The Story Behind The Woman Who Handed It To Everyone At The Boston Marathon

You could say women and women’s rights have come a long way. This is specially true for women runners, and specially true for Katherine Switzer who was determine to bust the dumb idea that women weren’t physically capable of running a marathon. In fact, back in 1967 women weren’t allowed to race at all, but Kathrine Switzer wasn’t having any of this bullshit, specially after her own coach insisted the Boston Marathon was too far too long for “a fragile woman,” which was the reason behind not allowing women to race in the first place.

Switzer knew she wanted to do one thing and one thing only: finish the bloody 42.2 kilometer course. She could either run unregistered, like Bobbi Gibb had done in 1966 and was about to do so again in 1967, or she could register and hope for the best. So she registered. As K.V. Switzer. Race officials apparently committed an oversight and didn’t realize their mistake until much later on. So Switzer ran with the entry number 261, she trained, lined up at the start on April 19, 1967 and went for it.

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About six kilometers into the marathon, though, an enraged race official called Jock Sempler tried to stop Switzer from running. He was a man with a record of being really intense about marathons, harassing and even getting violent with participants he didn’t consider took the marathon seriously, like unregistered runners. Since women weren’t allowed to participate, the only logical thing for him to do was to pull her out of the race (little did he know…). Switzer recalls in her memoir that:

“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!” 

@yogapatriceLuckily, Switzer was running alongside her boyfriend, Tom Miller, a 235-pound ex-All American football player and nationally ranked hammer thrower. Miller shoved Semple aside and sent him flying to the pavement. However, Switzer recalls feeling “puke-ish” when this happened.

“Now he’s hurt, we’re in trouble, and we’re going to get arrested. That was how scared I felt, as well as deeply humiliated, and for just a tiny moment, I wondered if I should step off the course. I did not want to mess up this prestigious race. But the thought was only a flicker. I knew if I quit, nobody would ever believe that women had the capability to run 26-plus miles. If I quit, everybody would say it was a publicity stunt. If I quit, it would set women’s sports back, way back, instead of forward. If I quit, I’d never run Boston. If I quit, Jock Semple and all those like him would win. My fear and humiliation turned to anger.”

So Switzer went along to finish the race, which she did in 4 hours and 20 minutes about an hour behind the first female finisher, Bobbi Gibb. The photographs of Semple shouting at Switzer became viral (well, viral-ish for 1967) and kick started a debate on whether it was right or wrong for Semple to react that way.

Later on, Will Cloney, director of the Boston Athletic Association said, “Women can’t run in the Marathon because the rules forbid it. Unless we have rules, society will be in chaos. I don’t make the rules, but I try to carry them out. We have no space in the Marathon for any unauthorized person, even a man. If that girl were my daughter, I would spank her.” Can you believe this jerk?

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Because of Switzer and Gibb’s run, the AAU barred women from all competitions with male runners and even threatened that any women who did, would lose the right to compete in any of races. Many women runners, including Switzer, tried to convince the Boston Athletic Association to allow women to participate in the marathon and finally, in 1972, women were officially allowed to run the Boston Marathon for the first time.

@talking_leadershipNot only was this an accomplishment on a collective level, but on a personal level as well. Semple reversed his position on women competing in the marathon later in life. “Once the rule was adjusted and women were allowed in the race, Jock was one of their staunchest supporters. He was very progressive, said Marja Bakker (a later organizer of the race). Semple later publicly reconciled with Switzer.

Switzer helped paved the way, not just for women who want to practice sports, but for women who have been told they can’t do something that men can do. And for every man who thinks women are somehow less skilled or incapable or doing the same things men can do, they can just go to hell. Don’t you just love a happy ending?

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