On April 19th, 1967, Kathrine Switzer almost didn’t finish the Boston Marathon; her journey nearly came to a dramatic halt only two miles into the race.
Kathrine Switzer: "All of sudden I heard this scraping noise behind me. And I quickly turned and just at that moment, this very very angry person was looming over me and just grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me back and screamed ‘get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers’ and began trying to rip the numbers off the front of my sweatshirt."
That person was Jock Semple, the race director of the Boston Marathon, who didn’t want a woman running in the race
But Switzer’s boyfriend Tom Miller was running as well. And the aspiring Olympic hammer thrower jumped in and with his 235 pound frame checked Jock Semple with such a force that he went flying off the road.
Kathrine Switzer: "And we were terrified because he went down like a crumpled suit of clothes and my coach said, run like hell and down the street we went."
And in four hour, and twenty minutes, Kathrine Switzer crossed the finish line and became the first woman to officially finish the Boston Marathon.
( Wow. That was 49 years ago already and Kathy Switzer still looks fantastic.)
Here's to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.
I am woman, hear me roar.
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