Tuesday, April 3, 2012

1967 was only 45 years ago

The Boston marathon had always been for men only.  In 1967, Katherine Switzer signed up by using her initials.  An article by NPR (posted yesterday) tells what happened on the day of the marathon.  The article also includes a PBS video interview with Katherine Switzer, as she remembers that day.

6 comments:

Linda said...

Thanks for posting this. It looks like the Boston Marathon is celebrating 40 years of allowing women. It took five years after her joining to allow more women. Thank you for alerting me (and possibly others ) to this trailblazer!

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Doesn't it make you wonder why the men were so afraid to allow women to run?

Helen's Book Blog said...

Yikes! In my lifetime. It is always great to hear of people taking risks and changing things that just aren't right.

Really, what are people afraid of?

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Yeah, in my lifetime, too. I turned 27 that year and was the mother of three children, twin daughters and a son. I remember the times quite well.

Ginnie said...

Yes, it's interesting that we both wrote about the Boston Marathon. I remember there being a man who ran the whole length with a wooden leg. It was long before they had the handicapped runners and we went crazy cheering him on.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Here's Ginnie's post about the 1947 marathon:

http://goldendaze-ginnie.blogspot.com/2012/04/1947patriots-day-and-boston-marathon.html

Thanks for visiting, Ginnie.