I didn’t intend to make a political statement when I ran the Boston Marathon in 1967. I was just a girl who wanted to run. Since there were few women’s sports in those days, I was training with the men’s team at Syracuse University. When I told Arnie Briggs, an assistant coach who’d run 15 Boston Marathons, that I too wanted to run Boston, he said women weren’t capable of running 26 miles. But he said he’d take me if I proved I could do it. When we ran 31 miles together and he fainted, he was convinced. He insisted I officially sign up for the race, and there was nothing about gender on the entry form. I signed it as I always sign my name: K. V. Switzer.
