Run becomes life-changing

In 1967 Kathrine Switzer crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon and started something she says was as important for women as gaining the right to vote.

Just 20 years old at the time, she was the first woman to complete the famous marathon, an accomplishment that transformed women's sport and led to the introduction of a women's event at the Olympic Games.

If she had not finished, Switzer said, she would have "set women's sport way back", but she did - after a brief entanglement with an irate official - and she has never looked back.

Switzer's participation in the marathon was extraordinary not because it wasn't allowed, but because previously it had been assumed it was physiologically impossible for a woman to complete the 42.2km run.

She was able to enter because she used her initials, K.V. Switzer, on the entry form and on arrival a gray track suit covered her figure.

"The guys all knew I was a woman, it was really obvious.

"I mean I was wearing lipstick and earrings, and a headband. The whole thing," Ms Switzer said.

But the officials didn't.

And when they realised a woman was running the race, one lost his temper and attempted to force her off course before he was punched by Switzer's boyfriend.

She continued to run.

"The picture was around the world before we had finished the race ... it was an event that changed my life and therefore changed millions of women's lives," Switzer said.

She now spends half the year in Wellington and half in the United States with her Kiwi husband and has recently written a book outlining her achievements.

"The book is about taking a negative, which was a terrible thing when the official tackled me, and turning it not only into a positive, but an absolute triumph for women everywhere," she said.

Switzer admitted that before the Boston Marathon, she had not been a feminist and did not even know what the word meant.

But after her encounter with the official she changed.

"After he tackled me, it was a feminist statement to finish the race and I knew if I did not, people would say women cannot do things and they're not allowed to do things," she said.

Running marathons, Switzer says, is transformational, addictive and extraordinary.

"The marathon itself is kind of like surfing - you know how you are always looking for the perfect wave? Marathon runners are always looking for the perfect race."

When she was growing up she had no role models, but her father told her if she ran a mile a day she would make the school hockey team, something she said seemed impossible for an "insecure, skinny, untrained" 12-year-old. She has since taken the self-confidence that came from her success at running into every facet of her life and has written three books.

Her latest, Marathon Woman, has just been released, and Switzer will be in New Plymouth tonight to discuss the book and her career.

She will be speaking alongside New Plymouth ultra-marathon runner Lisa Tamati, who is training and raising money to run the world's "toughest" race, Death Valley in California.

They will be at Front Runner in New Plymouth at 5.30pm.

There is no charge.

- © Fairfax NZ News