Spadger

The blustery, wet morning put paid to any outdoor jobs so Tony settled down to work on his family tree and I did several Czech lessons and practised my recorder.

We took a run down in to the town in the afternoon.  The miles on my running challenge are steadily inching upwards.  In addition to the main challenge of clocking up at least fifteen runs in March, the number of miles completed generates a downloadable certificate (oooo I can hear you all saying.)  At the moment my mileage lies between Kathrine Switzer (26 miles) and Rosa Mota (50 miles).  Today puts me closer to Rosa, but really I don't mind as they are both inspirational women.  Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.  She registered with her initials so that the organisers did not know she was a woman.  In to the race, the press pack cottoned on that she was running and pulled in front of her in a flat bed truck, at which point one of the furious marshals attempted to take her number and remove her from the race, yelling, 'Get out of my race!'  Luckily, Kathrine was running with her boyfriend who was a burly ex all American football player.  He shoved the marshal out of the way and Kathrine was able to continue and complete the race.  However, women were still not allowed to run the marathon until five years later!  On the 50th anniversary of her epic run, Kathrine ran the Boston Marathon again at the age of 70.  Fearless woman indeed.

Kathrine Switzer