Kathrine Switzer - The Rebel
RUNNER - 1ST WOMAN TO RUN BOSTON MARATHON OFFICIALLY
ARCHETYPE: THE REBEL
Day 7/135
Athletic Accomplishments
The year is 1967. Title IX hasn't even passed yet. And the longest distance that medical professionals recommend women running is (3K), citing some mystical concern that running would jostle the uterus, and that that would permanently ruin it? Turns out, they were wrong or liars. Probably both.
Kathrine Switzer isn't having any of that bullshit. After her coach at Syracuse, Arnie Briggs, said that a marathon was too far to run for a "fragile woman," Kathrine challenged him on it. She trained, showed him she absolutely could, and he fulfilled his promise to take her to run the Boston Marathon that year. Kathrine registered for the race, signing her name K.V. Switzer, got her official race bib, and lined up at the start line in Hopkinton to do the damn thing. Proving her coach wrong could have been the happy ending of the first woman to officially enter and finish the Boston Marathon. But instead, the story takes a WILD twist.
The race manager, Jock Semple, was infuriated that Switzer was running the race, pulling a classic "NO GIRLS ALLOWED" attitude. So, this dude charged from the sidelines, knocked over Coach Briggs, and assaulted Switzer. He tried to grab her bib and physically remove her from the race. After a few swipes, luckily, Switzer's boyfriend Tom Miller gave Semple a square bodycheck that sent him flying. Switzer went on to finish the race — uterus presumably intact — with one helluva story to tell.
Switzer went on to advocate for women and to complete 39 marathons, including winning the 1974 New York City Marathon. At age 74, she still runs marathons today.
Character Archetype: The Rebel
Switzer is a classic rebel. How do I know that? Because here's what Boston Athletic Association director Will Cloney, who once claimed that women were physiologically incapable of running 26 miles, said about Switzer after she completed the 1967 race:
"Women can't run in the Marathon because the rules forbid it. Unless we have rules, society will be in chaos. I don't make the rules, but I try to carry them out. We have no space in the Marathon for any unauthorized person, even a man. If that girl were my daughter, I would spank her."
Nice try, ya square. Kathrine Switzer can do whatever the hell she wants. She is defiant in the most positive way — proving her capability to doubters, in spite of their utterly ridiculous claims about what women are or are not capable of.