Almost perfect :)

The number 261

Yesterday, on the CBS News channel, I watched the story about the woman who name is Kathrine Switzer. She is a very attractive woman with amazingly bright blue eyes and a beautiful genuine smile. And she is a runner. She is still a runner at her seventy years old.

But the most surprising thing about Kathrine is that she was the first woman who officially went in for the Boston Marathon in 1967. I was rather shocked to know that about fifty years ago women were not allowed to participate in a marathon race.

Enrolling in the Boston Marathon, she used only her gender-neutral initials. During the race, one of the race officials noticing Kathrine in the running mob tried to pull her over and rip her number off. Luckily, Kathrine should did not come up against this situation alone. Her boyfriend, who also competed in the marathon, just pushed the attacker aside letting Katherine to proceed the race. She, in turn, decided to go through with the situation and to finish the race. And she really did it! Her finishing time was 4 hours and 20 minutes and she became the first woman who officially ran up the Boston Marathon. However, she was not the one because another girl named Bobbi Gibb ran unregistered and finished with the an even better result.

The attack on Katherine was photographed and the pictures with Katherine's bib number 261 ripping ripped off her chest got became famous and were was widespread in the media. However, the ban on women’s participation was abolished only a few years later, in 1972. That year the women were officially allowed to run the Boston Marathon’s race.