People still whispered about the medical implication you know that maybe youre going to turn into a man maybe you are a man or that youre going to get big legs or that your uterus is going to fall out youll never have children all of these things were myths that held women back and made them afraid and also made men say we have to protect women we cant let them do these Long Distance things we dont want them to hurt themselves. In one thousand nine hundred sixty seven only men were officially allowed to run the mountain and yet switzer registered for boston so i filled out the entry form but i signed it of course how i signed my name k. V. Switzer and when the entry form when they thought it was from a man i didnt know that it wasnt intentional i was only going to boston to run. The beginning the beginning of the race the day was like no other Boston Marathon zero marathons we go went to the starting line is so are some people some people we didnt know interviewed. Came back. We we went up and then they we went on a bus the press bus after about two or three miles it warmed up and everyone was taking off the hoods and the buses the buses going by a pack and suddenly a boston writer said. Jock theres a woman in your race. John christy. Hes used various beat beat he didnt know what to say so he said stop the bus stop the bus off of this bus behind me came one of the co race directors his name was jock sample and the men on the bus the journalists had been teasing him saying hey look john theres a girl in your race shes wearing big numbers jock sample jumped off the truck and went to grab the number and as he did that i actually didnt see him coming and i didnt hear him until the last minute when i heard these leather shoes in a different pace from the rubber shoes and i turned like this and i saw this face and as i turned i got away from him then he grabbed my shirt was pulling it and went for the one on the back and in fact this is the one that was on the back and he caught the outside corner right here and with that my boyfriend who happened to be a two hundred thirty five pound ex allamerican Football Player came running full tilt and hit the official like this jock and sent him flying. I saw tom hit him and at the same time when i saw tom hit him i saw him come flying across in front of me and i actually i i must misremember this because the video doesnt show this but i remember hitting him with my knee was really really embarrassing and scary i was really quite terrified i didnt know what to do i felt like i had stepped into some sacred place and messed it up somehow i felt terribly unwelcome and i just for a split Second Thought maybe i should step often and go home and then i thought no if i if i step off the course if i dont finish this race. I dont stay in the race no matter what people are going to say women cant do this when it happened we werent frightened on the press bus we were taking notes like crazy you know its the we know there was this is big it was big we didnt know how big it would become it was is this a become one of the great things in sports and sports in sports history lets be honest with the the rise of women to equality. One journalist said what are you trying to prove and i said im not trying to prove anything but i will tell you something that one day women is running is going to be as popular and publicize a bill as mens and i said ill be back at boston. It was the start of a long battle for equality it wasnt until nine hundred seventy two that women were officially allowed to participate in the Boston Marathon. In germany sports physicians outfront aachen paved the way for the womens marathon aachen proved that women had more in junior its. Just a little of the form of female mouth and world record holder christa violins each and her former coach Manfred Stefani meet again in the late sixtys christa violin sic was a medium distance runner my friend stephanie has kept all the articles from those days. So misstepped there were no Long Distances for me back then i ran the longest distance available that was fifteen hundred meters and eight hundred before that in one thousand nine hundred eighty seven when the first women participated in marathons i had heard of this event but i hadnt taken any interest in it were interested in the moment. Women women running women running a marathon is not an entirely new phenomenon in recent years bills have snuck into such competitions from time to time a competition reserved for men since four hundred ninety b. C. But those were isolated cases however that the strong sex accepted with generosity in a benign smile they were a curiosity. And stuff i. Always thought women should run marathons and that they would be better relatively speaking than man or does he really pushed that force yet he was also the first to introduce the womens marathon in one thousand nine hundred ninety three i dont prefer to earn stock and came forward with medical evidence that showed women had natural capacity and endurance and stamina he was a doctor a physician so his work and his research gave us so much credibility and that was an amazing discovery that helped convince many many people in a simple way that women could be superior and fun arkan conducted further research into the in durance capacity of women. I know you believe that women can cope with these stresses can you explain that. So first of course women can cope with these stresses their muscle composition makes them superior here and then have too much muscle mass and therefore too much water only twenty three percent of the womans body weight just muscle that means less water she has more subcutaneous fat reserves. Valid neo is a small town on the lower rhine than arkan put on the first marathon just for women here. He made phone calls and convinced women to participate the aim was to prove that women could run a marathon it was part of womens emancipation a months apart see on. The new marathon distance was perfect for cristoval and sick knee coffer schlager she started her Long Distance running career in the seventys. Coached by her fellow club member Manfred Stefani christer cover schlager has achieved an incredible result ten minutes before the finish line she separated from the leading pack and created a lead of almost two kilometers just before crossing the finish line she looks like shes running a few hundred metres on a training run looking completely fresh and running with excellent style shes heading towards a new european record. Youre not completely exhausted no not in any way dr van ark and this confirms your theory that women are also suited to running marathons definitely i follow the race particularly over the last ten thousand meters during which most runners performance drops she was the fastest. I remember two men accompanied us some bicycles and always slow to sit down so we wouldnt run too fast and would reach the finish line as you really felt like the press was just waiting for us to drop like flies but we all crossed the finish line just fine. It was a milestone for many years we were leaders and womens marathon running along with the United States and that america was our risk up there were no other americans but half a year later dr fun been invited to participate in the Boston Marathon which he paid for to see what the first time i think i heard of him was when. Set a world record in the womens marathon and i was so excited to read about this and then it seemed that somebody else from germany was always coming through as the great christa fallen sick and then he brought them to boston and they performed so incredibly well here