Monday, July 10, 2006

Only 39 years ago...

I need to mention the book that Jill gave me; 26.2: Marathon Stories, by Kathrine Switzer and Roger Robinson. It’s a great book, filled with facts and photos, plus many inspiring reasons to do a marathon. One of the facts that I found interesting…though disturbing, was that Kathrine Switzer (the author) had entered the Boston Marathon and then had been attacked (physically) by a fan of the race. The reason for the attack? She was a woman. (…and she had applied to race under her usual signature, K.V. Switzer.) A fellow runner charged the fan and sent him flying. The result of all of this commotion was the expulsion of Kathrine from the Amateur Athletic Union. Her crime was “running with men” and “running without a chaperone”. The disturbing fact was that this happened in 1967. By the way, she continued the race that day and finished with a very respectable 2:51.

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