Men and women running in the Boston Marathon is a very common sight.
Up until Syracuse University student Katherine Switzer ran the entire 26.2 mile race back in 1967, no woman had officially entered and run the marathon. Switzer says in 1966 a woman unofficially ran the race after jumping out of the bushes to complete the run.
“It was so unbelievable to start the Boston Marathon and so excited! We’re going to Mecca and having the biggest race of my life to the two mile mark when all of the sudden the race director jumped off the press truck and attacked me and tried to pull off my bib numbers and throw me out of the race because I was a woman. It was a life changing experience,” says Switzer. “The act of finishing the race was the most important thing in my life. Not being attacked but finishing it and showing the world that a woman could actually run 26 miles, 385 yards.”
