Boston Marathon's 1st Female Entrant Recalls Historic Run

03:17

April 15, 2011

Sacha Pfeiffer

This article is more than 12 years old.

In 1967, challenging the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon, Kathrine Switzer, at the time a headstrong 20-year-old junior at Syracuse University, entered the race. Two miles in, a race official tried to physically remove her from the competition. (AP)

This weekend, more than 11,000 women will pick up their race numbers for Monday's Boston Marathon. That can make it easy to forget that until relatively recently — 1972 — women weren't even allowed to officially run the race.

In 1967, though, one woman managed to enter it. Kathrine Switzer was a 20-year-old junior at Syracuse University when she signed up for the race using her first and middle initials.

Now Switzer is a 2011 inductee into the National Women's Hall of Fame. WBUR's All Things Considered host Sacha Pfeiffer spoke with Switzer this week about her historic achievement and the state of women's running today.

Related:

Defending Champions Look For Repeat At 115th Marathon

This program aired on April 15, 2011.

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