The first woman to complete the Boston Marathon is now 78 and runs most days. She shared 3 tips for getting fit at any age.
Kathrine Switzer/GALE Partners
- The first woman officially ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, despite an official trying to stop her.
- Kathrine Switzer has dedicated her life to making running more accessible to women.
- She thinks anyone can get fit at any age and shared her tips for doing just that.
Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as an official competitor, despite a race official trying to physically stop her. Since that day in 1967, she has dedicated her life to other women experiencing the same feeling of empowerment from running, regardless of their age or ability.
In the run-up to the race, Switzer, at the time a 20-year-old journalism student at Syracuse University, trained with her college's cross-country team for a year (it was against collegiate rules for a woman to compete in the sport). She couldn't keep up with most of the men on the team, so the assistant coach, Arnie Briggs, began training with her separately as he recovered from a knee injury.
"We got better and stronger," Switzer told Business Insider. "We got up to five miles and then seven and then 11. The guys on the cross country team wouldn't come out with us after 20 kilometers, but that's when I could keep up with them because they didn't have the endurance I had."
On their runs, Switzer and Briggs discussed marathons β Briggs had run the Boston Marathon 15 times but didn't believe that a woman could run that far.
"But then he said, 'Look, if any woman could, I would believe it was you. But you would have to prove it to me, and then I'd take you to Boston.' I said, 'Hot damn, you're on,'" Switzer said.
They did a trial marathon and ended up running an extra five miles at the end because Switzer suspected the course was shorter than the required 26.2 miles and still had energy.
She and Briggs paid the $2 entry fee and signed up for the 1967 Boston Marathon. (The entry fee was $250 for the 2025 race.)
About two miles into the race, things went awry.
AP PHOTO
The race manager pulled up in a bus and ran after Switzer. "He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me back. He tried to pull off my number bib and screamed, 'Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers,'" she said.
When the official grabbed Switzer by the shirt, her boyfriend at the time, who was training to compete in hammer throw at the Olympics, charged at him and sent him flying off to the side of the road, she said.
As she kept running, the press hounded her, asking if she was a suffragette and what she was trying to prove.
"I wasn't trying to prove anything, I was just trying to run," she said. "But they stayed with me a long time and really hassled me, asking me, 'When are you going to quit?' Finally, I said, 'I'm going to finish this race on my hands and my knees if I have to.'"
She did finish (and stayed upright).
She said she felt empowered, and in 1972 organized the first women-only road race, which was 10-kilometer-long, and lobbied for the inclusion of a women's marathon event in the Olympics, which eventually happened in 1984.
In 2024, she worked with Every Woman's Marathon to hold a women's-only marathon, which had 7,000 participants.
Carol Lee Rose/Every Woman's Marathon
Now 78, Switzer still runs six times a week, including one day where she focuses on 800-meter sprints and a day for a longer run that takes at least 1.5 hours. She ramps up her training when she's approaching a marathon.
Switzer set her personal best at the 1975 Boston Marathon with a time of two hours and fifty-one minutes. It now takes her four to five hours, but it isn't about the time, she said. She's happy that she can run a marathon alongside other women, of every age, size, ethnicity, and religion, thanks to her efforts and those of other women who paved the way.
"I believe you can start a fitness program at any age," she said, giving the example of a woman she knows who took up running at 72 and ran her first marathon at 81.
Switzer shared her tips for getting fit, whether you can run for one minute or three hours.
Start slow, but be consistent
"Consistency is everything. You just need to keep running every day and build it up," she said.
Every Woman's Marathon/GALE Partners
She started by running a mile a day around her garden at age 12 and gradually increased the number of laps over time. But it wasn't easy, she said.
"I struggled through that summer, running that mile every single day. Pretty soon, this amazing sense of empowerment came over me," she said. "For some people, this process is going to be faster; for other people, it's going to be slower."
Have a goal
Having a goal provides focus and will motivate you to "put the work in," Switzer said.
Her motivation was to prove Briggs wrong and show that women could run marathons, but your goal doesn't have to be as big, she said.
"There's going to be plenty of days when you don't want to go out," she said.
She still has days when she doesn't want to run after almost 60 years of doing the sport. But having something to aim for means you're less likely to skip a workout.
Accountability is key
Switzer's final tip is to find a way to hold yourself accountable. You could get a training partner or keep a diary of your workouts, she said.
"People should write their workout down every day because when you write it down, it keeps you honest," she said.
"But a buddy is really a nice thing to have. I don't think I ever would have been a runner if it hadn't been for Arnie, my coach," she added.
"And for a lot of women, safety is a really big factor. So run with other women β it also creates a really good community."
