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Run For Your Life
By April Anderson, Iowa
The time to really push your body to its potential, according to Boston marathon champion John Kelley, is when you are in your 20s. "Especially between the ages of 24 and 32 when you are in top physiological form," he said. "That's when you want to push it to the point where you can say later on - ‘Well I did it. I found out what I could do.'"
"Armed with a “bring it on” attitude, it was the personal and physical milestone they were interested in accomplishing." -April Anderson
Kelley has run in over 80 marathons. He won the Boston Marathon in 1957, placed second in the race five times, was a two-time Olympian and an eight-time National Champion. This year, he presided over the Boston Marathon on April 16 as Grand Marshall.
This 26 mile run had a field of 23, 869 runners competing for first place. Obdurate in their mission despite the forecast which called for the remnants of a Nor'easter - torrential down pours and occasional gale force windy weather - these runners were intrepid and ready to meet the challenge. Armed with a "bring it on" attitude, it was the personal and physical milestone they were interested in accomplishing.
What is it about runners? Are they this select group of long legged athletes that stoically enjoy the experience of running (and aching) for the sake of running?
For Kathrine Switzer, who pioneered women's marathons in various places around the world during the last four decades, "running is magic." - it is life- transformative and Switzer has seen this over and over again first hand. By opening up the marathon field to include women in countries as far away as Germany, Malaysia, Japan, Hungary and Brazil, Switzer has positively affected the lives of women no matter how tall, short, old or young they are.
Indeed, these marathon women around the globe are now considered the "rock stars of the sport." "Yuko Arimori, silver medalist at the 1996 Olympic games made more commercials in 1996 than Michael Jordan," Switzer said. "Naoko Takashahi, gold medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games, has a daily comic strip drawn about her called "Daughter of the Wind." As a result of Switzer's uphill battle to place marathon running on the map for women, the women's marathon has been an official event at the Olympic Games since 1984.
Switzer paved the way for women to compete in marathons 40 years ago. She was the first woman ever to run the Boston Marathon with an official number. Not everyone was welcoming including Boston Athletic Association official Jock Semple who two miles into the race, tried to physically and forcibly stop her from participating.
Ironically, 40 years later the big buzz about the Boston Marathon was the women - 14,344 women competed - 200 more women than men entered in the 18-39 year- old age group, and for the first time ever the Boston Marathon hosted the USA Women's Marathon Championship featuring the top female runners in the country.
One of this year's entrants was 38 year old Joanne Chang. Chang ran her first Boston Marathon 16 years ago as a college student in 1991. "I'm not a natural runner," Chang admits. "I don't run very quickly ...and every day when I go out there, I always feel it takes me a while to warm up."
Nonetheless, running is her way of "spoiling herself." Once her forum to think through the applied mathematics problems she faced in college and to contemplate her future, Chang is now the proprietor of the Flour Bakery and Café - a popular gourmet bakery and coffee shop in Boston. Chang finds running to be a great way of facing the challenges that come up in running her own business. "I give myself an hour every day where I don't have to answer the phone, I don't have people asking me questions - it's just me."
This is just what Switzer had in mind in bringing women to the sport. "It's not like any day is necessarily a bad day but running makes it a good day," she said. Eighteen minutes into a daily run, Switzer says the endorphins kick in and she gets this pervasive feeling of peace.
Endorphins aside, some things about running a marathon are universal. "Running the Boston Marathon is like persevering in life against all the odds," Kelley said. "Everyone who has a part in this marathon has a part of something bigger than any individual in it."
While Kelley helped popularize running and bring it into the global spotlight, Switzer brought running to women around the world. "Running is not just about running - it's all about changing your life and the way you see it," Switzer said. "I think running in many ways has given me everything I have in my life - my religion, my husband, my career, my travel, but most of all, my sense of destiny," Switzer said. Running has changed the world-can it change yours?
