April 17, 2023
When Kathrine Switzer first started running, she was told that doing so might just kill her. She ran anyway, and ultimately became the first woman to ever complete the Boston Marathon. Years later, I spoke with her about that achievement—and what happened afterwards.
Here’s an excerpt of our conversation:
When did you realize how important your run was?
When I realized the import of this certainly wasn’t at the finish line, because I was greeted by a bunch of irascible journalists who had been standing out in the snow and sleet for four hours waiting for me to finish. They were really cross, really irritated, and I was very sharp with them. One guy said to me, “This is just a one off deal. You’ll never run another marathon again, right?”
I was only 20. I said, “You know what? One day you’re going to read about a little old lady who’s 80 years old who drops dead on a training run in Central Park.” I said, “It’s going to be me.”