Woot! Woot! We are so excited now! We have been keeping this secret for days because we have sworn to secrecy of this fantastic news. Finally, we get the green light from the race director to announce it to the world!
She will be in Malaysia to flag off the Inaugural Malaysia Women Marathon 2013 on 7 April in Shah Alam.
Kathrine Virginia "Kathy" Switzer (born January 5, 1947) is an American author, television commentator and marathon runner and best known as the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry.
While attending college, Switzer entered and completed the race in 1967, five years before women were officially allowed to compete in it. Her finishing time of approximately 4 hours and 20 minutes was nearly an hour behind the first female finisher, Bobbi Gibb (who ran unregistered).
She registered under the gender-neutral "K. V. Switzer", which she insists was not done in an attempt to mislead the officials. She claims to have long used "K. V. Switzer" to sign the articles she wrote for her college paper.
Race official Jock Semple attempted to remove her from the race, and according to Switzer said, "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers."However, Switzer's boyfriend Tom Miller, who was running with her, shoved Semple aside and sent him flying. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines.
As a result of her run, the AAU barred women from all competition with male runners, on pain of losing the right to compete. Switzer, with other women runners, tried to convince the Boston Athletic Association to allow women to participate in the marathon. Finally, in 1972, women were welcome to run the Boston Marathon officially for the first time ever.
For more info about Malaysia Women Marathon, please click HERE.
Source Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathrine_Switzer
This is fantastic! All the More reason to sign up. :-)
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