The Runner Who Dropped Her Trophies

In 2019, Olympic gold medalist Kathrine Switzer — the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon back in 1967 — was asked what she would tell her younger self. Her answer surprised everyone. She said she wished she had spent less time polishing her medals and more time simply running for the joy of it. The trophies, the records, the press clippings — they had become a kind of weight she carried everywhere, defining her by what she had already done rather than freeing her to become who she was still becoming.…