The furious man was race director Jock Semple, who proceeded to grab Switzer’s bib number. A big man, a huge man, with bared teeth was set to pounce, and before I could react he grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming, ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!’” Switzer wrote in her memoir, “Marathon Woman.” “Instinctively I jerked my head around quickly and looked square into the most vicious face I’d ever seen. Then, she heard the sound of leather shoes and instantly knew that something was amiss. A teammate told her to wipe off her makeup, but the bold woman refused.Ī few miles in, she noticed a man in the middle of the road shaking his finger at her as she ran past. She wanted everyone in the event to know that a woman was competing with the men, so she wore lipstick and earrings for the run. Switzer) instead of her full name, allowing her gender to remain a secret until the day of the race. To get into the race, Switzer registered using her initials (K.V. According to Switzer, the idea of long-distance running was considered questionable for women because it was a strenuous activity that may cause them to get big legs, grow a mustache, and their uterus to fall out. So, in 1967, the then 20-year-old journalism student at Syracuse University in New York competed in the Boston Marathon, believing it was about time that a woman officially ran the all-male race.Īlthough Roberta Gibb did it the year before, she didn’t actually sign up for the race and hid her gender by wearing a baggy hooded sweatshirt at the start of the event.īack then, most of society held a notion that women in sports were unattractive. One woman who lived during such a time was Kathrine Switzer, but she didn’t let those ridiculous restrictions keep her from doing what she wanted. There was a time in human history when women weren’t allowed to wear pants, vote, and compete in sports, among many other restrictions. Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on Email Share on Twitter
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