Kathrine Switzer is perhaps best known for her barrier-breaking run in 1967, when she became the first woman to officially finish the Boston Marathon, despite an official’s attempt to push her out of the 26.2-mile race.
But Switzer says that some of her most joyful runs—and her greatest victory—have come in New York. A longtime New York resident who has logged thousands of miles on the city’s streets, Switzer won the New York City Marathon in 1974 and is still the last New York resident to win the city’s signature race.
In 2017, 50 years after she made history in Boston, Switzer, then 70, lined up alongside more than 50,000 other runners—almost half of whom owed their place in the sport to her.