The Barriers Fell, One Year, One Step at a Time

[runnersweb]

There is a generation of women, middle-aged and older, who are
discovering to their astonishment that they can be athletes, that it
is not too late.

TED CORBITT knew all about barriers in sports. One of America’s
greatest distance runners, Mr. Corbitt, born in 1919, grew up in an
era when, as a black athlete, he sometimes was not even allowed to
compete in races.

So when Gail Kislevitz, a runner and author, interviewed Mr. Corbitt
shortly before his death on Dec. 12, 2007, she thought she could guess
what he would say to one of her questions. What, she asked him,
surprised him most about the evolution of running over the years?

His answer was not what she expected. The biggest surprise, he said,
was how women had taken to the sport.

It’s a story that is familiar and yet, in its details, almost
stunning. Until as recently as the 1970s, women were discouraged from
competitive sports in general and running in particular. This means
that among us is a generation of women, middle-aged and older, who are
discovering to their astonishment that they can be athletes, that it
is not too late.

Even Gail, a middle-aged and talented distance runner, was amazed by
stories of the old days. She told me over dinner recently that
although she had lived during those times, she — like many of us —
failed to appreciate how different they were than today. Her eyes are
opening, she said, as she goes through Mr. Corbitt’s papers and
library noticing article after article documenting the long, slow rise
of women’s running.

For example, a runner, Sharon Barbano, in the August 1979 issue of New
York Running News, decried the way female runners were patronized.

More...from the NY Times at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/health/nutrition/26best.html?_r=1&ref=nutrition