Bib #261: How One Woman Changed the Sport of Running

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The 88th running of the Boston marathon took place on April 19th, 1967.

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It was a cold and overcast day with snow squalls, greeting the

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participants and spectators.

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The field of runners approach.

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The start line eager to tackle the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston.

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There were 741 runners that day.

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740 men.

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And one woman.

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Dawning bib number 2 61.

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Welcome to episode one 50 of this shit works a podcast dedicated to all things.

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Networking relationship building and business development.

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I'm your host, Julie Brown.

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Speaker author and networking coach and in today's episode, I am discussing how

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one woman changed the sport of running.

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In 1967, women were not allowed to run marathons.

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There were lots of reasons for banning women from running such great

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distances, not the least of which is that it was thought that women's

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bodies were not capable of such.

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Physiological stress.

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That indeed the act of running would cause a woman's uterus to fall out.

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Rendering her in fertile.

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No.

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I'm not making that up.

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We have a long and storied history of men who have no fucking clue

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how a woman's body works, governing their agency in determining what

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they are and are not capable of.

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But that's another story.

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Back to this one.

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Katherine Switzer.

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Uh, 20 year old.

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Journalism student at Syracuse at the time had a passion for

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running, but there wasn't a women's cross country team at Syracuse.

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So she was invited to run with the men.

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While running with them.

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She caught the eye of coach Arnie Briggs, who during their runs would

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tell her stories of his experiences running the famous Boston marathon.

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One day.

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Catherine told Arnie that she wanted to run the Boston marathon.

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His response was women are too weak and fragile to run 26.2 miles and that quote.

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No Dame never ran no marathon.

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Which is completely not true because.

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Roberta Gib was actually the first woman who ever unofficially ran the Boston

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marathon when she ran it as abandoned from start to finish in April, 1966.

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Katherine called them out on his statement saying that she wouldn't train

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with him anymore, unless he believed that women could do the distance.

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His response was that he did believe that she had it in her and that if she

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proved it to him in practice, He'd be the first person to take her to Boston.

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As I mentioned, women were not technically allowed to run marathons in 1967.

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Therefore the application to run the Boston marathon did not

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contain a checkbox for gender.

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It's simply wasn't needed.

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So Katherine Switzer filled out the application with the name.

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K the Switzer.

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And she was assigned bib number 261.

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As I mentioned, it was a cold gray flurry filled morning.

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So Katherine clad in gray sweatpants and sweatshirts

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pulled her hoodie over her head.

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As the race officials went by and checked the runner's numbers against the log book.

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Her race was uneventful.

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For two miles.

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Until the press bus carrying reporters and race director, jock Semple pastor.

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It was then that Franklin Z of the New York times spotted

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her and yelled to jock simple.

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There's a woman in your race.

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Jock infuriated yelled, stop the bus.

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Stop the bus.

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And jumped off and ran toward Katherine screaming at her.

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Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers as he lunged for her bib.

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As he lunged at her jock knocked over Arnie Briggs, her running

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coach, who was trying to protect her.

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It was at this point that Thomas Miller Catherine's, then boyfriend

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laid a shoulder into jock.

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Semple tossing him off the race course and onto the side of the road.

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Arnie looked at Catherine and said, run like, hell.

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Katherine said, I realized that if I quit this race, which I felt for

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split second, like doing, because I was so scared and embarrassed.

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If I quit that race.

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nobody would have believed women deserve to be there or that

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they could do the distance.

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And turn to Arnie and said, Arnie.

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I'm going to finish this race in my hands and my knees.

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If I have to.

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So it's R went on to finish the race in four hours and 20 minutes.

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She ran when they told her it was impossible.

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She ran for equality.

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She ran for me and she ran for you, even if you'll never run a marathon.

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And she ran for countless generations of women.

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That one moment, that one altercation between jock and Catherine two miles

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into the 26.2 mile distance was captured by the press bus photographers, and is

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one of the most galvanizing photographs in the women's rights movement.

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Today women make up almost half of the registered runners in the Boston marathon.

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I myself have had the honor of running the Boston marathon three times.

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And.

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It is not lost on me that I might never have had the chance if it weren't for

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Katherine Switzer together with her coach.

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And ally Arnie Briggs and her boyfriend and ally Thomas Miller.

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Sometimes I look at the gender inequality in this nation and I struggled to be

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optimistic, but then I am reminded of stories like this, and I know that change

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can happen when we believe in ourselves.

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When we have allies, when we foster strong relationships and networks.

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And when we know that what we are doing will have ripple

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effects through generations.

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Because remember.

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No Dame never ran no marathon.

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And Toshi did.

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Okay.

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Onto the drink of the week, which.

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Just absolutely love.

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If you know anything about Boston marathon lore, you are probably familiar with

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another famous woman who kind of ran it.

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Rosie Ruiz, who on April 21st, 1981, the Boston marathon.

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And she didn't even break a sweat.

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Her face was hardly even flushed.

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Katherine Switzer was covering the race that day as a television commentator

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and grew suspicious when she interviewed Rosie and asked her what her intervals

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during the marathon had been in.

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Ruiz replied.

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What's an interval.

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When witnesses came forward a few days later to say that.

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They'd seen her run onto the course from the sidelines, just

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a mile from the finish line.

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Her metal was revoked and she admitted that she had indeed

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taken the T to the finish line.

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So.

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The drink of the week is Rosie's return.

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Here's what you're going to need.

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Two ounces raspberries plus.

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Other kind of a few raspberries for garnish.

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Three or four ounces of gin, a half ounce of simple syrup, a half ounce of lemon

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juice, two dashes of orange bitters, and two drops of ruse flavored water.

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And four ounces of sparkling Rosa.

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Here's what you're going to do.

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You're going to add the two ounces of raspberries to a cocktail shader, shaker,

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and muddle gently at the gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, bitters and ice to the

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shaker and shake, shake, shake, shake, shake until chilled and then strain.

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Into a chilled flute glass, and then top wood, sparkling, Rosie, and

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garnished with a few extra raspberries.

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All right friends.

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That's all for this week.

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email list, which is super fucking funny.

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Okay.

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Until next week.

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Thanks guys.