Category: 50-Year Runners

I started running in 1976 to get into better shape for downhill skiing. I ran a mile or two, but got caught up in the running boom following the ’76 Olympics.  Tommy Leonard at the Elliot Lounge tried to get

In 1977 I saw my brother out running and said to myself ‘I can do that’ and just started running. I just ran to get out and be active. I then heard about the Bonne Bell Mini Marathon and it

I decided to run the first Bonne Belle Mini Marathon, as it was known then, because I had just started running and I dearly appreciated the idea that it was for women. Women have long been excluded, either by law

In November of 1976, I had my second child. My husband, Tom, had started distance running during my pregnancy, and ran the Maryland Marathon in December, qualifying for the Boston Marathon. He loved it and urged me to try it,

I was a heavy smoker until the spring of 1977. I decided to quit smoking and thought that running might help me minimize any weight gain. I would run at night when it was dark because I was embarrassed by

In 1977 I ran my first race ever and it was the Bonne Bell Mini Marathon. A friend of mine asked me to run it with her and, with hardly any training, we both finished. I remember having to run

I was never a fast runner, but by 1977 I had run in several races, sometimes as the only woman, or with only one or two others. Women had finally been allowed to run the Boston Marathon, but many people