Yesterday, I ran my third half-marathon: the SHAPE Women’s Half-Marathon with thousands of other runners. I loved being surrounded by so many strong women. When I visited Saucony’s headquarters they told us about the history of women in running. After the race, I did more research and learned that The Amateur Athletic Union barred women from road races in the U.S. starting in 1961. Experts claimed that distance running was damaging to women’s health and femininity and even that a woman’s uterus might fall out if she tried running a long distance. In 1967, Katherine Switzer ran the Boston Marathon under the name K.V. Switzer and race officials tried to get her to leave the course. In 1972 the Amateur Athletic Union finally allowed women to run distance road races and at the New York City Marathon that year, the six female runners refused to have a “special” start time so they sat down at the starting line until the men’s gun went off.
Knowing this, the half-marathon was even more special, especially because both my parents were watching, I ran with friends, and it was in my favorite place, Central Park. We ran around all of Central Park—twice.
I even made my personal record! It was also fun because I was wearing a Columbia sweatshirt so people would scream “Go, Columbia,” when I ran by, told me they went there, or screamed, “Go, Lions.” I saw my mom and dad and some of my faster friends cheering at the finish line then it was time for pancakes and coffee.
