Dr. Joan Ullyot, the “fastest physician marathon runner," paved the way for women runners across the world, proving by example that women should not be counted out when it comes to long distances. Ullyot raced in 80 marathons, winning ten of those along with the masters division in the Boston Marathon in 1984. Her book “Women’s Running,” published in 1976, and her in-depth studies as an exercise physiologist made the case that women deserve the equal opportunity to run competitively; her efforts were instrumental in lobbying the International Olympic Commission to add the women's marathon to the Olympics in 1984. Dr. Ullyot passed away in 2021, at age 80; this interview was conducted in 2013 by Amy Begley.

In 1969, 32-year-old Sara Mae Berman was the first woman to cross the finish line in the Boston Marathon. She did it again in 1970 and 1971. But women weren’t allowed to enter officially, so her times—3:22:46, 3:05:08, and 3:08:30, respectively—were unofficial. "All we ever wanted, us early women, was to be allowed to run the distance, and we weren't in any bloodthirsty competition with each other. We just wanted to be able to run the distance and improve our times," she says.

Native people, including women, have been running over these lands since long before anyone organized a major marathon. Yet all too often, with notable exceptions like past guest Patti Catalano Dillon, they aren’t represented at modern races. Changing that is the key goal of Native Women Run, an organization that Verna Volker launched in 2018. At first, it was an Instagram page; now, it’s a non-profit that creates space for and elevates the stories of Native women who run. This year, NWR brought four runners to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon: Jessica Louis, Amber Henderson, Angel Tadytin, and Birdie Wermy. All of them joined Verna, Starting Line 1928’s Cindy Kuzma, and Cherie Louise Turner of Women’s Running Stories for a special live podcast recording at the expo the day before the race.

Junko Kazukawa is a Japanese-born women's ultra running pioneer best
known for having finished the Leadville 100-mile race 10 times. Junko is a two-time
breast cancer survivor with more than three decades of experience in health, fitness,
and training. She currently works as an ultra endurance coach with Boundless.
Junko lives and trains in Denver, Colorado, and has completed 24 100-mile trail races
so far, including Leadville, UTMB, Mt. Fuji, Ultra Fiord in Patagonia. She's the first
female to finish the Grand Slam of ultra running in 2015. She was Lead Woman three
times, in 2014, 2015 and 2024. This means she completed all six events in the Leadville
Race Series in the span of two months in the nation’s highest city, including a trail
marathon, a mountain-bike race, the Leadville Trail 100 Run, and more.
She was the 2015 Sports Woman of Colorado and voted as the Colorado resident
badass in 2017.

Doris Brown Heritage has always had a need to run. During a career that spanned roughly twenty years, Brown Heritage held every woman’s national and world record from the 440 yards to the marathon. In 1966 she became the first woman to run an indoor sub-five-minute mile in 4:52. Ten years later, on a lark with little training, she won her first marathon, the 1976 Vancouver International Marathon in 2:47:35 at the age of 34.

She is a two-time Olympian (1968, 800m, 1972 1500m) and is a living legend in her home state where she was named Seattle’s 1971 Man of the Year in Sports. She found that hilarious. Her most acclaimed accomplishment was winning five consecutive International World Cross-Country Championships from 1967 through 1971. “She is a remarkable woman who should have the name recognition of Jim Ryan,” claims Charlotte Lettis Richardson who included Brown Heritage in her documentary Run Like a Girl.

“Life is a challenge. And if you can’t enjoy that, you’re in trouble.” Laurel James, founder of the Seattle-based running retailer Super Jock ‘n Jill and mastermind behind the 1984 U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials race, does not mince words. James entered the nascent running-retail scene in 1975, and quickly cemented herself as a visionary female entrepreneur, race director, and community pillar in the running world and beyond.

Sue Parks has had a storied career as an athlete and coach who continues to break barriers in the NCAA. Today, Sue is the director of cross-country and track and field at her alma mater, Eastern Michigan University. She’s one of the few women leading a track and field program at the Division 1 level. Years before she became a director, Parks was blazing her own path as one of the first women track stars in her home state. Her most memorable race was against Olympic gold medalist Madeline Manning (now Mims) in the Los Angeles Coliseum, where Parks ran her personal best in the 800 meters at the age of 16. She also competed on the U.S. team in the Pan American Games. 

In 1980, Patti Catalano (now Patti Catalano Dillon) became the first American woman to break 2:30 in the marathon. She has held American and world records at various distances—including the 5 mile, 10 mile, 10k, 15k, 20k, 30k and half marathon, and she has been inducted into the RRCA Distance Running Hall of Fame. She won the Honolulu Marathon four times and finished second at the Boston Marathon three times, in 1979, 1980 and 1981.