Kathrine Switzer, first woman to run the Boston Marathon and iconic athlete, describes completing a marathon as a transformative experience. When Switzer ran the Boston Marathon in 1967 she was tackled on the course by a race director trying to remove her. Her offense? Being a woman. Switzer’s experience in Boston inspired her to be a better runner and to push for the inclusion of women in the sport.

By 1972 women could officially enter the Boston Marathon and in 1984 the women’s marathon was introduced to the Olympic Games. Not only was the marathon a transformative experience for Switzer but the marathon itself was transformed. Thanks to Switzer, and others who took up the cause, women make up more than half of the participants in many North American races today.

A few weeks ago I was privileged to follow in the steps of Olympians who ran the original marathon foot race created for the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896. Organizers of that first Games created the event to honour the efforts of the messenger, Pheidippides, who made his way from the site of the Battle of Marathon to Athens - dying after delivering the message that the Athenians had been victorious over the invading Persians. Imagine 2,500 years later, 16,000 of us lined up in the same field where the Athenians fought that definitive battle for democracy and then moving across the start line toward Athens to retrace the route of the first Olympians, finishing under the Olympic rings in the marble stadium built 114 years earlier.

At a personal level it was a transformative and inspiring experience that made real the profound historical context of the modern athletic and social movement of which I am so grateful to be part. And I am part of it because the marathon itself is transformed. Following elite runners into that stadium were “runners” of all shapes, sizes, and speeds. And there were power walkers! Walking in the footsteps of history, I felt that the steps behind me became part of that history. Power walkers every where continue to challenge the notion that we are “just walking”. Demographics and our incredible good fortune to live long lives will help power walking become part of the marathon tradition.

Keep walking. Keep challenging yourself. Keep raising the bar for others. You are part of marathon history.

          

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