KATHRINE SWITZER TO BE IN MORRISTOWN ON THURSDAY The woman who broke the gender barrier in 1967 at the Boston Marathon, Kathrine Switzer, will be speaking at a Team in Training event at the Hyatt Morristown Headquarters Plaza this Thursday, July 10th. Team in Training, the fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, was a pioneer in melding running marathons and fund raising, through donations gathered by often neophyte runners who were assisted by the organization in exchange for those donations. Switzer’s entry in the famed marathon disguised as a man is an oft told tale and one she may recount for her audience on Thursday. Switzer went on the win the 1974 New York City Marathon and parlayed her athleticism and activism into a career as a sought after public speaker and television guest. She has appeared on Oprah, Today, Good Morning American, Tonight, Nightline and many others. |
With a resume like that, one might ask what would lead her to Morristown and Team in Training. Therein lies a tale that begins with a man from East Brunswick and the New York City Marathon.
Lester Helfman has been running he says for twenty-three, maybe twenty-four years. Now in his fifties, he has run in nine marathons, but makes no claims for elite status.
“In my best years, I was sort of in the front of the mid-pack,” Helfman said.
Helfman became involved with Team in Training first as a marathon runner. In 2006 the northern New Jersey chapter invited him to be one of the coaches.
The group that he is currently coaching is training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach on August 31st. On weekends they are training at a location somewhere in the northern half of the state, including Morristown and Randolph to name just two of the seven or eight different places.
In addition to his work with Team in Training, Helfman also volunteers at the New York City Marathon where he has an enviable volunteer assignment. He is one of the escorts of the elite runners from their staging area on Staten Island to the start on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
For years Switzer has been covering the marathon for NBC television. Prior to the start she is with the elite runners doing interviews before she goes out on the course to cover the race.
“That’s how we met,” said Helfman.
Down through the years, Helfman has seen Switzer at other locations as well. At the Boston Marathon in 2007 she launched her autobiography and Helfman spoke with her at her book signing.
“She’s very friendly so I was emboldened to ask her to do this for the Team in Training,” he said. “At the time she was very busy with her book tour.”
Switzer told Helfman that when things calmed down she would come to Morristown to speak to the runners in training.
“She’s not officially a spokesperson for Team in Training,” said Helfman. “But given what she has done to open up doors of opportunity, particularly for women in athletics, over the years, going back to ‘67 when she did that famous Boston Marathon, the first official [woman] entrant and finisher, and noticing that about 75 percent of the Team in Training participants are women, it occurred to me that without all the women doing the running and fund raising, that Team in Training wouldn’t be as successful as it has been.”
“It’s been in existence for twenty years and has raised over eight hundred fifty million dollars,” he said. “It seemed to me that bringing her in to speak about using running as a tool for empowerment, not just for running but trying to cure cancer was a natural relationship that could exist. I asked her if she would come and speak and she graciously agreed to do it.”
The event is open to all runners and non-runners too. A donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of ten dollars is being suggested, five dollars for students. In addition to Switzer, Team in Training runner Stephanie Savary of Cranford, a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivor, will speak.
The evening will include raffle drawings for items donated by various merchants including Road Runners Sports, the Chester Car Wash and Starbucks. Switzer is donating two of her autobiographies.
The event starts at 7:00 p.m. and seats are said to be limited so plan to arrive early. More information can be had by writing to Cindy Feria at cferia@gmail.com .
LAWYERS FOR KIDS 5K ON THURSDAY TOO
One group of runners who will likely not be at the event at the Hyatt Morristown is the 139 runners who finished the 5,000 Strides 5K back in June. It was in the high nineties on June 9th and some folks stayed away due to the heat. But those who gutted it out made themselves eligible for the random cash drawing for serious money to those who finished the race.
On Thursday they will be the only runners with a chance to take home that money after they finish the Lawyers for Kids 5K on the same course in Morris Township, as the rules for the drawing is that one must finish both races. Of course other runners are eligible to enter and run the race and compete for overall and age group prizes.
Originally published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey on Sunday July 6, 2008
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2008
