Surreptitious Switzer was ringer in 1967
Her bold entry created athletic opportunities for women.
BOSTON (AP) -- Kathrine Switzer lined up for the 1967 Boston Marathon as just another runner looking for a challenge.
Four miles in, she became a pioneer.
Issued a starting bib for the all-male race only because she entered under the name "K. Switzer," she became the event's first official female competitor. But to finish, she had to get past a race official who tried to tear her number off as she ran.
"I didn't understand the issues. I just loved running," she said this week after returning to Boston for the 108th edition of the race.
"I didn't realize until later that they were the same issues other women were fighting for," she said. "I put it together in the next 22 miles.
Inspiration
"That incident changed my life. It gave me the inspiration to do what I want to do."
What Switzer wanted to do was create athletic opportunities for women. Her lobbying paid off when the Olympics added a women's marathon for the 1984 Games, and her impact will be felt again in Boston on Monday.
In the biggest change for the Marathon since it officially went coed in 1972, women will get their own start -- their own race, essentially -- when they begin the 26.2 mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston 29 minutes ahead of the men.
"We've gone from exclusion to exclusive," Switzer said. "It's very exciting. I've been talking about it -- bellyaching about it -- for years."
It is a path that has been charted by other marathons, including London, New York and Los Angeles; the Olympic marathon and world championships have completely separate races. But changing Boston, the longest-running of the world's long runs, came a little more slowly.
First considered in 1995, the idea was tabled because organizers didn't want to do anything drastic before the centennial edition the next year. Then, planners were concentrating on the millennium edition and on security in the races following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Did homework
"Traditions are hard to change in Boston. That's a fact," said Guy Morse, the executive director of the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the event. "So we made sure we were sure."
Still attached to the traditional noon start, the top female runners will leave Hopkinton at 11:31 a.m. The elite men will leave 29 minutes later, which should get them to the finish line in Boston's Back Bay about 10-15 minutes after the women's winner.
One of the odd twists of the timing is it splits the elite women from the thousands of female recreational runners who will follow the men across the starting line. Only those who qualified for the early start will be eligible for prize money.
Some women like the new setup because they can see the other competitors better, instead of having to pick them out from a crowd of men. Race organizers hope it will help draw the top runners to the event.
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