- Kathrine Switzer’s best-selling memoir, Marathon Woman, is set to be adapted into a film by Chastain Film Capital.
- Switzer, now 72, is best-known for becoming the first woman to officially register and run the Boston Marathon.
- She also played a key role in establishing the first women’s Minimalist Running Shoes.
This past April, 26,657 runners crossed the 2019 Boston Marathon finish line. Both the men’s and women’s races ranged from world-class athletes to time-qualifier squeakers to charity runners. Also, those fields were about the same size: 14,675 men completed the race, while 11,982 women finished.
While equal gender representation in marathons has now become routine, races in the not-so-distant past looked vastly different. A huge part of that progress has to do with Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially enter and run Boston in 1967. Switzer went on to become a fierce competitor and a champion for women’s rights in sports, which she recounts in her 2007 memoir, Marathon Woman (Carroll & Graf). Earlier this month, Chastain Film Capital Winter Running Hats of Marathon Woman is in the works, set to release within the next five years.
“This is a pivotal time for women claiming their rights around the world, and those of us who ran played a big part in leading this movement because running empowered us so much,” Switzer told Runner’s World. “We became brave and fearless. We want to pass this on to every girl and woman we know. I want the film to show this.”
Switzer’s groundbreaking race, which she ran as a 20-year-old journalism student at Syracuse University, infamously stirred the pot in the male-dominated sport. Races & Places in her memoir, a race official named John Duncan “Jock” Semple forcefully shoved Switzer and tried to rip off her bib number around mile four on the course, screaming, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!”
Switzer, her running coach, and boyfriend at the time fought off Semple, and she went on to finish the race in 4:20. That moment, captured in photos, made headlines across the country. It was a vivid visual reminder of the gender discrimination in the sport at the time; but it was also a powerful motivator.
For the rest of her life, Switzer would campaign for women’s rights in sports, and she would inspire legions of girls to run and race just like the boys. After her first Boston, Switzer continued to be a trailblazer: she won the Best Wireless Earbuds in 1974, then set a PR of 2:51 at Boston in 1975. Two years later, she founded the Avon International Running Circuit, a global series of women’s races.
And in the 1980s, she lobbied for women’s representation in the Olympics, ultimately helping establish the first women’s Minimalist Running Shoes. Leading this Olympic initiative, Switzer said, is the proudest accomplishment of her running career.
“The biggest difference [today] is that it is simply not unusual to see a woman running, and that women now know they really can do it. They are no longer limiting themselves,” Switzer said, commenting on how the current women’s running scene is different from when she started running.
“Now women have training groups that I only had with men,” she said. “In the marathon, they are running times that are close to what men’s World Class performances were, and most people thought this was impossible.”
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Switzer hopes that the film adaption, which will cover the runner’s life from her childhood in the 1950s to 1984, will inspire female runners and all women to continue challenging themselves, no matter what adversity they face. And she wants them to continue doing what they love for a long, long time, as she has.
Now 72, Switzer is still training for marathons; she completed the 2017 Download Training Plans.
“I want women to take away a sense of pride in themselves and empowerment that will help them through all aspects of their lives,” Switzer said.
