And that is the story in this book: how an ordinary girl ran, became empowered, and overcame the impossible. That's because running for women is transformational it is instantly empowering-for every woman, every time. When ordinary women run, they become extraordinary. The growth of women's running and the concurrent social impact in the last decade has been unprecedented-which means this book is more significant today than when it was first published. This has happened in my lifetime! And while the vast majority of these women say they are not competitive, it is extremely validating that this year, on my fiftieth anniversary, the Boston Marathon, which requires a tough qualifying time, boasts a field that is 50 percent women. Today, 58 percent of all the runners in the United States are women, and this trend is growing globally. The result has been nothing less than a social revolution. To say nothing of determination! By the time I finished that race, I knew I was going to devote a lot of my life to creating opportunities for women to run.

I remember answering very calmly and deliberately: 'There will come a day when women's running is as popular and as publicizable as men's.' How a twenty-year-old girl had the nerve to say that still impresses me, but I'd just run a marathon, and anyone who has, knows that the process gives you amazing insight and vision. To me, it seems like yesterday when the journalist at the finish line insinuated that my run was just a prank, that 'real' women would not run. In return, I have given it my total gratitude indeed, I've given it my life. If the truth be known, running has given me everything: my health, career, confidence, creativity, religion, love, freedom, and fearlessness.

To me, it seems like yesterday when the aggressive journalist on the press truck, alongside of me at mile three, said, 'What are you trying to prove?' and I answered, 'I'm not trying to prove anything! I just want to run!' And for fifty years, I have run.

'I'm not twenty anymore, I'm seventy, get it?' it shouts back at me. And yet, as I train to be on that starting line again fifty years later, my body reminds me when I ask it why it is going so slowly. Fifty years! Who could imagine it was fifty years ago when I first ran the Boston Marathon and an altercation on the racecourse that day changed millions of women's lives?

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