In 1984, the women’s marathon was an official event in the Olympics for the first time. “When we saw Joan Benoit cross that finish line in front of two billion people, we knew the world had been changed for women. Everyone knows what a marathon is, what the distance is; and they know it’s really far and really hard. And if a woman can do it, they can do anything!”
From there, Switzer launched a television career — first for ABC Sports, because it “needed someone who knew something about women’s distance-running, which I did!” Then she went on to work for various news outlets covering races including the Olympic Games, the New York City Marathon and the Boston Marathon.
Flash-forward to Monday, April 15, 2013 at 8 a.m., when Switzer — as she has done for the past 33 years — walked towards the rickety media bridge that sits behind the finish line so that she could begin broadcasting the 117th annual Boston Marathon for CBS affiliate WBZ. “I saw three officers with dogs sweeping the area for bombs, as they have been for at least ten years. And I thought, ‘How sad that they have to do this at one of the best events of the year.’ Everyone in Boston is off that Monday; the streets are filled with runners and supporters; it’s the opening day of Fenway Park…”
She wrapped up a five-hour broadcast with her colleagues, mostly doing the “color” stories on the female runners, then decided to head back to the hotel where her husband Roger Robinson was busy filing his stories in the media room for The Running Times. “My colleague Lisa Hughes said she was going to stay, because she wanted to see her sister-n-law finish,” Switzer recalled. The hotel was bustling with elite athletes, international and national media and a ballroom was being prepared for the presentation of awards.
As she entered her hotel room and began to take off several of the layers in which she had been bundled on that cold day, Switzer heard a blast go off that shook the windows. A few seconds later another blast went off, and she thought, “Oh God, those were bombs.” Her husband came in and told her that the hotel was being locked down. She turned on her own cable channel, only to see her colleague, alive but shaken, trying her best to report the horror from her cell phone.
As we know now, the terrorist attacks killed three people, wounded almost 200 and have caused dozens of amputations. “We began e-mailing people to tell them we were okay, as they all knew we were within feet of where the bombs went off,” she said. “It was so chilling. The streets — which are always filled with runners and supporters, taking pictures of each other and their medals and celebrating this joyous event in a Mardi-Graslike fashion — were suddenly empty. All I could see were large black SUVs, police officers, bomb units, Humvees and a constant parade of emergency vehicles being ushered in to treat the wounded.”
Switzer’s husband had to get on a plane to cover the London Marathon, but she stayed holed up in the hotel room, “trying to honor as many media requests as I could, which were coming in from all over the world: Australia, New Zealand, London, Al Jazeera…”
Asked if she ever thought that this could happen, the longtime marathon runner, female running pioneer, author and sports commentator said, “Yes, but I never articulated it. It’s something you never want to say out loud, because you don’t want it to be true or give any one the idea, but marathons are by nature impossible to completely secure. They’re on a worldwide television stage, so the visibility for some terrorist attack is what they seek. To be honest, if it was going to happen, I thought it would happen during the New York Marathon after 9/11, when there had to be 30,000 people running along the Verrazano Bridge. I was there covering it, and that was the first time I ever felt scared: seeing snipers on all of the roofs, thinking how vulnerable we all were.”
That said, Switzer, like most of the running community, is not going to move forward in fear. “Runners by their nature are fearless people. The solidarity being shown amongst them is incredible. My husband, reporting from London right now, said that the crowds were larger than ever, that the runners were wearing black ribbons to honor the dead and wounded in Boston, that there were signs everywhere saying ‘Boston Strong’ and ‘We’re United with Boston.’”
She doesn’t believe for one moment that the bombing will impact the determination of runners to continue to train for and enter these staple distance events, but she does believe that “It will have a large financial impact. It’s every race director’s nightmare and greatest fear. I don’t think the major marathons will be affected, but I do worry about smaller ones, as the cost of security is expensive, and that security is going to be in more demand now. It’s terrible to take such a pure sporting event, such a testimony to the human spirit, and unleash evil and violence upon it.”
Switzer will continue to work toward empowering more women to run, particularly in the Mideast, which she admits is a “tough nut to crack, but we’re making headway.” She noted that when women are banned from running in events in suppressed countries, they often wear or get tattooed with or somehow display Switzer’s number from her 1967 marathon run: 261. “It’s not a number anymore, but a metaphor for fearlessness and empowerment.”
Thankfully, Switzer can take some of her own solace after what she has witnessed and overcome as she runs along the trails of the Shawangunk Ridge. “This is a runner’s paradise. We moved here five years ago from New York City, and within a few weeks met more wonderful people and friends than in our 25 years in the City! What a wonderful place to live!”
Last year she was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame. To learn more about Switzer, her books, projects and events, go to https://kathrineswitzer.com.
