Jock Semple said "Oh the women ran well today the Boston Marathon and they deserve to be in the race." I had to laugh. I said "Well it took us five years but anyway, we're here." It pretty much changed everything.
Kathrine SwitzerJock Semple and I began appearing at speeches together and he came up to me on the start line in 1973 and planted a big kiss on my cheek. He said in his Scottish brogue: "Come on lass, let's get a wee bit of notoriety." He never said he was sorry but that was his way of saying it, I'm sure.
Kathrine SwitzerWhen I go to the Boston Marathon now, I have wet shouldersโwomen fall into my arms crying. They're weeping for joy because running has changed their lives. They feel they can do anything.
Kathrine SwitzerI said that there's going to come a day in our lives when women's running is as popular and as men's. Looking back, I obviously had a great sense of vision. And I was right.
Kathrine SwitzerI do forgive people when they get it right, even people who in the past I thought were unforgivable.
Kathrine SwitzerAt the finish line of the 1967 Boston Marathon, one crabby journalist said it was just a one-off deal and women weren't going to run. Only a 20-year-old who had just run a marathon and was shot full of endorphin would say this but I said that there's going to come a day in our lives when women's running is as popular and as men's.
Kathrine Switzer