This week I want to discuss when women could finally run, and I don't just mean run for fun, but when they could finally compete against others. Also when they were able to compete against men and maybe even pass some of the men up!
Katherine Switzer was the first woman to challenge the tradition of only men competing in marathons. It took place in the year 1967 when she wanted to run in the Boston Marathon, which at that time was still strictly men only. Her dad had always encourage her to do what she wanted and not let little obstacles get in her way, in this case the men only competition. She thought that it was unfair, which I also agree with, why should only guys be able to run, there is plenty of fast women out there who could definately wipe some of these guys out with their amazing stamina and speed, so Katherine decided she wasn't going to let this stop her and entered the Boston Marathon.
Let me rewind quickly first and give more background information as to what led up to this point of determination for Katherine. As I said in the above paragraph, Katherine was encouraged by her dad to go out and do what she wanted, so she went out for the field hockey team in school and also did as well in college. She also ran on the side just to maintain her endurance, she was really dedicated to being the best she could be and with her running it only gave her an advantage on the field. In college her field hockey team didn't take anything as serisouly as she would have liked and so she would run for a little after. One day the men's track coach came to talk to Katherine and wanted to see if she would like to run a race with the men's track team since of course there wasn't a women's. Katherine was thrilled and gladly accepted the offer, but little did she know that she was going to be looked down upon by others. She competed in the mile run, finishing with a time of 5:58. She was felt content with the out come, but others did not and sent her rude sorts of comments her way. Katherine wanted to continue her passions for running after college, but nothing was offered for women, so she went on to write about sports at Syracruse.
She still continued to run at Syracruse and actually went on to run with the men's cross country team, but did little running WITH them as they were always way ahead of her pace, but the manager stayed back and ran with and that was the beginning of her mentoring with him, Arnie Briggs. Katherine wasn't able to compete officially because the NCAA didn't allow it, but she was still able to practice with the team, which she did. She told Arnie her goal of runnig a marathon and he told her that she was crazy and that women can't run marathons (umm yes they can, anybody can do anything, as long as they really are determined to work hard and put all their heart towards their goal). She wanted to prove Arnie wrong and continued on with her passion. She trained by running longer distances and Arnie even clocked out 26.2 miles, the official distance of a marathon, and when she ran that he agreed to help her sign up for the Boston Marathon. It never specifically stated that women couldn't run in the marathon, it was more just expected that they wouldn't even dare to. In 1967 though, after registering and recieving her race number, Katherine was at the start line of the Boston Marathon, ready to compete with all men.
There was some controversy of course though and as the race started people began to notice that a woman was running the marathon. Many congratulated her and encouraged her, while others were rude, including Jock Semple, who went after Katherine and tried to physically remove her from the race.
Thank goodness for her boyfriend though who was also running with her and he took care of Jock. Katherine completed the race with a time of 4:20, not an ideally fast time, but hey she finished. This also began the encourgement for other women to run in marathons, which they soon started to do.
It wasn't unitl 1972 though that the marathon was officially open to women to race in and actually have their times recorded, because even when Katherine ran in the Boston Marathon in 1967 she didn't have her time officially recorded with the men's and some people even went on to claim that she didn't finish, bue she DID. Katherine continued on with running marathons and ended up winning with New York Marathon in 1974 with a time of 2:51. Now that is a fast time! Over an hour less than her first marathon and also her best time ever. She was happy that she was making a difference for women around the world and making if possible for them to race officially with the men too finally. In 1984 the Olympic Marathon allowed women to compete in too and has only added more events for the ladies ever since.
I never even had heard of Katherine Switzer before this, but now after reading about her and learning about her amazing story and strong courage she had in fighting for what she wants, I totally admire her, plus she is a runner! If it wasn't for her, who knows, us women could still be running, but not competitively with the men, so I thank her for all her determination to change that. I hope to meet her some day and I will continue to run with even more of a desire to do well and run my heart out!
http://www.katherineswitzer.com/bio.shtml
http://www.katherineswitzer.com/#more
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rialtoentertainment.com/_public/
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