Red Lips

…she refused to run without lipstick on, a subtle protest to the contest’s restriction on women. K.V. Switzer’s lipstick started to catch the attention of people, including one race official who was furious that a woman had entered the race. The man tried to grab the determined runner, who was off to an amazing start, and yelled at her: “get the hell out of my race and give me those race numbers!” But Katherine wasn’t about to give up her marathon dream after all that she’s invested…

Won’t Take No for an Answer

It wasn’t just at the Boston Marathon that women were prohibited from participating in the long-distance sport. Switzer, a student at Syracuse University in the 1960’s, wanted to join the school’s women’s running team but there was a small problem: there was no women’s team to speak of. She joined the men’s cross-country team, the only running group in the university at the time, and immediately sounded off to her coach that she wanted to run in the Boston Marathon. When he told her that she can’t do it, challenging her to run a full 42 kilometers during training, the athlete decided to exceed it, running a total of 50 kilometers.

Back in the race, Katherine knew from the beginning that she could finish the race, if only she could get past her attacker…