’ve done things to raise charity for the Brockton High Scholarship Fund. Some kid gets hurt, we raise money for that. We raiseda lot of money for different charities and different people over the years.

Rath: You two are amazing!

Dave: It’s unbelievable. When the phone rings, I’m afraid someone’s going to ask me to do another race. But, I mean, we enjoyed it doing it. We enjoy helping people.

We were also sponsored this year — no, for the last ten years, maybe longer — by the Plymouth County district attorney’s office. They’ve been unbelievable. They’re up there every week. They make sure we’re taken care of. It’s remarkable how many kids we get up there on Saturdays.

Rath: Is there any sense that there could be a successor? Anybody who could step up the way that you did 47 years ago?

Judy: I’m not sure. I hope some people are interested. We do two series: an eight-week series in the spring and then an eight-week series in the fall.

Dave: I told my son I was going to leave it to him and he just ran away. But, I mean, there are just so many people we helped, and we know we did a good job because we had kids who went to every college — military college, West Point Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, and all over the place.

We had kids who went to Harvard and graduated from Harvard. We were all the best runners at Brockton High — not only Brockton High, but in surrounding towns. You know, I always look for my kids. That perks you up a little bit.

Rath: That’s brilliant. You know, the name of the segment is the Joy Beat, and you must have lost count of how many people you’ve brought joy to.

Dave: Yeah. Plus, we give every kid that runs a trophy at the final race to make sure they get a trophy or something, and we make sure they get a t-shirt and, thanks to the Cape Cod Cafe in Brockton, they all got pizza, too. And, some watermelon from Brockton Hospital.

Everybody went home happy with the trophy, a t-shirt and a lot ofmemories. I went home crying. Maybe you should’ve given me a trophy, Judy.

Judy: I can arrange that.

Dave: But it’s been fun. It’s been real fun, but, you know, 47 years is a long time. And now, my grandchildren are all active, in plays and all this stuff. My oldest grandaughter is 15, and she’s a Ninja Warrior. She’s headed for the world championships.

Rath: The American Ninja Warrior competition?

Dave and Judy: Yes.

Rath: Wow! That’s intense.

Dave: She qualified. She went last year, and she missed out in the finals by a 10th of a second, so she’s going back. She ran the races and all that stuff.

But all the kids that run seem to be the smartest ones in the class. You know, in National Honor Society, they all get scholarships and all that. Every time I look, I see some kids I know, which is great.

Rath: Dave, Judy, I can’t tell you how much of a pleasure it’s been talking to both of you. You’ve put me in a great mood. I’m just happy to know there are people like you around, thank you.

Judy: Oh, you’re welcome.

Dave: Thank you. And a quick thanks to the Plymouth County DA and the DA’s office, the Brockton Park Commission and all that for letting us use the park. You know, we know all the good people.

Rath: That’s Dave and Judy Gorman, who, for 47 years, have hosted Kids Road Races in Brockton — and done so much more.

Finally, let’s take it down to the mat. The benefits of yoga run deep. There are the immediate physical benefits, like increased flexibility and strength, but it also promotes mindfulness through everyday techniques that can benefit your quality of life.

But yoga studios in America are typically associated with affluent areas, and certain communities may not have access — or the funds — to participate. That’s why we’re celebrating the Hands to Heart Center: Yoga for the People on the Joy Beat.

This nonprofit shares the art of yoga with those dealing with addiction, poverty and trauma by offering thousands of free classes in low-income, underserved areas of greater Boston, bringing yoga to the people.

We’re lucky to be joined by the founder of the Hands to Heart Center, Susan Lovett. Susan, welcome to the Joy Beat!

Susan Lovett: It’s exciting to be here.

Rath: Before we jump in, I also want to make sure we list out everything you do because it’s not just the Hands to Heart Center — that would be enough — but you’re a licensed clinical social worker, a K-8 teacher, obviously a yoga teacher, and you also teach part-time at BU’s School of Social Work. Did I get everything?

Lovett: Yes, that’s pretty much everything. In addition, I was trained in what’s called trauma-centered, trauma-sensitive yoga at the Center for Trauma and Embodiment. Through the Center, I’m a facilitator in this practice called TCTSY. It’s an evidence-based practice that has a very specific teaching style and is the only federally funded yoga study that’s focused on TCTSY.

That’s where we get the evidence that shows us that this practice helps to decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression. It increases capacity. It builds resilience. As a social worker, these are all of the kinds of skills that I’m looking for for my students and clients.

This type of yoga is based on a lot of choices for the students — some suggestions of where a student might notice sensations in their body. A big difference from studio teaching is that teachers often say, “Reach your right arm up and stretch over to the left. Doesn’t that feel great? Isn’t that a nice, delicious stretch?”

In TCTSY, we’re not telling people how their bodies feel. We would never put our hands on a student. We stay on our mats at the front of the room, and we’re very explicit about that. For trauma survivors, that shows to be really healing because we say that in trauma, people didn’t have a choice, or their choice didn’t matter. This type of yoga puts choice in the hands of the students.

All of the Hands to Heart Center classes are free. They’re all customized, and they’re all trauma-sensitive.

Rath: That’s fascinating. It sounds almost like yoga with cognitive behavioral therapy, a way of — well, like you’re talking about, these outcome-based approaches. It sounds like these techniques must really pay off for the people who do the work.

Lovett: They really do with regular practice — again, this was shown in the federally funded study, which had a group of women with complex trauma. That’s described as the harm that people do in relationships, so like child abuse, domestic violence, and emotional abuse.

One group did cognitive behavioral therapy — so you’re right about that — alone, and the other group did that along with TCTSY. The second group had more symptom reduction, so symptoms decreased, and the decrease lasted longer than the group who just did the talk therapy.

As we know, talk therapy is so inaccessible for so many people for lots of reasons, like money, language and cultural norms, and also because we have a greater need than we have the supply of counselors. But yoga can be done by anyone, anywhere. So I say that a young person could do this in their room or in their hallway, even if they live with an abuser. A person who’s incarcerated can do this in their cell. People who are unhoused can do this anywhere that they may find themselves.

We encourage people to use it in their lives. It does have a good fitness benefit, as you mentioned, but it’s also a coping skill, a strategy. We’re doing it in a lot of high-poverty schools in Boston. We’re doing it in prisons and jails across Massachusetts. We’re in domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters and residential treatment programs.

Our students are, generally speaking, people who have not stepped on a yoga mat before or may not think that the practice is for them. So often, they think that they can’t do it because we see images of generally young, white, thin women, and most people will say, “If that’s what yoga is, I can’t do that.”

Rath: Well, the thing that’s kind of wonderful — you’ve probably heard this before from a lot of Indians or people of Indian background — yoga in America seems kind of out of balance that it’s directed towards elite people. The idea that somebody couldn’t afford to study yoga seems kind of mad. And here it is — you’re doing the work. You’re taking it to the people who need it the most where they need it.

Lovett: Yeah, that’s exactly why we exist. I am in the spaces and places where people often don’t have access to resources in low-income communities of color in Boston, and it seemed like that access was limited.

When I go into yoga studios in Boston, I see white people. Mostly, I see people whose bodies look fit. I see people who are there because they can afford the rates. So, we’re bringing it out to people who may not feel comfortable walking in the yoga studios, who may literally not be able to walk into a yoga studio. That has been a big success.

Rath: Susan, thank you so much for coming on and sharing about the incredible work you do. It’s really inspiring.

Lovett: Oh, you’re so welcome. I could talk about this all day, so I’m always happy when I have a chance to.

Rath: That’s Susan Lovett, founder of the non-profit Hands to Heart Center: Yoga for the People.

Bobbi, Dave, Judy and Susan don’t just show the world the joy found in getting active. They also show incredible passion and care. The glass ceilings they’ve broken and the records they’ve set are a testament to why we’re celebrating them on this week’s edition of the Joy Beat.

If you would like to nominate someone for the Joy Beat, let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (617)-300-BEAT [2328].

Joy Beat is a production of GBH and is distributed by PRX. A big thank you to all of our guests and to our team, who helped make this show possible.

Kana Ruhalter produced and edited today’s episode. Jackie Martin is our senior producer. Devon Robbins is our editorial producer. Mei He is our project manager. Special thanks to Dave Goodman, who helped mix this episode. We had engineering support from Bill Piacitelli.

Don’t forget to hit that follow button if you haven’t already to keep up with new Joy Beat episodes that drop every other Tuesday.

This is: Joy Beat. I’m Arun Rath. Thanks for listening.