Game Changer | Timeless New England

Kathrine Switzer did not set out to run the 1967 Boston Marathon to become famous or to dramatically change the face of women’s sports. She simply wanted to test herself in America’s most celebrated marathon, which at the time was open to male runners only.

For months before the race, Switzer, a junior studying journalism at Syracuse University, trained with Arnie Briggs, a university mailman and a Boston Marathon veteran. She registered as K.V. Switzer and received bib number 261, and on the raw, snowy morning of April 19 she set off as an official entrant alongside Briggs and her boyfriend, Tom Miller.

Though she was wearing a sweat suit to ward off the cold, Switzer didn’t try to hide that she was female. After a few miles, someone on the press truck took note of her long hair and yelled out to Jock Semple, the fiery Scot who was the race’s codirector, “Jock, you’ve got a broad on your hands today!” Within moments, Semple charged at Switzer. In her memoir, Marathon Woman, Switzer recalls, “He grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming, ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me those [bib] numbers!’” Seconds later, Miller sent Semple flying.

The chaotic sequence was caught by a number of photographers, but only these shots by Harry Trask, who worked for the Boston Traveler and who actually left the race to file his photos, would become iconic. Switzer, who went on to finish the race in 4:20, saw them splashed across front pages that night and knew her life “would never be the same.”

Five years later, Semple invited women to run the marathon; he even eventually forged a friendship with Switzer. As for Switzer herself, she expects—at age 70—to run in this year’s Boston Marathon, a race that will forever be linked to runner number 261.