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Boom Time, Women!
By Kathrine Switzer
September/October 2009
For the Washington Running Report
I am wearing bib number 8359. I am engulfed in a sea of women-only women!-of all ages, sizes, colors, and in every outfit imaginable. The only thing we have in common is that we are all going to run 13.1 miles, and right now anyway, we all smell good.
The announcer welcomes all 7,700 of us. Hmm. Then why am I wearing 8,359? I start to laugh-it's the 6th annual MORE/Fitness Half Marathon, in Central Park and this race, like so many others lately, has become so popular that they are oversubscribed before organizers can close the rushing tide of entries.
What's happening here? Put simply, Women are now driving the sport of running:
• In terms of numbers-there are now more women runners in the United States than men.
• In terms of economics-studies for years have shown that women out-purchase men in sporting goods; and all jokes aside about women having genetic superiority when it comes to shopping, just consider the amazing additional amount spent on travel, hotels, and restaurants as women go to events with girlfriends or with their previously unaccompanied partners. It is women's running and walking that has revolutionized charities by raising an unthinkable billion plus dollars. Ironically, it is the cheapness and convenience of running that initially attracts many women to it-just a pair of shoes and a run around the block gets you there.
• In terms of physical discovery-we're far beyond the desire to lose weight here, and into the daily joy of finding out what your own body can do. Historically, this is very new for women who were often uninterested in-or denied access to-sports of speed and power. Women are finding that running at any level generates fitness and illuminates personal physical exploration. The longer they go, the more they excel. The sedentary smoker becomes an age-group marathoner. We hear it all the time. It's all possible, and it's thrilling.
• And, for sake of a better word, in terms of passion. Everyone who runs feels an enormous sense of accomplishment and camaraderie, knowing that years ago it was men runners who first (thankfully) encouraged women to start. But now women themselves have taken the sport to a more expansive place-one of personal transformation and newfound potential in all aspects of their lives. When you run, you know you can do anything.
How did it happen? And how did it happen so FAST?
How can I now be wearing number 8359? For the first 10 years of my running life, only once did I have a number higher than 10; a reflection on how very, very few women were then in road races. The only time it was higher was when I wore #261 in the 1967 Boston Marathon. Boston was my first road race. I signed up as K.V. Switzer as that is how I signed my name. Other races knew me already as they were on the track or for my school. Unbeknownst to me, the Boston Marathon back then was strictly men only and I received the number because registration officials assumed I was a guy . . . . Of course, as soon as they discovered I was a woman, all hell broke loose.
The irascible Jock Semple, the race co-director, flew off the press bus in a rage and attacked me at the 2-mile point, trying to rip off my number. My boyfriend, who was running alongside, flattened him with a body block and I went on to finish. The press cameras captured the whole episode in what have become some of sport's most iconic images.
The incident was a watershed moment in women's sports, and while several other women courageously answered the rallying cry over the ensuing years, it took legislation, publicity and the creation of opportunities to get women runners where they are today. Here are a few highlights . . . and lowlights in our history:
Start of the first women only race, the Crazylegs New York Mini Marathon, June 3, 1972.
People were (and in many societies, still are) against women's running because they believed old myths that arduous activity would turn women into masculine behemoths, put hair on their chests, and cause the uterus to fall out. Women as well as men were thus afraid of activity, criticized it, deemed it socially inappropriate, and in many ways were their own worst enemies. Hence, the Olympic 800 meters for women, first run in 1928, was immediately discontinued after the inaugural race because it was considered "defeminizing." People were horrified at seeing women run to exhaustion and the event was not reinstated until 1960.
Women who ran in the '50s and '60s were almost always introduced to the sport by men who loved to run themselves. Men who ran long distance always encouraged women who wanted to run. Only officials and restrictive athletic rules limited the opportunities and distances available.
The Boston Marathon was the glamour road running event in the United States. When Roberta Gibb ran it in 1966 without a number, and I ran it in 1967 with a number, we put the world on alert that women were totally capable. The publicity and controversy were overwhelming.
The Disney Princess Half Marathon & 5K event is an example of the fastest growing distance event. The inaugural race in March 2009 drew 6,136 female finishers.
1968-72: For five years, Boston threw up rules to try to prevent women from running, but we ran unofficially anyway. The men and the media rallied to our cause. We worked on legislation, proving our right to run.
1972: A big year: In April, Boston gave way and let women run officially. It was our own shot heard "round the world" as Congress passed the Title IX amendment in June, mandating equal opportunity to women in education, including sports. Fueled with enthusiasm and possibility, Nina Kuscsik, Fred Lebow, and I created the first-ever women's only road race, the Crazylegs New York Mini Marathon. The Olympics added a 1500-meter run for women. The drive for an Olympic women's marathon was on.
1977: I created the first women's-only global long distance running circuit, and got Avon cosmetics to sponsor it. Our objective was to take the running opportunity to as many women in the world as possible, and at the same time show the International Olympic Committee we had the requisite number of participating countries to be included. Thousands of women responded, many who didn't even have shoes.
1978: Grete Waitz ran a 2:32 world record in the New York City Marathon, waking the world to women's distance running potential.
1981: The women's marathon was voted into the Olympic Games after the Avon Marathon in London exceeded the requirement for inclusion by boasting athletes from 27 countries and five continents. The Avon race also closed downtown London streets for the first time in history for a sports event, and became what is now the great London Marathon.
1984: Joan Benoit (Samuelson) won the first women's Olympic marathon. More than one billion people watched on television, stunned by women's capacity for achievement.
1992: Yuko Arimori won the silver medal in the women's marathon in the Barcelona Olympics, four years later took bronze in Atlanta, and at home in Japan made more commercials than Michael Jordan in the USA. In its entire history, Japan had no global heroines until Arimori. Now the top women marathoners in Japan are rock stars.
1994: Tegla Loroupe was the first African woman to win a big city marathon. When she won New York, she elevated the status of women in Kenya, started the Kenyan women's running culture, and upgraded thousands of villager's lives with prize money. Globally, prize money in running has greatly elevated the status of women.
2003: England's Paula Radcliffe rewrote world notions of women's capability when she ran a world best 2:15:25 marathon and then went on to be a mother, barely breaking stride and smashing several old barriers at once.
2004: The elite women in the Boston Marathon start ahead of the men, because their race is as compelling and noteworthy as the men's. In my own lifetime, we'd moved from exclusion to exclusivity.
2008: Joan Benoit Samuelson, now 50, set an American age group record of 2:49:08 in the women's Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston, proving that age is no limit to success, and showing that with luck and care you can run all your life.
2009: Here are some trends as women's running continues to boom:
• Paula Radcliffe's 2:15 world best is six years old. Nobody seems to be close to breaking it, yet a whole new generation of women-Ethiopians in particular-are emerging after years of restriction and poverty. They are very talented. Watch this space.
• Title IX has kicked in big time; there are now two generations of American women who grew up with no sense of limitation. They and their daughters should rewrite American performance history.
• Lots of ordinary women start running at 60, 70, and even 80. Fitness and athletic success can begin at any age and will continue to increase the popularity of masters running.
• The fastest growing distance event is the women's half marathon. It is an event that helps get women to the marathon distance, and it is a long distance event that you can do weekend after weekend without those time-consuming 20 mile training runs needed for the full distance. These events provide both a competitive and fun getaway weekend experience. Expos and amenities for these events offer sponsors direct access to the women's market.
This story is really only beginning, because it is not just about running; it is about changing women's lives. Men's too, for that matter. Consider this: If these changes have happened in my lifetime, what will take place in yours? And what role will you play in this evolution?
Kathrine Switzer ran 35 marathons, won the 1974 New York City Marathon, was a leader in the drive to get the women's marathon into the Olympic Games, and now is a television commentator as well as the author of "Running and Walking for Women Over 40" and co-author, with Roger Robinson, of "26.2 Marathon Stories." Parts of this article were extracted from Kathrine's book, "Marathon Woman," now out in a new paperback edition from Da Capo Press. Notice to Washington area runners: Kathrine Switzer and Roger Robinson will be the featured speakers at the Marine Corps Marathon pasta dinner at 6 PM on Saturday, Oct. 24 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. The pair will also be selling and signing their books at the MCM expo on Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24. Go to www.marinemarathon.com for more information.