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$6.3 million

— Aliyah Boston's new four-year contract with the Indiana Fever — making it the richest total salary in WNBA history

Records fell at the Boston Marathon 🏃‍♀️

Defending champion Sharon Lokedi forgot her watch on the way to the Boston Marathon start line. Fortunately, she was able to borrow one from a spectator whose wife was running — and he shared his new "PR marathon" to Strava 😂

Lokedi defended her title in 2:18:51 with some blistering splits on the second half and became the rare back-to-back Boston champ.

While she wasn't quite able to break her course record from last year, favorable weather and a tailwind on the point-to-point course led to all kinds of record times. Jess McClain ran an American record for the course and took fifth. And, a stunning 609 women broke three hours. 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️

A few other notable athletes:

• Des Linden took second in the Masters division in 2:35:49 — just over a week after finishing the Marathon des Sables

• Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the wheelchair race in 1:30:51

• Chelsea Clinton finished the race, as did astronaut Suni Williams

• Calli Hauger-Thackery ran it in 2:43 while 22 weeks pregnant — making it her third marathon while pregnant!

• And 80-year-old Patty Hung ran her 40th Boston Marathon, breaking her own record

🏃‍♀️ All in all, there were 12,579 women runners and 17 female wheelchair athletes who finished. And in the 18-39 age-group the number of women who started *just barely* surpassed the number of men!

(Photo: BAA)

Hockey heads to playoffs...almost 🏒

The PWHL season ends this Saturday — but there are still some unanswered questions before the playoffs start.

How do the PWHL playoffs work?

The top four teams at the end of the regular season make the playoffs for a chance to win the Walter Cup.

So far that includes: 

🏒 Boston Fleet

🏒 Montréal Victoire 

🏒 reigning back-to-back champions Minnesota Frost

And, there are two teams battling for the final spot: The Toronto Sceptres and the Ottawa Charge. It’s so close that it might come down to the final game...

The Matchups: The PWHL also has a rule where the top team in the league at the end of the regular season gets to pick their opponent, choosing from the third and fourth place teams. 🤔 In the last two years, it hasn’t worked out well. Will the curse hit the first place team this season as well?

Wait, what's the Gold Plan?

After a team is officially eliminated from the playoffs, any points they gain go towards the Gold Plan. The team that has the most Gold Plan points at the end of the regular season gets the first overall draft pick for next season. Why? To stop teams from tanking games!

Currently, that ranking is led by the Vancouver Goldeneyes. Plus, the league has said it wants to add at least TWO MORE TEAMS to the league (and maybe four).

Join the Feisty Strong Club

Good progressive strength training for women is really hard to find. 🏋️‍♀️

Not workouts. Not apps pumping out content to keep you endlessly engaged. Not AI "training plans." You can find a workout anywhere. But programming that actually treats women like they're smart, capable, and genuinely interested in getting stronger.

That's why we've expanded on our original Feisty Strong course. Now we're offering three levels of strength progression:

💪 Strong Foundations — For women building their base with bodyweight, dumbbells, and even into barbells. 

💪 Barbell Level 1  — 12 weeks of expert-coached barbell programming for women ready to pick up the bar 

💪 Barbell Level 2  — The next progression for women who are ready to keep building

Check out the programs here and learn how to get started with barbells (and why we love them).

The highlight reel

• 🚲 Sofía Gómez Villafañe outsprinted Lauren Stephens to win Sea Otter, the opening race of the six-race LifeTime Grand Prix.
  
  
• 🚴‍♀️ Duathlete-turned-cyclist Paula Blasi only started racing bikes two years ago. And this weekend she won the Amstel Gold Race.
  
  
• 🏃‍♀️ Jane Hedengren broke the NCAA outdoor 5,000m record (14:50.50).
  
  
• 🏃‍♀️ 7th-grader Angelina Alder broke the under-12 mile world record (4:41).
  
  
• Ashley Paulson ran 100 miles on a treadmill at the Boston Marathon expo in 12 hours, 47 minutes for a new world record. 🏃‍♀️
  
  
• The record for the fastest marathon with bilateral hip replacements was set by Carrie Bradshaw (not that Carrie Bradshaw) in Houston in 3 hours, 42 minutes.
  
  
• 🏊‍♀️ 🚴‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️ At Ironman Texas, reigning world champ Solveig Lovseth won with a Norwegian national record for the Ironman (8:11:09) and Taylor Knibb took second with an American record (8:14:48).
  
  
• Payton and Camryn Henderson also became the youngest twins to ever complete an Ironman, finishing on their 18th birthday.
  
  
• ⚽ The USWNT won the final game in their series against Japan 3-0. What did they learn ahead of the World Cup next year?
  
  
• 🏉 Round three of the women's Six Nations tournament starts this weekend.
  
  
• While it is not uncommon for schools to downgrade varsity sports to club status due to budget cuts or roster spots, Quinnipiac University's downgrading of its women's rugby team (home to Ilona Maher) has spurred outrage throughout the sport. 🏉
  
  
• Oklahoma won its fourth NCAA gymnastics national title in five years. 🤸‍♀️ And Jordan Chiles closed out her collegiate career with UCLA and a vault title.
  
  
• In its bid to become an official NCAA sport, women's flag football 🏈 hosted its first DI tournament.
  
  
• The Women's Lacrosse League (WLL) held its first college draft ever 🥍 and Madison Taylor went #1 pick to the California Palms.
  
  
• Austin won the LOVB championships 🏐 for a second year in a row — which means that Madisen Skinner won the NCAA national title in 2020, 2022, 2023 and then won the LOVB champonship in 2025 and 2026. Not a bad six years.
  
  
• The WNBA officially approved expansion to Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030.
  
  
• And ⚽ the NWSL will expand to Columbus, Ohio in 2028 for a record franchise fee of $205 million.
  
  
• Chloe Kim was named the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year.

Your Feisty recommendations

🎧 What to listen to: The Birth Keepers — a six-part series from The Guardian on the Free Birth Society

📚 What to read: Our triathlon industry newsletter, Triathlonish, wrote last week about how triathlon is just one of the many Olympic sports that was told by the USOPC to change their rules on trans athletes due to pressure from the Trump Administration ahead of LA28

📺 What to watch: The Jump Rope Queen of Beverly Hills

💜 What we're getting hyped for: Our brand new Grand Traverse training program 🥾

The Feist is written by Kelly O'Mara. Ads by Ella Hnatyshyn

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