News & Events

In a New York Times essay last March, Maine-based writer Caitlin Shetterly described her joy in gritty, cold winter runs and the way these runs often spark creative thoughts. “On a run, ideas will bubble up,” she wrote. “Like little ice floes in warming waters, they’ll drift unencumbered until I can see them gleaming in the sun.” Just…Read More

Last month, around 30,000 runners raced the Boston Marathon, with women making up about 45 percent of the field. But in 1967, there was only one woman with an official bib: Kathrine Switzer. Aside from training for months through the bleak winter, the 20-year-old journalism student had to break barriers, overcoming prejudice, criticism and ridicule just…Read More

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WFXR News) – Tuesday morning the University of Lynchburg announced the commencement speakers for their spring graduation ceremonies. The University released the following information:  Kathrine Switzer will speak at our Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 18. In 1967, she became the first woman to enter and run the Boston Marathon, despite it being closed…Read More

Thousands of women ran in the Boston Marathon this year, but back in 1967, 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer was the only woman on the course. Her decision to participate in the marathon that morning sparked a social revolution that has given women across the world the motivation to run for over 50 years. In 1967, Switzer…Read More

Amediados de diciembre del 1966, y mientras trotaban bajo una feroz tormenta de nieve, Kathrine Switzer tuvo una fuerte discusión con su veterano entrenador, Arnie Briggs. Por aquel entonces, Switzer tenía 19 años, estudiaba periodismo deportivo en la Universidad de Siracusa, Nueva York, y, como la institución no tenía disciplinas deportivas para mujeres, ella practicaba…Read More

Most Kiwis wouldn’t guess that, nestled in the hills of Wellington, a global sporting superstar has made a home. Thousands of kilometres away from the US, where she’s mobbed by fans, the world’s most famous female marathon runner enjoys a more laid-back life of dinner parties, movie nights and pounding the pavements of the windy…Read More

Was there a moment in your career when you realized that you needed to reinvent yourself or alter the course of your career? How did you come to that decision? There were several, as life always throws you curve balls and you need to shift and adapt. At the time, these moments are usually something…Read More

activebeauty: Warum war es Frauen damals verboten, Marathon zu laufen? Im Jahr 1967 gab es dazu nicht wirklich Regeln. Aber generell waren fast alle Sportarten den Männern vorbehalten. Frauen nahmen fast nie an Bewerben teil. Viele Leute glaubten: Eine Frau kann rein körperlich keine so weite Distanz schaffen. Oder sie würde sich dabei verletzen. Viele…Read More

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. What is something about you that would surprise people? Kathrine: I love to be in the garden and do gardening. And, I love to see the result. It’s kind…Read More

WASHINGTON — Running is about putting one foot in front of the other, no matter your age, say Kathrine Switzer and Roger Robinson — a husband and wife team known to many as royalty in the running world. In 1967, Switzer, now 71, became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered…Read More

Nearly a year after setting up a menstrual cup manufacturing business in Hawke’s Bay, two lifelong best friends have hit a huge deal to help female runners at this year’s New York Marathon. The Hello Cup is a reusable hygienic cup that is an alternative to traditional feminine sanitary products. It holds three times as…Read More

A mile and a half into Kathrine Switzer’s first Boston Marathon, she was attacked by a race official. It was 1967 and women didn’t run marathons. Not officially, at least. The race official ran up behind Switzer, shouting and clawing at her sweatshirt. He was trying to pull off her bib with her race number…Read More

The ability for women to chase the their dreams can be attributed in part to Kathrine Switzer, the first official woman runner at the Boston Marathon. She continues to inspire others to see the boundaries that society sets for them as obstacles that they can shatter as they reach their full potential. Switzer said, “People…Read More

“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