Switzer said: "You can imagine at the start of the marathon, everybody was happy and laughing and cheering, and really very supportive of me. Over 600 runners started the Boston Marathon on April 19 in 1967, in cold, wet, and breezy conditions. Unlike Gibb and because her gender was not clear on the entry form, her official registration was approved after paying a $2 entry fee. Switzer which she says was not a deliberate way to disguise her identity but the way she always signed her name. Switzer said Briggs finally changed his mind and said "if any woman can do it, you can do it, but you'll have to show me in practice, and if you can, I'll be the first person to take you to Boston." Switzer proved her endurance by running the distance plus an extra five miles. In 1966, Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to run and complete the Boston Marathon but the 23-year-old hid in a bush near the marathon start line and disguised herself in a hoodie after she was disqualified from officially entering the race because of her gender. Switzer persuaded her coach she could run the Boston Marathon She wasn't official, but she still did it and he just wouldn't believe it."
"I said women in history have run marathon distances, including a woman at Boston the year before who ran the marathon. I said women in history have run marathon distances," Switzer said in an exclusive interview from New Zealand. "He said a woman couldn't possibly do it and we had this really big argument after he said women are just too weak and too fragile to go 26.2 miles. After hearing his marathon tales, Switzer grew impatient and told him she wanted to run the Boston Marathon. Switzer loved running and was coached by ex-marathon runner Arnie Briggs - a volunteer coach at Syracuse University - who took 19-year-old Switzer "under his wing". I thought they were missing out on this wonderful sense of speed and strength, and really empowerment." "And of course, most women were very frightened of that image because their whole being was about being feminine, and attracting the opposite sex, and being accepted. Switzer in April 1966 as a member of the Lynchburg College track team where the 19-year-old sophomore competed against young men
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