Starting Line 1928

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...

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 l...

"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 ne...

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,...

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...

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 Gran...

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 a...

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...

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 bro...

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 ch...

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 spe...

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...

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 Marath...

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 ser...

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 N...

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,...

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...

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 th...

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 St...

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 p...

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...

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-p...

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 rac...

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...

"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 pill...