Starting Line 1928: Recent Episodes
Running Historians (Various)
Starting Line 1928 is an oral history project documenting the lived experiences of female distance running pioneers
Bobbi Gibb didn't wait for permission—she changed history by stepping across a line she was never meant to cross. In 1966, when women weren't allowed to run the Boston Marathon, Bobbi showed up anyway. Denied an official race number simply because she was a woman, she hid near the starting line, slipped into the pack, and ran 26.2 miles on determination alone. She finished in three hours and 21 minutes, faster than many of the men competing, and challenged a long-held belief that women couldn't endure the distance. But Bobbi's story is bigger than one race. It's about questioning limits and reshaping what people believe is possible, not just in sport, but in life.
When Ellen Wessel and Elizabeth Goeke started running in the 1970s, they quickly realized the apparel available wasn't well suited to women's needs. Shorts bunched between the legs, didn't fit right around the waist, chafed in unmentionable areas—and definitely didn't have pockets. Sports bras, let alone those that supported larger breasts, weren't yet available. So they started a company, Moving Comfort, to meet the needs of a growing group of women runners. Though there were plenty of ups and downs along the way, Moving Comfort outfitted women runners with quality apparel for four decades—staying true to the pair's mission, "A fit woman is a powerful woman," along the way.
Jan Seeley is a modern Renaissance woman, succeeding in pursuits as wide-ranging as field hockey, running, writing, and race directing. She's been running for more than 50 years, was an editor at Human Kinetics and then of Marathon & Beyond magazine, and is now the race director for the Christie Clinic Illinois Race Weekend, a marathon and more in Champaign-Urbana. In this interview, she discusses her journey through the sport, her relationship with her husband and fellow runner Joe (and her grief after he passed away in 2012), and how the Illinois races have grown into a beloved regional event with a wide-ranging impact on the community.
Gordon Bakoulis has built an impressive running résumé that includes: a five-time qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, finalist in the 1992 U.S. Olympic 10,000-meter Trials, and an age-group champion at the 2001 New York City Marathon, where she ran 2:41 at age 40. Her marathon personal best stands at 2:33:01; her half-marathon best at 1:11:34. "I can't imagine running not being in my life," she says. Fortunately, she has never had to. Running has shaped her life for more than five decades.
"I was just in the right place at the right time" is how Lynn Blackstone likes to color her participation in one of the pivotal events in the history of women's running—"The Six Who Sat" protest at the start of the third New York City Marathon in 1972. While this may seem a vast understatement, what cannot go unnoticed is her decades-long love of running. The sport threaded its way through her next decade, as she gave birth to two sons and continued to run through both pregnancies. Today, at age 85, Lynn still runs and is an active member of the Central Park Track Club, which she and Dave founded with 10 members in 1972.
For those who follow masters running, Jeannie Rice's name often invokes awe and admiration. At age 77, Rice has more than 40 Masters titles in the U.S. At age 70, she set her first age group world record at the 2018 Chicago Marathon with a time of 3:27:50, which she lowered a year later, at the 2019 Berlin Marathon, with a time of 3:24:48. She also holds age-group world records in the 1500 meters, 5000 meters, and 10,000 meters on the track. In this episode of Starting Line 1928, we talked about her own running routine, her role models, and her goals to run a 3:30 marathon after turning 78. Rice is also planning to compete at the 2026 World Masters Athletics Stadia Championships in South Korea.
Jessica Dragičević Cassleman grew up in Chile with British and Yugoslav roots. She found her way into elite athletics through community sports clubs, eventually competing and coaching at a high level. A political upheaval in Chile and a serendipitous phone call brought her to the United States and the University of Illinois, where she became a pioneering women's track and field coach in the early years after Title IX. She built competitive programs at Illinois and Washington State University, fighting for equity in resources and respect for women athletes, and developing a coaching philosophy centered on training the whole person. Eventually, she stepped away from coaching, choosing family and a different kind of leadership. She became an academic administrator, serving as assistant dean in both the Honors College and the Carson College of Business at WSU, shaping international programs, teaching and mentoring students, and carrying the same principles into the classroom.
Ultra-running legend Helen Klein turned 100 on November 27, 2022. A force of nature, she believes anything is possible if it is within your grasp. Few people have grasped as many accolades as she has. Over the course of her remarkable career, Klein amassed 75 national and world records, completed 90 marathons and 143 ultramarathons; and at age 66, was one of the first athletes to complete the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning which consists of four of the most demanding 100-mile trail races in the United States. At 72, she completed a 145-mile race in the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Just weeks later, she finished the punishing 370-mile Echo-Challenge in Utah. She also holds the marathon world record for women aged 80 and over in 4:31:32, which she set at the 2002 California International Marathon. Five years later she shattered the 85 and over record at the same race.
If Tish Hamilton is being honest, she doesn't consider herself a pioneer in women's running. She looks at titans of the sport like Kathrine Switzer and activists like Alison Mariella Desir—"They're legit," Hamilton says. But Hamilton's work in the sport—as the first female executive editor of Runner's World magazine—is nothing to sneeze at. Hamilton calls the marriage of her two passions—running and journalism—a privilege. She helped usher in the second running boom, one driven largely by women, one step behind the helm of the go-to magazine for runners. The mission was to broaden the coverage of the sport—from elites to weekend warriors doing incredible work—and with that, bring in a more varied audience, including women.
Anne Audain is a three-time Olympian and former professional runner for New Zealand. She had success as a very young athlete, qualifying for the 1972 Munich Olympics at age 16, though she wasn't able to compete until the 1976 Montreal Olympics, when she was 20. However, the road to discovering her talent wasn't without its challenges. Anne, who was adopted as a baby, was born with a bone deformity in both feet, which she wasn't able to correct with surgery until she was 13 years old. After more than a year of rehab and recovery, Anne hit the ground running, literally. Despite having competed in her first Olympic Games in 1976, she only went pro in 1981, and went on to have a storied career, breaking several course records on the US road running circuit and winning multiple Commonwealth Games medals. She retired from competition in 1990 and is now based in Evansville, Indiana.
Eileen Waters Connolly was a trailblazer in American long-distance running, part of the first generation of women to compete in the sport. In 1972, she made history by setting a world record in a 50-mile race on a track in Santa Monica, finishing in 7:05:31. Even more impressive, she ran negative splits—completing the second half 23 minutes faster than the first. A year later, she returned and broke her own record, cutting 10 minutes off her time. She died in 2016 at 71 from adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), a rare form of cancer. As she aged, she never lost her sense of humor or self-effacing nature. She was quoted as saying, "When you get old, you just show up and most likely you'll win your age group."
When you think about excellence in the marathon, the name Deena Kastor inevitably jumps to mind. After all, the 52-year-old held the American record in the distance for a whopping 19 years, setting it first in London in 2003, then bettering her own mark just three years later when she became the first American woman to run under 2:20. In fact, Kastor—a three-time Olympian, World Marathon Majors champ, World Cross Country medalist, and holder of national records from the 5K up to the 26.2—was drawn to distance from the very first time she hit the track.
Long before Roberta Gibb and Sara Mae Berman unofficially ran the Boston Marathon (1966 and 1969 respectively), Arlene Pieper Stine became the first woman to officially finish a sanctioned marathon in 1959, when she ran the Pikes Peak Marathon—ascent and descent—in 9:50:20 when she was 29. She was accompanied by twelve men and a horse. Pieper Stine ran in the men's category and was not given a special category or fanfare for her historic finish. She never ran another marathon and her pioneering accomplishment fell into obscurity until 2009.
Upon turning 50 years old, Yolanda Holder decided to do something different for her birthday. While others in her circle of family and friends opted for elaborate parties, expensive experiences or trips, or even purchasing long-desired goods, Yolanda, on the other hand, set out to walk 50 marathons in 50 weeks. She didn't just meet that goal—she crushed it, completing 66 marathons in 52 weeks. And she never stopped. Now 67, Holder has become one of the most accomplished ultra-endurance athletes in the world. She has set Guinness World Records, all while breaking barriers as a race walker in a runner's world. Yolanda is also the first African American woman to achieve numerous milestones in multi-day racing.
Nina Kuscsik began running in the 1960s after discovering Bill Bowerman's Jogging while waiting for a bike tire repair. Born in Brooklyn in 1939, she was a natural athlete who became New York State champion in roller skating, ice speed skating, and bike racing in 1960. After taking a break to raise her three children, running reignited her competitive spirit. She unofficially ran the Boston Marathon in 1969 and 1970, then won it in 1972 when it first officially accepted women, finishing in 3:10:26. A pivotal moment came in 1970 when she was turned away from a two-mile race simply for being a woman—an experience that transformed her into a fierce advocate for women's running rights. At the 1972 New York City Marathon, she led a protest against the separate start rule for women, sitting at the starting line until the ban was lifted. During the 1970s, she likely ran more marathons than any other woman, completing over 80 marathons and winning 15. Her advocacy helped establish women's marathon running, and she witnessed Joan Benoit become the first Olympic women's marathon champion in 1984. As her son remembered, despite all her victories and advocacy work, Nina simply "ran for the pure pleasure of it" and loved "the freedom that running gave her."
Lena Hollmann began her running journey in Sweden, her native country. She started with the 800 meters until 1969, when women were allowed to run the 1500 meters as well. She was part of the Swedish National Track Team and was a national champion in the 1500 meters. Lena moved to the United States with her husband in the late ’70s and at first, ran for fitness and fun. Then, she began training seriously again, entering races, and seeing success. In fact, she was the top woman at the Philadelphia Distance Run Half Marathon in 1979. Highlights of her running career include her 10th-place finish at the 1984 Boston Marathon and her 2:44:10 at the 1983 New York City Marathon. Lena’s elite running career ended when knee problems intervened. She changed focus and became a certified personal trainer and coach. This was the beginning of a new and rewarding journey for Lena. She focuses on women, specifically older women, and helps them achieve their fitness goals and develop a positive self-image. She's even considering a new role … model. “I want to show women that life isn't over because you’re in the mid-70s, and there are so many possibilities,” she says.
Molly Barker began running with her mother when she was 14 years old, when her mother was newly sober. Years later, it was on a run in 1993 when Molly herself realized she needed to stop drinking or it would kill her. That run inspired her to create a program for young girls to accept who they are, with grace and pride, and celebrate themselves. She launched Girls on the Run in 1996 at a site in North Carolina with 13 girls; it quickly grew and now has sites in all 50 states and in Canada. Molly left the organization in 2013 and now calls herself a "grandmother" to the organization (she also has two kids and one grandchild). In addition, she's written several books, including Girls on Track: A Parent's Guide to Inspiring Our Daughters to Achieve a Lifetime of Self-Respect and Healthy Living, which helped bring the Girls on the Run program into the home.
Say the name Kathrine Switzer and many people aren’t sure who she is. Say, “the woman who was accosted during the 1967 Boston Marathon because she was running in an event for men only,” and it’s an image people recognize and remember. Kathrine had no idea what a historic run Boston would be; it became the spark for her life path. She went on to work at Avon and develop Avon Global Women’s Running, then advocated to have the women’s marathon included in the Olympics. She has also written books, commentated for major races, spoken to groups all over the world, and was the honorary starter for the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Her number in the 1967 Boston Marathon, 261, became an inspiration for women and then the namesake of 261 Fearless, a non-profit Kathrine co-founded in 2015. She continues to open doors for women, encouraging them through running and helping them feel empowered, no matter their circumstances.
Marge Hickman can’t sit still. If she’s not running, she’s hiking, driving around the country in her RV, or engaging in another form of movement. Since she was a kid, the ultra running phenom has always felt an insatiable drive to prove herself. And that drive has taken her places few in the running community have dared to go. In 1989, Hickman completed the grand slam of ultra running, meaning she finished four of the oldest 100-mile races in a span of 10 weeks. She is one of only 59 women who have accomplished the feat since it was established in 1986. She also completed the Leadville Trail 100 a total of 14 times (within the time limit), the most by any woman at the event. Now, at almost 75 years old, Hickman still competes regularly as an enduring pioneer in the sport.
This month, we’re bringing you something a little bit different in this feed: an episode of Women’s Running Stories, a podcast hosted by Cherie Louise Turner. This episode features Jen Kanyugi, who last year ran her 20th consecutive Boston Marathon. And yes, after this was recorded, she did indeed finish the race! Jen's journey to get to this point is about this one event, and so much more. In this time, Jen went from not running more than 20 minutes on the treadmill to being a steady presence at this, one of the most recognized and celebrated running events in the world. She’s also learned the power of support, finding groups to train with and create community with, like Girls on the Run and Black Girls Run.
In the mid-1970s, Henley Gabeau didn’t set out to become an accomplished distance runner. Instead, her athletic journey started as a simple desire to keep up with her 12-year-old daughter while training on the track. Henley quickly noticed there weren’t many spaces dedicated to women, so she and a group of like-minded athletes formed RunHERS, one of the first women’s running clubs in the United States. She went on to become the first female president of the Road Runners Club of America and then the organization's first-ever executive director; she also played a role in advocating for adding the women's marathon to the Olympics. Henley's contributions to the world of distance running go beyond her athletic achievements; her work as an advocate, race director, mother and leader helped shape women’s running into what it is today. Henley passed away in 2018—this interview was conducted by Olympian Amy Begley in 2013.
Dr. Joan Ullyot, the “fastest physician marathon runner," paved the way for women runners across the world, proving by example that women should not be counted out when it comes to long distances. Ullyot raced in 80 marathons, winning ten of those along with the masters division in the Boston Marathon in 1984. Her book “Women’s Running,” published in 1976, and her in-depth studies as an exercise physiologist made the case that women deserve the equal opportunity to run competitively; her efforts were instrumental in lobbying the International Olympic Commission to add the women's marathon to the Olympics in 1984. Dr. Ullyot passed away in 2021, at age 80; this interview was conducted in 2013 by Amy Begley.
In 1969, 32-year-old Sara Mae Berman was the first woman to cross the finish line in the Boston Marathon. She did it again in 1970 and 1971. But women weren’t allowed to enter officially, so her times—3:22:46, 3:05:08, and 3:08:30, respectively—were unofficial. "All we ever wanted, us early women, was to be allowed to run the distance, and we weren't in any bloodthirsty competition with each other. We just wanted to be able to run the distance and improve our times," she says.
Native people, including women, have been running over these lands since long before anyone organized a major marathon. Yet all too often, with notable exceptions like past guest Patti Catalano Dillon, they aren’t represented at modern races. Changing that is the key goal of Native Women Run, an organization that Verna Volker launched in 2018. At first, it was an Instagram page; now, it’s a non-profit that creates space for and elevates the stories of Native women who run. This year, NWR brought four runners to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon: Jessica Louis, Amber Henderson, Angel Tadytin, and Birdie Wermy. All of them joined Verna, Starting Line 1928’s Cindy Kuzma, and Cherie Louise Turner of Women’s Running Stories for a special live podcast recording at the expo the day before the race.
Junko Kazukawa is a Japanese-born women's ultra running pioneer best known for having finished the Leadville 100-mile race 10 times. Junko is a two-time breast cancer survivor with more than three decades of experience in health, fitness, and training. She currently works as an ultra endurance coach with Boundless. Junko lives and trains in Denver, Colorado, and has completed 24 100-mile trail races so far, including Leadville, UTMB, Mt. Fuji, Ultra Fiord in Patagonia. She's the first female to finish the Grand Slam of ultra running in 2015. She was Lead Woman three times, in 2014, 2015 and 2024. This means she completed all six events in the Leadville Race Series in the span of two months in the nation’s highest city, including a trail marathon, a mountain-bike race, the Leadville Trail 100 Run, and more. She was the 2015 Sports Woman of Colorado and voted as the Colorado resident badass in 2017.
Doris Brown Heritage has always had a need to run. During a career that spanned roughly twenty years, Brown Heritage held every woman’s national and world record from the 440 yards to the marathon. In 1966 she became the first woman to run an indoor sub-five-minute mile in 4:52. Ten years later, on a lark with little training, she won her first marathon, the 1976 Vancouver International Marathon in 2:47:35 at the age of 34.
She is a two-time Olympian (1968, 800m, 1972 1500m) and is a living legend in her home state where she was named Seattle’s 1971 Man of the Year in Sports. She found that hilarious. Her most acclaimed accomplishment was winning five consecutive International World Cross-Country Championships from 1967 through 1971. “She is a remarkable woman who should have the name recognition of Jim Ryan,” claims Charlotte Lettis Richardson who included Brown Heritage in her documentary Run Like a Girl.
“Life is a challenge. And if you can’t enjoy that, you’re in trouble.” Laurel James, founder of the Seattle-based running retailer Super Jock ‘n Jill and mastermind behind the 1984 U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials race, does not mince words. James entered the nascent running-retail scene in 1975, and quickly cemented herself as a visionary female entrepreneur, race director, and community pillar in the running world and beyond.
Sue Parks has had a storied career as an athlete and coach who continues to break barriers in the NCAA. Today, Sue is the director of cross-country and track and field at her alma mater, Eastern Michigan University. She’s one of the few women leading a track and field program at the Division 1 level. Years before she became a director, Parks was blazing her own path as one of the first women track stars in her home state. Her most memorable race was against Olympic gold medalist Madeline Manning (now Mims) in the Los Angeles Coliseum, where Parks ran her personal best in the 800 meters at the age of 16. She also competed on the U.S. team in the Pan American Games.
In 1980, Patti Catalano (now Patti Catalano Dillon) became the first American woman to break 2:30 in the marathon. She has held American and world records at various distances—including the 5 mile, 10 mile, 10k, 15k, 20k, 30k and half marathon, and she has been inducted into the RRCA Distance Running Hall of Fame. She won the Honolulu Marathon four times and finished second at the Boston Marathon three times, in 1979, 1980 and 1981.
Janet Romayko is a veteran of 49 marathons and countless triathlons including the half Ironman distance. But what she is most thrilled with is her 50 consecutive finishes at the Manchester Road Race in Manchester CT, a 4.748-mile race held on Thanksgiving Day started in 1927. She loves running Manchester. “It’s very special to me. My family grew up there, are buried there. It’s a very sweet feeling I have for the town and the community. It’s truly coming home for me. It’s a wonderful experience,” states Romayko, who now lives in Hartford and still works as a clinical social worker.
Cheryl Toussaint is the meet director of the Colgate Women’s Games and an Olympic silver medalist She grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and began running with the Atoms Track Club at age 13. There, Coach Fred Thompson nurtured her athletic talent—and encouraged her academically. Cheryl earned an academic scholarship to New York University and kept training with the Atoms, eventually making the Olympics in 1972; she competed in Munich in the 800 meters and 4x400 relay, where she helped the team make the final—and eventually, win silver—despite losing a shoe. She also began assisting Thompson with his other venture, the Colgate Women’s Games, and took over as meet director when he retired in 2014. It’s the longest running track and field series for girls and young women in the United States, open to all young women from elementary school through college and beyond, and has launched the careers of many other Olympians and successful women in other fields.
Francie Larrieu Smith was the youngest woman 1500-meter runner and the oldest woman in any track and field event the U.S. ever sent to the Olympics. Her running career spans five Olympics and multiple distances. Her best Olympic finish was fifth place in the 10,000-meter event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the first running of the event. She was the flag bearer for the U. S. Olympic Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. During her 30-year athletic career, she established 36 United States records and 12 world bests in distances ranging from 1000 meters to 10,000 meters.
Krystine Beneke started her athletic career at a very young age, dancing for the Houston Ballet Academy in Houston. Simultaneously, she began running with her father through their neighborhood. Eventually, Krystine began competing in middle-school and high-school track events. In middle school, she competed in 400s and hurdles. In high school, she enjoyed a variety of distances and events from 300 hurdles to 4 x 4 to two milers. After college, she began a career in banking—and started to focus on longer-distance races, starting with a New York Road Runners 15K that she ran with a friend. She found she had a natural ability as a runner, and completed 15 full marathons and 26 half-marathons, all while building a start-up digital IP acquisition company. Eventually, Krystine went on to qualify for and run the Boston Marathon in 2014, with a PR time of 2:59:47. Although Krystine has put running for competition aside for the moment, she has found joy and success in other pursuits, such as painting.
This week, we bring you the second part of the story of Olympian PattiSue Plumer— a professional distance runner in the late 80s and early 90s. PattiSue was a two-time NCAA champion and nine-time All American at Stanford. She went on to win four U.S. national titles and make two Olympic teams, placing 13th in the 3K at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and fifth in the 3K and 10th in the 1500 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She was also the first American woman to break 15 minutes in the 5k, setting the national record of 14:59 in 1989. PattiSue started coaching on the side during her professional running career, and went on to assistant coaching stints at her alma mater, Stanford, as well as the University of Texas, where she remained until this past summer.
Janet Cain is a former USA Track & Field National Marathon Champion in both the 55-59 and 60-64 age group. She set a Napa Valley Marathon record for that latter age group in 2014, finishing the race in 3:43:39. Her life has been a series of exciting wins and heartbreaking losses. Now 72 and living in Sonoma, CA, where she has a clinical psychology practice, Cain is still running strong and posting faster times now that she is working with a coach for the first time in her running career. The biggest change has been adapting to running in the visually impaired division.
Lou Peyton was one of the first women to complete the Grand Slam of ultrarunning, completing four 100-mile races in the summer of 1989. And in fact, she went on to complete a fifth 100-miler that same year. Peyton started running just a few weeks after her first child was born in 1968. She's also the co-founder, with her husband, of the Arkansas Traveler, a 100 mile race that's still going on today.
On Thanksgiving Day 1961, at 19 years old, Julia Chase-Brand turned heads when she defied the orders of the Amateur Athletic Union and entered and completed the historic Manchester Road Race. Her participation in the widely followed event opened the door for women’s cross-country later that spring and in turn a great number of other changes allowing women to run distance events. Julia faced discrimination from both men and women. Among many things, she was told she’d risk her fertility and ruin her beauty if she ran distance events. But Julia pressed on. She competed in distance running at the elite level for six years and then went on to challenge academic gender norms by pursuing a graduate degree in science where she studied bats and orangutans. Twenty years later, she challenged age norms by completing a medical degree in psychiatry at the age of 53.
Running was not Ingrid Walters’ first love. Nor was it her second, or her third. She didn’t run in earnest until she turned 41, at which point she immediately began (quite literally) making up for lost time. After swimming competitively through the first two years of college, she began lifeguarding, and picked up beach running to stay in shape. She enjoyed it enough to accept a college classmate’s “dare” to run the 1993 Los Angeles Marathon, which she completed in 4:03:00. After that, she effectively spent two decades away from the sport. At age 33 she ran the LA Marathon again, this time in 3:37 – almost exactly one minute per mile faster than her first attempt. Then, six years later, she pursued marathoning in earnest, running 3:17 at age 39, then 3:07 at age 40. She first broke three hours at the 2014 Chicago Marathon with a 2:54:58, good for third place in the Masters Division and a spot on “The List” of American-born Black female runners who have run a sub-three-hour marathon. Her marathon progression culminated when she, at age 47, won the women’s Open division at the 2019 Los Angeles Marathon with a time of 2:48:03. Afterward, medical issues temporarily sidelined her—but as she explains, she might not be done with the sport yet. Walters is also an actress who's appeared in the film “Amistad,” and she has appeared in shows including “Baywatch,” “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Shameless,” and “Parenthood,” as well as on stage at the Geffen Playhouse and in over 50 national commercials.
Toshiko d’Elia, the first female in the world to run a sub-three-hour marathon at age 50, took up running at the age of 40 to become a better mountain climber. In 1975, d’Elia started going into Manhattan to race with New York Road Runners, the only races in the area. She made friends with Nina Kuscisk, Fred Lebow, Ted Corbitt, and Kathrine Switzer, and was recruited to run with a female elite team, Atalanta, coached by Bob Glover. She was unstoppable and was given the nickname Seabiscuit after the horse that would never quit. By 1977, she was running 90 miles a week and winning long-distance races as well as sprinting events in 40-years-and-over competition. Despite having open-heart surgery when she was 78, d’Elia kept setting age-group records until December 2014, when she was diagnosed with brain cancer. She passed away peacefully surrounded by family at age 84. NOTE: This interview with Toshi and her daughter Erica was recorded by phone in 2013, a year before she passed away.
Sika Henry has made a name for herself in triathlon and in running. She became the first African American woman to qualify for her pro card in triathlon in 2021, and in 2022, she broke the Virginia state 100K Road Record. At the 2020 Tidewater Striders Marathon, she finished in 2:57:13, earning herself a spot on “The List“ of American-born Black women to break three hours in the marathon. She is a two-time champion of the One City Marathon. In April 2023, Henry ran the Boston Marathon as part of Team Bevans, along with two other women on The List—Shawanna White and Alisa Harvey—to honor Marilyn Bevans.
PattiSue Plumer, now the women's cross country and distance coach at the University of Texas, was a professional distance runner in the late 80s and early 90s. PattiSue was a two-time NCAA champion and nine-time All American at Stanford. She went on to win four U.S. national titles and make two Olympic teams, placing 13th in the 3K at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and fifth in the 3K and 10th in the 1500 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She was also the first American woman to break 15 minutes in the 5k, setting the national record of 14:59 in 1989. PattiSue had so many stories to share that we are splitting this episode into multiple parts—stay tuned for part 2!
Amy Begley started running at age 10, and nearly immediately set a goal of reaching the Olympics. After 20 years of hard work, she succeeded, coming in third in the 10,000 meters in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials to earn a spot in Beijing. Several years later, she was transitioning away from her full-time running career at the same time the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) was embarking on a project to preserve the history of women’s running. Amy signed on and got to work tracking down some of the sport’s most prominent female pioneers, reaching out to Track & Field historians, clubs, and coaches for contact information and race results. She spent hours on the phone interviewing more than 50 of the women. Some of the interviews were later released as podcast episodes, but others have never been heard. That project served as the precursor to this podcast, Starting Line 1928. And now, in the weeks ahead, we’ll be bringing you some of the interviews that Amy conducted 10 years ago, in 2013.
Erika Kemp didn't start running until her freshman year of high school, and went on to attend North Carolina State University; afterward, she trained with Boston Athletic Association's pro team for four years. She recently made a sponsor and coaching change (she's now with Brooks and coach Kurt Benninger) and moved up the marathon, running 2:33:57 in her debut at the 2023 Boston Marathon. Her time made her the fastest Black American female marathoner in history, a title that was previously held by Samia Akbar since 2006, on a list of only 30 Black women who have broken the three-hour barrier. “I knew it was going to be a tall order, and I had no idea what to expect with Boston on the day—I was looking forward to just being on the List,” she says. “After I finished, it took some time before it really sunk in.”
Mary Wittenberg's successes include being the first female CEO and president of a major sports organization, New York Road Runners; fighting for equal pay for professional female runners; being hand picked by Richard Branson to lead his Virgin Sports start-up; and, becoming a recognized and forceful leader of women’s agendas in the male-dominated world of track and field and road running. One of her most recognized legacies is turning the New York City Marathon into the largest one-day worldwide spectator sport worth millions of dollars in sponsorship money. Mary understands that sports gives women confidence. She has dedicated her life and career to making sure all women have access to that experience.
Eileen Claugus grew up in the Sacramento, California area, where she remains somewhat of a local running celebrity to this day. Claugus remembers competing in her first race in a cross-country meet in 1967. She went on to set a national high school mile record of four minutes and 40 seconds, which stood for 10 years. She continued to compete, placing second at the World Cross Country Championships in 1971 and serving as an alternate to the U.S. Olympic team in the 1,500 meters in 1972, at age 16. Eventually, she moved up to the marathon, and claimed victory at the 26.2-mile distance in Honolulu, San Francisco, Mexico City, and the British Marathon in Manchester, England. She ran a personal-best 2:37 at the 1982 Chicago Marathon. Alongside and after her athletic career, she worked as a school counselor and had two sons; she's now retired and living in Telluride, Colorado, where she skiis, cycles, hikes, and works with adaptive athletes.
Marie Mulder’s running career was brief but triumphant—she started in the sport just before her 14th birthday, when a local coach recruited her. The next year, at the 1965 National AAU Track & Field Championships, she won both the 800 meters and the 1,500 meters—the first time women were allowed to compete there at a distance beyond the half-mile. That earned her a spot in the U.S.-Russia meet in Kiev later that year, where days after her 15th birthday, she ran 2:07.3 in the 800 meters to place second and break the American record by 1.5 seconds. She dreamed of competing in the 1,500 meters at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, but it wasn’t in the cards; that distance wasn’t added to the Games for women until 1972, and Marie’s running career came to a close not long after her family moved to Washington, DC, in 1965.
Chris McKenzie was born in London in 1931, and was diagnosed at a young age with a serious bone infection that required her to wear a brace. While she was recovering, she had the good fortune to meet a famed runner named Anne Stone, who helped her recover, encouraged her to get into running and, eventually, became her coach. Her talent was quickly evident over a range of distances, including the 880 meters and longer cross country courses. In 1953, she met American Olympian Gordon Mckenzie, and eventually married him and moved to the United States—where, to her dismay, she found women were limited to running 200 yards. Not to be deterred, Chris ran men's races and evetually, staged a protest that was instrumental in the development of U.S. women’s track.
As a child in Chardon, Ohio, Butcher realized she was fast at a young age. In ninth grade, she learned about track and field as a sport that was only available to men—and as a sophomore, she sought to change that, asking the school's track coach to start a girls' team. When he refused, her mother contacted Stella Walsh, the 1932 Olympic champion in the 100 meters and then-coach of the Polish Falcons, a boys and girls track club in Cleveland, Ohio. A couple of days each week, Butcher’s mother would make the 30-mile drive from Chardon, so her daughter could train with the team. Butcher would go on to win three national titles in her signature event, the 880 meters, as well as continuing to advocate for more opportunities for girls and women in distance running. She also pursued passions off the track, including a solo 2,500-mile motorcycle trip through New England; writing poetry and prose, as well as teaching English; and riding and training horses, which she continues to do to this day.
Randi Bromka Young can pinpoint the moment her running career started: She woke up one day when she was 31 and ran as far as she could from her house. She only traveled a mile that day, but from there, the transition to running ultramarathons was “rather quick,” in Young’s words. Her first race was the famed Boulder Bolder 10K and then some short summer races and a short triathlon. By 1987, she had run six marathons; in July of that year, Young ran her first ultramarathon, the Vail Valley 50 Mile; and then, she won the Leadville 100 in a time of 24:12. She'd return to that legendary course three more times, finishing the race in 1988, 1989, and 1990. She aldo represented the United States at the World 24 Hour Championships in 1990 and won the TAC 24-Hour Championship in 1992.
Sally “Sal” Edwards is no stranger to being at the front of endurance races and the forefront of revolutions in running retail and exercise physiology. She didn’t pick up running until after college, but eventually became a Nike-sponsored runner and competed in a number of marathons, including the inaugural US Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984. Her marathons were interspersed with ultramarathons—In 1980 she won the Western States Endurance Run—both of which were ultimately supplanted by triathlons. She also founded two companies—Fleet Feet Sports and Heart Zones, of which she remains CEO—and has shared her expertise in training methods and exercise physiology across 24 books and over 500 articles.
In December 1971, Cheryl Bridges (now Cheryl Treworgy) became the first woman in the world to break 2:50 in the marathon. Treworgy decided to try running in 1964, when she was in high school; though she had no girls' teams to train with, she soon began competing and excelling. Eventually, she ran on five world cross-country teams and came in fourth at the 1969 international cross-country championships. A little more than three decades after Treworgy’s world-record marathon, one of her daughters, Shalane Flanagan, started winning championships, and she medaled at the 2008 Olympics. Once Treworgy retired from competitive running, she stayed close to the sport in other ways, including coaching, becoming a university’s assistant athletic director, and even training herself in photography, covering track and cross country meets as a professional photographer. Because of what she got out of running, Treworgy says she “became an advocate for any woman who really wanted to run or participate in a kind of athletic endeavor.”
To finish out the year, we’re bringing you something a little bit different in this feed: an episode of Women’s Running Stories, a podcast hosted by Cherie Louise Turner that features documentary-style stories about women’s running journeys. If you’ve been listening to our oral histories of women’s running pioneers, you’re going to love the way Cherie masterfully conducts and compiles these interviews, and we’d encourage you to subscribe to her podcast too, if you don’t already. This episode features Erica Stanley-Dottin, a runner with Black Roses NYC who also happens to work as the Tracksmith New York City Community Manager. Most recently, she added her name to the list of American-born Black female runners who have run a marathon in under three hours by finishing the 2022 Berlin Marathon in 2:52.05.
In 1979, standout 800-meter runner Karen Troianello (Blair) joined a group of women student-athletes and coaches in a lawsuit against Washington State University (WSU), suing over inadequate funding and support for women’s athletics under Washington’s Equal Rights Amendment. By the luck of the alphabet, she ended up being named the plaintiff. Blair vs. Washington State University went to the state Supreme Court, which—in 1987—ruled in favor of Blair, changing college athletics in the state of Washington and nationally.
Michele Cuke's first racing success came at age ten when she won a 600-meter race sponsored by her church. She went on to become one of California’s top high school 800-meter and cross-country runners, then competed collegiately at UCLA. She ran all four years, culminating in setting the 10,000-meter school record and becoming the 1983 NCAA 1500-meter champion. Ultimately, Cuke completed eleven marathons in less than three hours, including eight in less than 2 hours and 45 minutes. To this day, she remains second-fastest on the growing list of American-born Black female runners who have eclipsed three hours in the marathon, thanks to the 2:37:41 she ran at the 1991 California International Marathon.
1972 was a banner year for American women in athletics, and Patricia Barrett, a high schooler from New Jersey, was at the center of many of the milestones. In January that year, she won her first marathon, the inaugural Jersey Shore Marathon. Then, she was one of the eight women who ran the Boston Marathon that year, the first year female runners could officially enter and receive numbers. That fall, she returned to Central Park for the New York City Marathon, joining Kuscsik and five other women in a 10-minute protest at the start of the race. “I guess I was an activist in a way,” she says. “But I just just loved to [run].”
Shawanna White is a semi-professional runner and physical education teacher in Columbia, South Carolina. Nearly every weekend, you can find her on the starting line, racing distances from the mile to the marathon. She’s run more marathons under three hours than any other American-born Black female runner—her current total is 16—and her personal best of 2:45:19 places her eighth on the list of fastest African American marathoners, a list she was instrumental in creating. In 2022, she was inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame and featured in the documentary Breaking Three Hours
When 16-year-old Billee Pat Connolly stepped up to the start line of the 800-meter race at the 1960 U.S. women’s Olympic Track and Field Trials, she had no idea she would become a part of history in what has now become known as "The Abilene 800," the event that opened the door for women to run longer distances. Connolly went on to become a three-time Olympian, a renowned track and field coach, who coached Evelyn Ashford and Allyson Felix to their own Olympic berths.
Julie A. Brown grew up in Billings, Montana, as one of five, and began her running career when she followed in her sister’s footsteps and joined the high school cross-country team. Before long, she was paving her own path. Eventually, she made many US national teams during and after college. She excelled in an impressive range of events—from the 4x400 to the marathon to cross country. Notably, she was the first U.S. woman to win the IAAF Cross Country championships in 1975, ran a 2:26:26 marathon, and qualified for the first-ever women's Olympic Marathon.
Julie A. Brown grew up in Billings, Montana, as one of five, and began her running career when she followed in her sister’s footsteps and joined the high school cross-country team. Before long, she was paving her own path. Eventually, she made many US national teams during and after college. She excelled in an impressive range of events—from the 4x400 to the marathon to cross country. Notably, she was the first U.S. woman to win the IAAF Cross Country championships in 1975, ran a 2:26:26 marathon, and qualified for the first-ever women's Olympic Marathon.
Michele Tiff-Hill grew up in Cleveland, into a very athletic family, but didn’t get into running herself until her late 20s. Instead, she focused on her music career in high school, college, and beyond. She took up running in an effort to simply be more active with all the hours she spent sitting at the piano bench every day. Though she initially did her running in secret, she quickly grew more motivated to improve her race times. She ran her first race, a 10K, in about 52 minutes; eventually, she'd become the first Black woman to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon in 1984, qualifying in a time of 2:50:19 at the 1983 Sri Chinmoy Marathon. Tiff-Hill was recently inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame and featured in a documentary about Black women who have broken three hours in the marathon.
At the 2004 Olympic Trials, Ann Gaffigan won the 3,000-meter steeplechase and set an American record. But the women’s steeplechase wasn’t yet an Olympic event, so it was only an exhibition event at the trials, and Gaffigan’s win didn’t earn her a ticket to the Olympics. It was the best day of her life, Gaffigan says, and she was proud of what she’d accomplished—but competing at the Olympics had been her childhood dream, and she didn’t get to go, despite the fact that men had been competing in the steeplechase at the Olympics for more than a century. She channeled her drive to support women and girls in sports into a website called WomenTalkSports and other avenues, including serving on the USATF Athletes Advisory Committee from 2006 to 2019.
While attending Tennessee State University, Mims became the first African-American woman to compete in the 800 meters and the first American to win Olympic gold at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. From 1967 to 1980, she won 10 national indoor and outdoor titles and set several American records. Her fastest 800-meter time, 1:57.9 in 1976, was a long-standing American record in the event. Today, being an “overcomer” informs Mims's work as an motivational speaker and chaplain for the U.S. Olympic team. She is also the founder and president of the United States Council for Sports Chaplaincy.
Between 1972 and 1976, Robin Campbell Bennett competed in events across the United States, winning and medaling at many of them. In 1974, she set the American Record in both the 600 meter and 1000 meter events. She also competed at the USA vs China Friendship Competition in Shanghai, China in 1975. Then, in 1976 Robin participated as an Olympic Trials Qualifier in the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter events in Eugene, Oregon. She was also a sponsored athlete of the Puma Track Club, perhaps paving the way for female athletes of today to garner such paid sponsorships.
Charlotte Lettis Richardson begin running in 1971 and competed at the national and international level in distances from the 800 meters to 30K. She started a women’s running club in 1972, won the 1975 L’eggs Mini Marathon, and made the Olympic Trials in the 1500 meters in 1976. She’s also a storyteller who wrote and directed the 2005 documentary “Run Like a Girl.” Richardson currently lives in Sisters, Oregon, where she coaches at Caldera High School. She’s approaching her 50th year in coaching and is also co-founder of the Women’s Running Coaches Collective.
Jacqueline Hansen is a two-time world record holder in the marathon; she was the first woman to break the sub-2:40 mark with her 2:38.19 world record time. She is the 1973 Boston Marathon winner, a national collegiate champion in the mile, and a Masters World Champion in the 1500m and 5,000m distances. As President of the International Runners Committee, she spearheaded a movement to usher the women’s distance events (marathon, 5,000m & 10,000m) into the Olympic Games.
“I look back now and I don’t think of myself as a trailblazer. We were setting the standard for other women and encouraging them.”
Freddi Carlip started casually running in 1978 as an outlet from her daily life as a stay-at-home mom to two small children. Little did she know that the healthy activity would soon become her life’s work.
In addition to serving as a founding member of the Starting Line 1928 oral history project, Carlip has served multiple terms as the President of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), has been publisher and editor of Runner’s Gazette since 1981, and successfully helped lobby for the inclusion of women’s 5,000 meters and marathon distances in the Olympic Games.
“I wasn’t known for anything else but my running. That’s what I kind of latched onto. I didn’t have many extras, like summer camps or lots of material goods, but I did have my running and my legs and a TV set and goals.”
Alisa Harvey’s impressive running career spans decades and distances. The first time she qualified for the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials was in 1988, in the 1500 meters, when she was still a student at the University of Tennessee. The last time she did so was in the 800 meters in 2008—at age 42.
In between, she won gold in the 1991 Pan American Games in the 1500 meters. She qualified for the 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials by running 2:49:28 in her debut at the distance. And, she’s notched countless victories in road races, including the Fifth Avenue Mile and the Army Ten-Miler.
At 56, she might no longer be able to match her personal best of 1:59.72 in the 800 meters, but Harvey still competes at a high level, chasing Master’s records on the track and the roads. And, she’s coaching athletes who range from ages 10 to 95, aiming to help them pursue the same long-term success she’s experienced.
“They [the men] didn't like it when we beat them, but they were very accepting and very encouraging. It was always the officials that were the problem, you know, and it's just two different classes of people. And they get their kicks from enforcing the rules. We got our kicks from being in shape.”
Judy Shapiro-Ikenberry ran in her first track meet at age 12, and her first Olympic Trials, in the 800 meters, at age 17. She continued to train and took on longer distances while working as a teacher. She won her first marathon, the 1967 Las Vegas Marathon, in 3:40:51, and in 1974 won the first U.S. marathon championship for women in 2:55:18. She later moved to ultrarunning and won the national 50-mile track championship in 1977. In the late 1970s, she and her coach/husband Dennis Ikenberry started Race Central, a race timing company that helped put on some of the biggest races in the U.S. and around the world.
"All I can do you know that let people know that Black folks can run—we have been running. I've had calls, people asking me, Marilyn, how can we get more Black distance runners in high school? If you never see any black distance runners, it's hard ... we still have to keep pushing, and you need people that know how to coach distance."
Marilyn Bevans has no regrets. She did what she loved to do and did it on her own terms. In her own quiet way, she became a trailblazer for African-American women and set a standard for grace and decency. In 1977 Track & Field Newsranked her the 10th fastest female marathoner in the world. She ran her PR of 2:49:56 at the 1979 Boston Marathon. In November 2013, she was inducted into the National Black Marathoners Association's Distance Runner Hall of Fame.
“I was doing it for my own survival, because I was a stay-at-home mom. And I felt that I needed to do something for me, because I felt like my brain was dying. I needed something for me. It just turned out that way, I just didn't know. I was pleased when people would come out and maybe I encouraged somebody else to do that.”
Bjorg Austrheim-Smith, multiple Western States winner, will tell you upfront that her story does not fit the typical narrative. She was a stay-at-home mom who was looking for a way to get out of the house. She ended up as the first three-peat women’s winner of Western States from 1981-83.
The first modern Olympics were held in 1896. Women runners, though? They weren’t called to the starting line until 1928. After made-up reports of women collapsing after the 800 meters, track and field’s governing body eliminated the event after just one try—a change that lasted until 1960.
It wasn’t the first, and certainly not the last time the story of women’s running was twisted, and athletes’ voices lost.
Running fans will know some of the stories of women pioneers in the sport: Bobbi Gibb, Joan Benoit, Kathrine Switzer, Wilma Rudolph, and the like. But there are so many more women we don’t hear about at all—and certainly not straight from their own mouths.
Until now. Welcome to Starting Line 1928, an oral history project dedicated to documenting the stories of women’s running pioneers, in their own voices.
In this feed, you’ll hear interviews with women who have made significant contributions to running before the mid-1990s, or who stand out in other ways—such as being the first to compete in the steeplechase. You’ll see a special emphasis on Black women and other runners of color, whose stories have frequently been overlooked. You’ll learn about their victories, and their struggles, large and small—against forces as huge as sexism and racism and as mundane as a lack of women’s running shoes and sports bras.
Our interviewers are freelance historians, called together as a collective to continue work begun in 2013 by Amy Yoder Begley and Gary Corbitt. Our goal is to preserve the voices of these women while they’re still here to share them—and to raise awareness of their contributions among the next generation of athletes.