151 the year was 1967 and kathrine switzer was mentally preparing herself for the long road ahead as she pushed into the second mile of the boston marathon she was just coming into view of the press trucks when she felt a race officials hand on her sweatshirt he came up from behind and surprised me and grabbed me i was very terrified and afraid theres no question about it switzer told abc news thursday as race official jock semple tried to rip switzers bib off cameras flashed she had a splitsecond decision to make step off the course or keep running the 262mile race up until that moment the boston marathon had only been officially run by men though there were no rules that outright banned women from the course many assumed women were not capable of running that distance in 1967 the longest track race for women at the olympics was just 800 meters while crosscountry races for women maxed out at about 15 miles other women before switzer had run the boston marathon without a bib but she was the first to do so with one signing up with her initials and last name kv switzer which no one questioned until race day i knew i had to finish the race because no one would believe women could do it unless i did switzer said i had to finish the race no matter what switzer broke free of semple who was shoved to the ground by her boyfriend and she continued on in 1975 kathrine switzer ran her personal best time in the boston marathon at 25137 jeff johnson that day switzer went from a 20yearold runner to a feminist icon becoming the first woman to officially finish the boston marathon with a time of 4 hours and 20 minutes photos of her encounter with semple made international headlines now 50 years later switzer is donning her historic bib number 261 once again in boston shell be in good company a total of 13712 women have registered to run this year the boston athletic association told abc news man journeys from living under a bridge to boston marathon dad runs boston marathon to honor unborn daughter with down syndrome ive always wanted to come back to boston with a sense of gratitude switzer said even though it was a negative incident in 1967 it became positive one of the greatest positive social movements in womens history so i wanted to celebrate that if i could trish trout 42 is running her second boston marathon on monday she said she came across switzers photo when she was preparing for her first in 2014 i look at kathrines expression and you could tell she was definitely in the zone trout told abc news he wasnt able to stop her and it just shows that if youre a woman trying to be in the mans world it can happen it just takes a strong person to be able