Kathrine was well trained to cover the distance at age 20. She and Arnie Briggs had completed a 31 mile workout three weeks prior to the race. “I signed my name with initials, the Boston official Jock Semple thought I was a man and issued me race numbers along with my coach Arnie Brigg and boyfriend Tom Miller. It was a miserable sleeting, 33 degree day, and I dressed in baggy gray sweats. My pre-race jitters dissipated as more and more men approached me with encouragement. At four miles it turned into a nightmare as ferocious Semple grabbed me by the shirt and shoulders, spun me around and screamed, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!” Arnie tried to pull Jock away: “She’s O.K., I’ve trained her.” But Jock was like a terrier, clenched to my shirt: “Stay out of this, Arnie!” Big Tom a 233 pound hammer thrower hit Jock with a flying shoulder block and sent him through the air. Switzer to Girl to Women in the Span of 4 ½ Hours” here are some exerts: Kathrine retold the story of her groundbreaking run in an ApNY Times article “From K.V.

She was the first to run with a race number 261. She would run a world class time of 2:51:37 eight years later for a second place finish at the 1975 Boston Marathon, on this day her time was 4:20. Kathrine Switzer becomes the second female to run the Boston Marathon.

Celebrating the Early Women Pioneers of Long Distance Running

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