by Susan Zehnder, Education Director
Runners in the Finger Lakes welcome the arrival of
autumn—temperatures are cooler, the humidity is less oppressive, and the colors
in the hills can be stunning. Although the Wine Glass Marathon (held since 1981)
was virtual last year, this year it returned in person, attracting male and
female competitors from more than 41 states. Today we take for granted that
both women and men can participate in the event, but a look back at the history
of long-distance running shows that women have had an uphill battle when it
comes to marathons. The story of one local runner can be an inspiration to keep
going.
In 1984, the women’s marathon was added to Olympic events. It was
the same year that Molly Huddle and her twin sister Megan were born in Elmira
to mom Kathleen, an artist, and dad Robert, a physician. The Huddles, including
siblings Christine and Katie Rose, were an active family and Molly enjoyed both
school and sports.
Star-Gazette photo of 18 year old Molly running the Elmira-thon in 2002 |
Notre Dame didn’t have a cross country team, so after petitioning
the district’s athletic governing board, it was
arranged that she could run and her father would coach her. She became Notre Dame’s one-person
team, representing the school in meets, and the
five-foot four-inch Huddle not only won races but broke league records. Huddle
went on to attend Notre Dame University, where she continued to set personal
bests and win national recognition.
Since then, Huddle has proven herself on the world stage time and again. Her
career to date includes 5 world finals, 2 Olympic finals, and 7 personal bests.
She was set to compete in this year’s Olympic Games but had to pull out due to
hip and ankle injuries.
Early in the 20th century, women were prohibited
from entering races due to health concerns that sound strange to us today. One thing some said was that running would cause a woman’s uterus to fall out.
The first woman on record to run a marathon was Violet Piercy of Great Britain
in the fall of 1926. Her time was 3:40:22, a record which stood unbroken until
1963. Almost one hundred years later, the women’s record in 2021 is 2:14:04.
Molly Huddle’s own record is 2:26:33, set in London in 2019.
The Boston Marathon, one of six exclusive world-class races, began
in 1897. When marathons became popular amateur sports in the late 1960s and
70s, women were still prohibited from participating. It seems old myths
persisted. The Boston race’s rule book did not even mention gender until the
late 1960s, after a 23-year-old woman named Bobbi Gibb attempted to enter the 1967
race but was denied on the basis of her gender. She went on to unofficially run
and clocked in at 3:21:40, coming in well ahead of many of the male runners.
The following year, Katherine Switzer entered as K. V. Switzer,
using her usual signature. This time the officials didn’t notice her
application. To run, she wore a baggy sweat suit. When race officials
discovered she was a woman, they and other runners physically attacked her,
ripping her race number off her jersey. Today almost half the runners
qualifying for the Boston Marathon are women.
Boston Herald photo of Katherine Switzer running |
In 1984 the Olympics added the Women’s Marathon. Molly Huddle
first qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. She was now part of an organization very different than a team of one. She has worked hard through injuries and
disappointments. Today, in addition to running, she is elevating other women
runners through a podcast she’s created called Keeping
Track: Women in Sports . In her podcasts, she highlights the stories of women track and
field athletes often overlooked in the general media. It’s just the latest part of
the impressive career that Molly Huddle has made by putting one foot in front of
another, something she clearly loves to do.
2021 from Womensrunning.com
Fun fact: According to her Wikipedia page, Huddle is
credited in part for the female runner emoji.
No comments:
Post a Comment