HILLARY FRANK: So much so that in 1967 Kathrine found herself training to run a marathon. And so running in itself always made me feel totally confident, brave, courageous and at one with my total sense of capability. KATHRINE SWITZER: I never felt closer to my body, or to nature or to the universe or to God or whatever you want to call it than when I was running. And she made the team - but she fell in love with running. Her father told her she’d make it if she ran a mile every day. HILLARY FRANK: When Kathrine Switzer was starting high school in 1959 she wanted to get on the field hockey team. You’re going to grow hair on your chest.” KATHRINE SWITZER: And my girlfriends would say to me, “ You know if you do that you’re going to get big legs you’re going to look like a boy. LYNN BLACKSTONE: I remember an incidence running around with my running buddies, all women, and some guy came up and pinched one of us. LIZ FRANCESCHINI: And everybody’s dog would chase you and want to bite you. PAT BARRETT: They’d throw something out the window at you from a car you know, maybe like a piece of paper or a soda bottle. LIZ FRANCESCHINI: People would look and “What are they running from? Where are they going? Is there a problem?” KATHRINE SWITZER: When I was a young girl people even the milkman, the mailman would go to my mother and say, “Is there something wrong with your little girl? I see her out running.”

Hillary Frank takes us behind the scenes of a secretly planned protest at the 1972 New York Marathon… that helped to turn running mainstream and allowed women to race as equals with men. And women were strongly discouraged from running because doctors believed it was bad for their health.

And around the globe, there are more than one thousand marathons annually.īut before the 1970s, running was a fringe sport… no one made running shoes in the US - if you wanted them, you had to import a fancy German sneaker by a niche company called Adidas. In a matter of months, even an inexperienced runner can train for a marathon. JODY AVIRGAN: Running is the most popular form of exercise in the world today.

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