Pam Manley’s first trip to the Boston Marathon came before she can remember, when she was a toddler from Dedham standing up near Heartbreak Hill with her family. She’s been back many times since, including seven times as a qualified runner and twice as a bandit, and has frequented the 26.2-mile stretch on many of those winter-into-spring training runs.

So, yes, the 38-year-old Duxbury resident is familiar with the course. When she lines up in Hopkinton on Monday morning, the day before the 50th anniversary of Bobbi Gibb becoming the first woman to complete the race, she’ll take off with an eye on personal checkpoints she’s come to know through the decades.

The spot where she watched as a kid with her parents and sister and aunts and uncles and cousins. The nursing home near Mile 16 where her grandfather spent the last years of his life. The cemetery just past Boston College, a “weird catalyst’’ that pushes her toward Beacon Street.

Fans — screaming, supportive strangers — will be omnipresent.

“The other big marathons are all really well run and really crowd-supported, but it’s not continuous,’’ said Manley, who runs with a New Balance team.

“In Boston, it’s the whole way.’’

Manley will be one of an expected 14,100 female participants in this year’s Marathon, a total that rivals the record of more than 14,300 who finished in 2014 and an impressive number befitting Gibb’s golden anniversary.

Gibb’s daring, unofficial run in 1966 — now formally recognized (and, this year, specifically celebrated) by the Boston Athletic Association — proved to be the first crack in a dam that long ago crumbled completely. This year, Gibb is the Marathon’s grand marshal.

“It was women like Bobbi and the folks who followed her who were the early pioneers and set the stage for what we enjoy today,’’ said Joann Flaminio, the current and first woman BAA president.

“At the depth of their souls, they knew. They knew how important it was for them to finish, because it could change attitudes. They knew all the women who followed them would be their beneficiary.’’

The Boston Marathon first had a formal women’s field in 1972, with nine entrants and eight finishers.

That grew to more than 100 finishers in 1977, to more than 1,000 in 1990, and to more than 10,000 in 2011.

Nearly 165,000 women have completed the race overall.

The Marathon means something different to each of them.

For Laurie Cass, a Plymouth resident who doctors said would never run again after a 2003 car accident, it’s a reminder of what almost never was. She’ll be at it again Monday as part of the first — and fastest — wave.

For Becca Pizzi, a 36-year-old from Belmont who runs a day-care center, it’s a homecoming of sorts, a 26.2-mile stroll around the neighborhood. This past January, she completed the World Marathon Challenge of seven such races on seven continents in seven days.

For Lindsay Willard, who discovered a love of running growing up in Westford, it’s an annual refresher of the 2012 iteration.

She was the 17th woman to cross the finish line that year, a sequence she can still recall in great detail — from the heat to her pneumonia to her mother around Mile 14 suggesting that Willard “reevaluate’’ her determination to see it through.

“There’s something about that course and that day,’’ said Willard, a Somerville resident. “That Marathon is in my heart more than any other race.’’

The list of area women with Marathon stories of note is long.

Milton’s Jodi Feeney, 52, has about a quarter-century’s worth of Boston finishes under her belt. Anjali Forber-Pratt, a US paralympian raised in Natick, has been among the top wheelchair-division competitors in the past.

Sarah Nixon’s three kids, now mostly grown, can only really remember the Marathon with their mother as a part of it. The 51-year-old Medfield resident will run for the 21st year in a row Monday.

During that streak, one of Nixon’s children, Kallie, also became a runner of some renown, thrice earning All-America honors at Bates before graduating in 2014. Daughter accompanied mother for the final 6 miles of the 2012 race.

Nixon has raised more than $150,000 for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge over those two decades.

“It’s a spring ritual. You train during the winter, it’s getting to be spring,’’ Nixon said, echoing a sentiment shared by most Marathon regulars. “I can’t even imagine not running the Marathon on Patriots Day at this point.’’

Added Willard: “It’s here and it’s out on the sidewalk. You can just go out and see it. You can give little kids a high-five, and they can give you a Popsicle stick.’’

It all started with Gibb, and that isn’t lost on these women. Nixon, who met Gibb at the BAA’s 125th anniversary celebration several years ago, called her “such an inspiration.’’

Pizzi crossed paths with Gibb earlier this month, and in their brief encounter made sure to thank her for paving the way — not just for Pizzi herself, but also for the other tens of thousands of women who have reached Boylston Street.

“Because she stood up for what she believed in,’’ Pizzi said, “I got to pursue my dream.’’

Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @timbhealey.