Women and the Marathon

With the Boston Marathon coming up, it's a good time to talk for a moment about women and the marathon. For anyone who knows the history of the Boston Marathon, you know the name Katherine Switzer 45 years ago Switzer was the first woman to officially participate in the famed marathon. The story is she signed the registration with her initials, which was her usual thing to do. Once it was discovered that there was a woman running in the traditionally all-male race, then race director Jack Semple famously tried to pull her off the course. It would not be until 1972 that a woman could officially run the race. That year Nina Kuscsik was the top female finisher.

Back then women weren't allowed to run in races beyond 800 meters. A rare few took on 1500 meters. General opinion was that long distance running was dangerous for a woman's health. One of the theories of the time was that if a woman ran longer than 800 meters, there was a danger her uterus would fall out. Take a moment and read that again. The first time I head this I thought if I had a uterus it would fall out just from hearing that comment. Of course this was nonsense.

Switzer became a champion for women runners. As she stepped away from competitive running, she became an advocate for women. Working with Avon, she helped created marathon opportunities for women. She and many others fought sport governing bodies and the International Olympic Committee to include the marathon in Olympics. It wasn't until 1984, when Joan Benoit made history as the first woman to win an Olympic marathon, that the idea of women in the marathon took off.

In 1980 10% of marathon participants were women. In 2011 41% of participants were women. There are motivational, social, charitable, and other groups which encourage women to run. As someone who runs a running store, I can tell you about 70% of our business is women. Women have been crucial to the rise of running: Joan Benoit Samuelson, Grete Waitz, Katerine Switzer, Deena Kastor, Florence Griffith Joyner, Kara Goucher, Mary Wittenberg and so many more.

It is women who have made our sport grow, and we owe a debt of gratitude to them.

Charlie