Fifty years from sneaking into the Boston Marathon, Wellington runner Kathrine Switzer has completed the race as a celebrated guest.
the 70-year-old lined up wearing the same bib number – 261 – that an official tried to rip from her in 1967 as women were banned from running marathons.
CNN reported that the 70-year-old “walked through water stations, stopped for pictures and still finished under qualifying time: 4:44:31 and an average mile of 10:51”.
Her time yesterday was just over 24 minutes slower than her 4 hour 20 minute finish in 1967 – when she was a 20-year-old American journalism student. Back then, she was disqualified and expelled from the Amateur Athletic Union. Yesterday she was feted at the finish line and interviewed on a US national television network.
