Ticker Tape and Trailblazers

It’s true. Marathon day — the first Sunday of November in NYC — is one of my favorite days of the year, but let’s be real: I’m not actually running the marathon. I’m a passionate spectator and marathon party attendee. I cheer, congratulate, and actively help runners meet bar minima.

It sounds trite, but the real reason why I love marathon day is because it brings people together. It restores my faith in humanity and silences the voice that laments how messed up and divided our world is.

As New York Magazine contributing editor Will Leitch put it in his essay What I Learned From Destroying Myself at the NYC Marathon, “being cheered on by strangers makes you feel better about humanity and yourself.”

Although, it’s ironic that an event that makes people feel so joyful and united was once exclusionary; for much of their history, most marathons didn’t allow women to enter. The New York City Marathon didn’t allow women participants until 1970, and the Boston Marathon didn’t catch up until 1972. 

Kathrine Switzer, winner of the 1974 New York City Marathon, was also the first woman to register and compete in the Boston Marathon in 1967, before women were officially allowed to compete.

On May 14th, Switzer spoke at the New York Athletic Club, an athletic and social club that notoriously banned women from membership until 1989. Reflecting on her barrier-breaking Boston Marathon, she shared her story and spoke about the ways she continues to empower women through running today.

Twenty-year-old Switzer, a student at Syracuse University and a lifelong runner, entered the all-male Boston Marathon in 1967 with her unofficial running coach Arnie Briggs, a Boston Marathoner and the university mailman, along with her college boyfriend, an ex–All American football player known as Big Tom Miller. “I started the race a girl and finished as a woman,” she said.

Recalling that day, Switzer remarked on the camaraderie and friendliness at the start line. Most of the men seemed excited to have a girl in the race. Some even exclaimed, “I wish my girlfriend would do this!” 

The warm and fuzzy feelings quickly vanished when race director Jock Semple realized Switzer was running. Enraged that a woman was trying to “mess up his race,” Semple chased after Switzer attempting to physically pull her out of the marathon and tear off her bib, number 261. 

Feeling a mix of emotions — chiefly terrified and embarrassed — Switzer did what she did best: run. Or, as Switzer put it: “[Arnie yelled at me] run like hell!”

As she charged ahead, Briggs and Miller fended off Semple. One body check later, Semple was on the ground and the encounter was over. Despite being badly shaken up, Switzer was determined to finish the race and prove Semple wrong. She finished the race in four hours and twenty minutes.

The next day, Switzer made national headlines thanks to Harry Trask, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist for the Boston Herald, who captured the chaos and tension of that moment. The photograph of Semple lunging and Switzer charging forward became a symbol of women fighting for their rights in the athletic world and beyond; the iconic status of the image was cemented in 2003 when Life Magazine published 100 Photographs That Changed The World.  

That race marked the start of Switzer’s competitive running career. She has completed more than 40 marathons and helped bring the women’s marathon to the Olympics.

To this day, Switzer champions female athletes and women’s rights through her nonprofit 261 Fearless (a nod to her first marathon bib number) creating female run clubs to empower women across 14 countries from Zambia to New Zealand.

The timing of Switzer’s speech at the New York Athletic Club comes at a significant and celebratory moment in women’s sports at both a collegiate and professional level. 

On May 29, 2025, Major League Baseball announced its first major investment in women's sports through its partnership with the new pro softball league AUSL, the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, with the inaugural season set to kick off June 7. 

At the collegiate level, NiJaree Canady made history in 2024 when she accepted a $1 million contract to be pitcher for Texas Tech — the highest-paid NIL deal in college softball to date. 

Though women are being recognized and paid more than ever, money isn’t following at the same rate for female athletes as it is for their male counterparts. There is still a significant pay discrepancy between sexes. Catherine Clark – the top WNBA draft pick in 2024 – signed a four-year contract with Indiana Fever for $338,056, making her base salary $76,535. Compare that to the top NBA draft in 2024, Zaccharie Risacher, who signed a four-year contract with the Atlanta Hawks for a whopping $57 million. 

In 2022, a judge ruled in favor of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) – one of the top ranking soccer teams in the world, consistently outperforming the U.S. men’s team. The incriminating evidence boiled down to disproportionately unfair bonus structure – USWNT members who made a World Cup team were paid a $37.5K bonus whereas men were paid a $67K bonus, and that’s just scratching the surface. 

Even though the pay gap between male and female athletes is staggering, the cultural momentum is there, and the fans are eager to support. An increasing number of professional female athletes are being recognized and celebrated for their talents, and the viewership numbers back this up. 

Just look at the WNBA’s growing popularity, which the media largely attributes to 2024 Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark. In May, Clark’s Indiana Fever played against reigning champions New York Liberty drawing record-breaking viewership with 2.22 million viewers on CBS, the second-most-watched WNBA game ever. 

While Clark is undeniably a magnet for WNBA fans, the Liberty don’t have to rely purely on competitors like Clark to attract an audience.

After winning the 2024 WNBA championship, thousands of Liberty fans crowded the streets of New York to celebrate the players with a ticker-tape parade. According to Downtown Alliance, there have been more than 200 ticker-tape parades in New York, but who receives a ticker-tape parade is up to the discretion of the city’s mayor. Only one other women’s sports team has ever received this distinction: the United States Women's National Soccer Team following their 2019 World Cup victory.

These celebrations — whether on the sidelines of a marathon or beneath a shower of ticker tape — are more than noise and confetti. They’re public declarations that women’s victories matter. They radiate the same joy, unity, and collective belief that make Marathon Day so powerful. When women “run like hell,” they’re not just chasing finish lines — they’re clearing paths for everyone behind them.

Author’s Note: For those with fond memories of flipping through LIFE magazine — or those who only know Life cereal — you’ll be happy to know LIFE is reportedly slated to come back into circulation this year. Supermodel Karlie Kloss, along with her husband Joshua Kushner, acquired LIFE’s publishing rights in 2024 and plan to distribute it through their company Bedford Media.

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