“My running buddy Lorrae Pratt McCullagh gave me a copy of Kathrine Switzer’s Marathon Woman in April 2015″, says Juliet Morris, 51, from Greenwich. By then we’d been running together in the woods and parks of London for about nine years, and loved the freedom and exhilaration that spending time in natural surroundings offered us. We often…Read More

To Kathrine Switzer, running has provided ‘everything’ “It has given me my career, my travel, my health, my religion, my husband and myself, maybe most importantly,” she says. “It has given me myself.” But whatever she has taken from running, the now 71-year-old has repaid it so generously that the sport will forever be in…Read More

In 1967, a Boston Marathon official nearly dragged a woman off the course after she managed to enter the men’s-only race. Five decades later, race officials aren’t as concerned about gender boundaries: They’re now publicly acknowledging that transgender runners can compete using the gender they identify with. “We take people at their word. We register…Read More

  Kathrine Switzer knows the moment that changed her life: when she was attacked on the Boston Marathon course by a race official who tried to rip her number off her shirt. She had been the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, and since then, Switzer has helped women change their lives through…Read More

   A place on the start line of the Boston Marathon is a much coveted honor. Eighty percent of entrants have to run qualifying times to earn their bib and the remaining 20 percent are charity runners with fierce competition and high sponsorship minimums for places. It was therefore with overwhelming excitement and gratitude that…Read More

 A runner who saw off furious race officials in 1967 to become the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon has repeated the feat 50 years after first completing the course. Kathrine Switzer, 70, became a hero of the women’s rights movement after she officially completed the all-male race. Registering as KV Switzer, her gender…Read More

Fifty years ago, Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to officially finish the Boston Marathon. At the time, in 19667, Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) rules stated women were not allowed to run more than 1.5 miles competitively because they supposedly couldn’t handle the strain of longer distances. But at the time, Kathrine had no idea…Read More

One is a neuroscientist-turned-sculptor, the other an activist and organizer. Taking different paths to the same goal, Bobbi Gibb and New Paltz resident Kathrine Switzer outran Boston Marathon tradition and trampled the notion that women were too frail for a 26.2 miles race. “When you’re trying to overcome a prejudice and do something you’re not…Read More

A hundred-plus runners. Twenty six miles. One mission. On April 17, Christine Valdivieso will wake up early, put on her running gear and approach the starting line at the Boston Marathon. Though her daughter and husband won’t be in attendance, she will not be embarking on the adventure alone. Valdivieso, a Laguna Niguel resident, is…Read More

Kathrine Switzer –the first woman to officially enter and run in the Boston Marathon– dismisses the suggestion that she was destined to compete that freezing day in April 1967. “Destiny is about finishing the race, OK? You make the decision to do something and to see it through,” Switzer said. “So in everything you do…people…Read More

Prior to the Women’s Running 10K race in Liverpool on 17 July, I was particularly nervous – I hardly slept the night before. Yes, I was aiming for a PB, but the focus of my nerves was that the coach wouldn’t turn up! Getting yourself to a race on time is stressful enough but the responsibility…Read More

In May, I achieved something I’d been working towards for a few years: I ran 3:30 at the Edinburgh Marathon, a time that would qualify me to enter the Boston Marathon. Before this I’d spent a couple of training cycles trying to run under 3:45 to gain Good For Age (GFA) entry into the notoriously…Read More

  It was a dark and stormy night and my running club was doing speed training: one mile circuits with a short rest in between. As one of the club’s slowest members, I was hating every second of it, especially as running at lung-busting speed meant I couldn’t chat to my friend Victoria. Reaching the end…Read More

  Kathrine Switzer wants to be part of history again. She was in 1967 when she became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry. And she hopes to be again next weekend when she comes to Seneca Falls to its inaugural Right to Run 19K/5K. “I think it’s going to…Read More

Once upon a time, less than 50 years ago, women weren’t allowed to run marathons as it was feared that they’d prove much too arduous for us delicate ladies. Kathrine Switzer changed all that when, in 1967, she entered the then all-male Boston Marathon under the name KV Switzer. She was wearing bib number 261…Read More

Running is about freedom and fearlessness, whether you are the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, a woman living under oppressive conditions or a Boston Marathoner reeling from last week’s bombings at the race. Running can help people cope with adversity and even lead to social change, said Kathrine Switzer, the first official…Read More