Inspiration
We take for granted now that we can enter whatever race we want. We can chew up the miles of halves, marathons, ultras and tris without anyone batting an eye. But this wasn’t always the case. Back in 1967, Katherine Switzer did something extraordinary – she was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.
Though women weren’t forbidden from running the marathon, it was just assumed that none of them would. When race officials realised there was a woman on the course, they tried to rip off her bib number and push her of the road.
It’s an incredible story and we owe a lot to her act of defiance. During that one, what must have been terrifying run, Switzer made history and laid the ground work for us to be able to do what we do now.
Thank you Ms Switzer. It wasn’t in vain.
Read Katherine Switzer tell the story in her own words over on the BBC site.
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Check out what others are saying...[...] I was surprised to see this article today – first from Spikes and Heels and then more detail at the BBC. The city of Boston is staging its annual marathon. Kathrine [...]
[...] hero of the week has got to be a running based one, and it is a bit of amazing history. Katherine Switzer the first woman to take part in the Boston Marathon. It goes to show how much we take for granted [...]
[...] there are so many sportswomen who inspire me – Kathrine Switzer, for example, without whom, none of us would be running marathons – but I always come back to [...]