Geoffrey Kirui won the 121st edition of the men’s race on Monday, and Edna Kiplagat won the women’s division to complete the first Kenyan sweep in five years. I was not only pushed by that tailwind, but also buoyed by the crowd." “This time, it was wall-to-wall cheering, and people not just congratulating me, but thanking me. “Fifty years before, it was so freezing," she said. But this year, at the age of 70, she ran it again, finishing in 4 hours, 44 minutes, 31 seconds-only about 25 minutes slower than when she was 20. Switzer won the New York Marathon in 1974 and continued to run Boston until 1976 before providing TV commentary for the next 37 years. “It was a very good thing she wasn’t well-behaved on that morning," said Joann Flaminio, the first female president in the 125-year history of BAA. In 2011, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, where they quote Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: “Well-behaved women seldom make history." Switzer began organizing women’s road races that helped persuade the Olympics to add a women’s marathon in 1984. “He inspired me to completely not only change my life, but to change millions of women’s lives." It became the best thing in my life," she said Tuesday.
“It was the worst thing in my life at the time. Pictures of that were splashed across newspaper front pages, and Switzer somewhat inadvertently became a symbol of the women’s movement. Although Bobbi Gibb was also in the race for the second straight year, one of the unofficial runners known as bandits, race director Jock Semple fumed at the sight of Switzer in an official bib and tried to pull her off the course. Switzer was a 20-year-old student at Syracuse when she entered the men-only Boston Marathon in 1967, using her initials on the registration form. The number now stands for all of those things." “It’s beyond me it’s the number now," said Switzer, who ran the race on Monday along with 118 women and “seven intrepid men" who raised money for the charity that uses running to improve women’s lives around the world. “People have such an appreciation for what running has done for them and how it’s changed their lives," said Switzer, who named her 261 Fearless foundation after the bib number that was nearly torn from her back on the marathon course. Fans crowded the brief ceremony, hugging and posing afterwards for pictures with Switzer, a women’s running pioneer.
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