Since no one has written in with suggestions (shame on you all!), I’m going to offer my own Tough Broad this time.
As many of you know I am now about 33 weeks pregnant and roughly the size of a Buick, so my daily runs have turned into 3-mile strolls. This sad state of affairs has led to my fervent daydreams about the fall, when I will (hopefully) be back in shape enough to compete in another marathon: maybe NYC this time, or Twin Cities?
With all of the race options available, it’s hard to imagine a time when a woman didn’t have any choices at all; women make up a large percentage of the pack in almost every modern race, and there are even marathons dedicated strictly to women, such as the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco (where, incidentally, you can have the slightly dubious pleasure of being awarded your own personal Tiffany’s necklace by a tuxedo-clad firefighter as you finish. Some of us would much prefer being handed a tall, frosty beer by a member of the Village People when we finally hobble across the finish line, but perhaps we’re in the minority).
Anyway, things have progressed so far that it’s easy to forget there was a time when women were not allowed to run marathons (for various reasons, none of them having anything to do with logic) and when a woman named Kathrine Switzer decided to change that by running in— and sexually “integrating”— the revered Boston Marathon in 1967.
Her story is now the stuff of legend: how she had to enter under the name “K. Switzer” so that nobody would realize she was female and thus stop her before she began, the malevolent looks and comments she suffered from spectators as she ran, and even the now-infamous physical attack by Jock Semple (a Boston Athletic Association official, and one of the race organizers), who was so outraged at a young woman’s temerity in besmirching his pure athletic contest with her presence that he attempted to drag her out of the street.
Katherine was ultimately able to finish what she started (due in part to the support of her then-boyfriend Tom Miller and other male runners who supported her), and her ambition and courage have led directly to greater opportunities for modern female distance runners. So let’s hear it for K. Switzer, this week’s Tough Broad. In her honor, ladies, register and run a marathon— she made it possible for you to do so.
Jeanine Casler lives, runs, and writes in Evanston, Illinois.
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April 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am
Now that is a woman with chutspa!
I am amazed this happened only 40 years ago.
April 10th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Вот это махина )
Since no one has written in with suggestions (shame on you all!), I’m going to offer my own Tough Broad this time..
April 20th, 2010 at 9:05 am
чето непонятно)
As many of you know I am now about 33 weeks pregnant and roughly the size of a Buick, so my daily runs have turned into 3-mile strolls..
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:23 am
Вот это махина )
Since no one has written in with suggestions (shame on you all!), I’m going to offer my own Tough Broad this time..