On Monday, the 130th Boston Marathon will step off in Hopkinton, MA, and finish in downtown Boston a few hours later. Over 30,000 competitors from all over the world will participate in this year’s race, many of whom will be female.
Did you know the first female to officially run the Marathon occurred 59 years ago on April 19, 1967.
Kathrine Switzer from Syracuse registered as K.V. Switzer and was issued bib number 261. Her run was not without incident, as sometime during Mile 4, race manager Jock Semple came bounding off a passing media truck attempting to rip Switzer’s bib off and forcer her out of the race. One of Switzer’s running companions, Thomas Miller, body-blocked Semple out of the way and Switzer carried on, ultimately finishing the race in 4 hours, 20 minutes. She recounts her memories of this history-making moment in her memoir, Marathon Woman. At this link is an excerpt that details both the lead up and running of the 1967 Boston Marathon.
This sequence of photos from the 1967 Boston Marathon by Boston Traveller photographer Harry Trask, captures the moment Kathrine Switzer was about to be attacked by Marathon race manager, Jock Semple, before her friend Thomas Miller interceded. Switzer went on to complete the Boston Marathon and became the first woman to enter and run the race. (Photo courtesy of the Boston Herald)
Switzer was not, in fact, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. That bit of history belongs to Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb who joined the race shortly after the starting gun in 1966 as a wildcat and finished in an unofficial time of 3 hours, 21 minutes, and 40 seconds which would have been good for 126th place. She ran the race the same way again 1967 and 1968.
It was not until 1972 that women were officially designated as an entry category. Switzer has spent the years since her Marathon pushing for women’s rights in athletics and was a key figure in getting the Women’s Marathon included in the Olympics beginning in 1984. She ran Boston again in 2017 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her historic run and finished in 4:44.31. Following the race Bib No. 261 was retired.
Short videos featuring the words of Kathrine Switzer (left) and Bobbi Gibb recollecting their history making efforts at the Boston Marathon.
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