There was literally a time in which women were not allowed to participate in marathons.
I’m Olivia S. Benson, and you guys know I always use the S, because if I don’t you’ll be finding Mariska Hargitay from Law & Order SVU. But today I just want to take a minute to tell you the story of the first woman marathon runner.
Now, some of you may know about this, but amazingly, I think that maybe over the years I may have heard this story, but I didn’t really understand how pivotal, how dramatic it was, and the risk that this woman took in order to be able to run the first Boston Marathon.
And again, I’m Olivia, and I’m the author of this book, Answers from Within. It’s a spiritual guide for finding answers to work life issues, and For the Love of My Father. And basically this is a book about how I resolved my daddy issues. Very, very significant in my life. And Answers from Within is basically about how I found the answers to four questions. And when you get the book you’ll see the four questions on the back:
- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- Where am I going?
- And who’s going with me?
But as you may know, this month is Women’s History Month, and in doing my research I came across the story of Kathrine Switzer. Now, if you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, wherever I am these days, you will find the story of Kathrine Switzer and you will see the pictures.
All She Wanted to Do Was Run in the Boston Marathon
All Kathrine Switzer wanted to do was run in the Boston Marathon. And if you haven’t seen the pictures, please go check it out. There are multiple images of the picture, and there’s basically a guy chasing her down and trying to pull her out of the race. And the reason was that — and this is in the 1960s — the entire reason was that it was believed that women couldn’t run a marathon.
Now, only God knows who came up with that idea. I don’t know who said women can’t run. I don’t know where it came from. But somehow it was believed that women couldn’t run, and certainly they should not be allowed to run.
And when you look at the image, which I’ll have in this video, you will see the face of that guy when he is going after her, to grab her, to get her out of the marathon. I find it embarrassing, because when you look at his face you see it’s kind of like a deep-seated anger, and I think it’s really embarrassing, because in that picture — and I don’t remember his name off the top of my head, it’s in the story — but in that picture it’s clear that he came out on the wrong side of history.
And so as we celebrate Women’s History Month, it’s very easy to forget how far things have come, but there was literally a time in which women were not allowed to participate in marathons. So Kathrine Switzer, and I’m glad to know her name today, was the one who broke that barrier. And of course today, women, it’s amazing, because we participate in marathons and all kinds of other — I mean, walkathons, marathons, anything, and it’s not an issue. But believe it or not, if you didn’t know that, you should know Kathrine Switzer’s name, because she was the first one.
Someone Always Has to Be Willing to Break the Barrier
Now, there are a few things when you look at the image that I would like to have you consider, because this is all about considering where we’re coming from in order to keep going further. But there are a couple of things. First of all, someone always has to be willing to break the barrier, and in that case, I don’t know what made Kathrine Switzer that person that was willing to take the chance, but it was Kathrine Switzer.
There’s another interesting thing about those images. It’s not necessarily a live video of the particular encounter in which she’s assaulted, so to speak, because the guy’s kind of trying to pull her out of the race. But there’s something very interesting about those images. There are two men. In one image, one man is to her left and he’s trying to intervene when the guy is attacking her from the back, and there’s another image and the guy is, I think, on the other side of her, and he also is trying to stop the guy from pulling her back.
And the interesting thing about that is, like with everything else, every time a group of people is ready or is trying to make strides, there are always people who are willing to help. And in those images you can see that there were men who were ready to protect her and defend her and allow her to run, just as well as that guy who comes across as, basically, to be honest, he just seems monstrous in his behavior. He’s just monstrous. He’s going after her, his face, there’s such hate, there’s just such negative emotion with attacking someone or stopping someone who is simply wanting to run. She wasn’t committing a crime. She could have, if she was incapable, she could have been in the back of the race. But his job was to stop her, and of course that was the mentality of that particular time.
That’s What We Women Need
Now, there’s something else that I really love about this video, and I hope that for all my male friends, for all my male followers, that you get this and that you feel this. I would love to feel that my friends, that my brothers, that my cousins, that my husband, all my male followers, that I could feel that they would be just like those two men who defended Kathrine Switzer from the attacker. That’s what we women need.
I’ve spoken about Women’s History Month, and there’s some people who are against it, but in reality, why would you be against it? You may have a mother, you may have a sister, you may have a cousin, you may have friends who are women, a wife — wouldn’t you want the very best in the world for that person?
And when we talk about, for example, as a daughter losing a father: if you’re a father and you leave this world, wouldn’t you want to leave the world a place where your daughter could succeed, where she could take care of herself if she didn’t have a mate, and even if she had a mate?
I Told My Daughter She Should Always Have Her Own
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine, and his daughter is married and her husband has a very, very well-paying job, to the point where she’s able to stay at home. And he said to me — and this is the day that we live in — he said to me, I told my daughter that she should not stay home, that she should always have her own. Now, obviously everybody’s circumstances are different, and maybe in fact she can stay home, I don’t know. But this is a father who is telling his daughter it’s always better to have something of your own.
And that is what — and you all know that I speak about my father and his absence in my life, and he’s passed on many, many years ago — but I would hope that his dream was for his daughter to live in a world where she was able to take care of herself, and she was able to move with amplitude, where she wasn’t limited, where people weren’t trying to restrict her from developing her full potential, and where he could pass on and feel like, my daughter’s going to be okay.
And so from those images of those two guys — and we’ll put an arrow in the images to show you there were two men in those particular pictures who were coming to her aid — that’s the day we’re in today. And we want to make sure it’s not, we don’t have to be in a fight. We’re all moving together at the same time, and my position is that we’re always attempting to move into balance, a balance that will make the world a better place.
Look at all the marathons and look at all the walkathons and all the things that women participate in today, and all of that just makes life better. So for my male friends, I hope you’re participating and I hope you’re enjoying, and I hope you are hoping for your daughters and your mothers and your sisters and your cousins. I hope that you can feel it, and I hope that you want to make the world a better place.
Keep Your Eye on the Prize
My job, as you all know, is to share my experiences and how I was able to heal the issues of my life so that I could have a better experience despite the absence of my father. I was blessed to have the opportunity to learn the truth about life that would bring me into balance, and that’s what I wrote about in For the Love of My Father.
The other major challenge of my life, of course, was work. What am I here to do? Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Who’s going with me? What’s this life journey about? And particularly right now, when there’s so many different things going on, and I like to say this: keep your eye on the prize, because no matter what happens in the world, if you don’t address your issues, your life will not change. And so for me, Answers from Within is my account of the process of what I had to do, what I had to learn, in order to find the answers to the issues I had with regards to the work I was here to do in the world.
If you enjoy this content, if it leads you to thinking about life, if it leads you as a man to consider how important it is that you participate in making the world a better place for your daughter, for your sister, for your mother — put your thoughts, your good thoughts, into action, so that together we can make the world a better place as we celebrate another year of Women’s History Month.
I’m Olivia S. Benson, my website is OliviaSBenson.com. Happy Women’s History Month.