Women and running!

I thought I would include more extracts from The Marathon Book, on the topic of Women and running.

Nevermind the vote, it wasn't until 1975 that women were allowed to compete in distance running, and that was only 1500m!

It was an historic prejudice, apparently women had been barred on pain of death from even watching the Ancient Olympics. In the 1970s Old Wive's Tales abounded: we were 'more prone to injury' (prolapsed uteruses and damaged breasts were listed concerns!); 'fertility was impaired'; we 'lost femininity and became muscular'!!! As Brucey points out, "More probably women's exclusion was the result of male pride". Good on ya bruce.

Physiologists support the female cause- the longer the distance the more even the balance between the sexes.

In the 60s, amongst the excitement of the Women's Liberation Movement, women were forced to protest by running the marathon unofficially- no number, no official time. In 1967, Katherine Switzer entered the race as K. Switzer. She skipped the medical examination and turned up to run, complete with registration number. She started the race, but not far into it an official spotted her from the accompanying bus and attempted to push her out of the race!!

The Boston Marathon was the first to allow women in, but even then integration was not complete as the numbers issued to the nine women were all prefixed with the letter F. In 1975 women's participation in long distance events was made permissible in the UK (previously only family friendly 'fun-runs' had been allowed), and in Los Angeles in 1984 women marathon runners made their olympic debut. Wow!