At 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.

All you need is the courage to believe in yourself and put one foot in front of the other.

I could feel my anger dissipating as the miles went by--you can't run and stay mad!

I always say that talent and capability is everywhere, all it needs is opportunity.

Five years after Boston 1967, I went to the Munich Olympics. I realized that major sponsorship could help me create the opportunity. I wrote a big proposal to Avon cosmetics on how creating a global series of women's races could lead to getting women in the Olympic marathon. People thought I was smoking poppy at the time. The longest event in the Olympic Games was 800m.

If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.

Triumph over adversity that's what the marathon is all about. Nothing in life can't triumph after that