“Many of these guys turned right around and jogged over, all excited,” she writes. ““’Hey! You gonna go the whole way?’ ‘Gosh, it’s great to see a girl here!’ ‘Can you give me some tips to get my wife to run? She’d love it if I can just get her started.'”

Then she recalls how – midway through the race – race manager Jock Semple suddenly accosted her and tried to tear off her bib.

“A big man, a huge man, with bared teeth was set to pounce, and before I could react he grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming, ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers!’” she recalls. “Then he swiped down my front, trying to rip off my bib number, just as I leapt backward from him. He missed the numbers, but I was so surprised and frightened that I slightly wet my pants and turned to run.”

She describes how “this Jock guy, had me by the shirt”, when her running mate Tom suddenly swooped in and knocked him away.

The dramatic event actually ended up spurring Switzer on, even as she feared being arrested at the end of the race:

“If I quit, everybody would say it was a publicity stunt. If I quit, it would set women’s sports back, way back, instead of forward. If I quit, I’d never run Boston. If I quit, Jock Semple and all those like him would win. My fear and humiliation turned to anger.”

Woman who triumphed over a sexist bully to make history at 1967 Boston marathon competes again