Starting Line 1928
Starting Line 1928 is an oral history project documenting the lived experiences of female distance running pioneers
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48 | Dr. Joan Ullyot
01/16/2025
48 | Dr. Joan Ullyot
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 in 2021, at age 80; this interview was conducted in 2013 by .
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47 | Sara Mae Berman
12/12/2024
47 | Sara Mae Berman
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.
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46 | Jessica Louis, Amber Henderson, Angel Tadytin, and Birdie Wermy
11/14/2024
46 | Jessica Louis, Amber Henderson, Angel Tadytin, and Birdie Wermy
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 , they aren’t represented at modern races. Changing that is the key goal of 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.
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45 | Junko Kazukawa
10/10/2024
45 | Junko Kazukawa
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.
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44 | Doris Brown Heritage
09/12/2024
44 | Doris Brown Heritage
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.
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43 | Laurel James
08/08/2024
43 | Laurel James
“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.
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42 | Sue Parks
01/25/2024
42 | Sue Parks
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.
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41 | Patti Catalano Dillon
12/21/2023
41 | Patti Catalano Dillon
In 1980, Patti Catalano (now ) 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.
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40 | Janet Romayko
11/30/2023
40 | Janet Romayko
Janet Romayko is a veteran of 49 marathons and countless triathlons including the half Ironman distance. But what she is most thrilled with is her 50 consecutive finishes at the Manchester Road Race in Manchester CT, a 4.748-mile race held on Thanksgiving Day started in 1927. She loves running Manchester. “It’s very special to me. My family grew up there, are buried there. It’s a very sweet feeling I have for the town and the community. It’s truly coming home for me. It’s a wonderful experience,” states Romayko, who now lives in Hartford and still works as a clinical social worker.
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39 | Cheryl Toussaint
11/16/2023
39 | Cheryl Toussaint
Cheryl Toussaint is the meet director of the and an Olympic silver medalist She grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and began running with the Atoms Track Club at age 13. There, Coach Fred Thompson nurtured her athletic talent—and encouraged her academically. Cheryl earned an academic scholarship to New York University and kept training with the Atoms, eventually making the Olympics in 1972; she competed in Munich in the 800 meters and 4x400 relay, where she helped the team make the final—and eventually, win silver—despite losing a shoe. She also began assisting Thompson with his other venture, the Colgate Women’s Games, and took over as meet director when he retired in 2014. It’s the longest running track and field series for girls and young women in the United States, open to all young women from elementary school through college and beyond, and has launched the careers of many other Olympians and successful women in other fields.
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38 | Francie Larrieu Smith
10/26/2023
38 | Francie Larrieu Smith
Francie Larrieu Smith was the youngest woman 1500-meter runner and the oldest woman in any track and field event the U.S. ever sent to the Olympics. Her running career spans five Olympics and multiple distances. Her best Olympic finish was fifth place in the 10,000-meter event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the first running of the event. She was the flag bearer for the U. S. Olympic Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. During her 30-year athletic career, she established 36 United States records and 12 world bests in distances ranging from 1000 meters to 10,000 meters.
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37 | Krystine Beneke
10/12/2023
37 | Krystine Beneke
Krystine Beneke started her athletic career at a very young age, dancing for the Houston Ballet Academy in Houston. Simultaneously, she began running with her father through their neighborhood. Eventually, Krystine began competing in middle-school and high-school track events. In middle school, she competed in 400s and hurdles. In high school, she enjoyed a variety of distances and events from 300 hurdles to 4 x 4 to two milers. After college, she began a career in banking—and started to focus on longer-distance races, starting with a New York Road Runners 15K that she ran with a friend. She found she had a natural ability as a runner, and completed 15 full marathons and 26 half-marathons, all while building a start-up digital IP acquisition company. Eventually, Krystine went on to qualify for and run the Boston Marathon in 2014, with a PR time of 2:59:47. Although Krystine has put running for competition aside for the moment, she has found joy and success in other pursuits, such as painting.
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36 | PattiSue Plumer (part 2)
10/05/2023
36 | PattiSue Plumer (part 2)
This week, we bring you the second part of the story of Olympian PattiSue Plumer— a professional distance runner in the late 80s and early 90s. PattiSue was a two-time NCAA champion and nine-time All American at Stanford. She went on to win four U.S. national titles and make two Olympic teams, placing 13th in the 3K at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and fifth in the 3K and 10th in the 1500 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She was also the first American woman to break 15 minutes in the 5k, setting the national record of 14:59 in 1989. PattiSue started coaching on the side during her professional running career, and went on to assistant coaching stints at her alma mater, Stanford, as well as the University of Texas, where she remained until this past summer.
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35 | Janet Cain
09/14/2023
35 | Janet Cain
Janet Cain is a former USA Track & Field National Marathon Champion in both the 55-59 and 60-64 age group. She set a Napa Valley Marathon record for that latter age group in 2014, finishing the race in 3:43:39. Her life has been a series of exciting wins and heartbreaking losses. Now 72 and living in Sonoma, CA, where she has a clinical psychology practice, Cain is still running strong and posting faster times now that she is working with a coach for the first time in her running career. The biggest change has been adapting to running in the visually impaired division.
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34 | Lou Peyton
08/24/2023
34 | Lou Peyton
Lou Peyton was one of the first women to complete the Grand Slam of ultrarunning, completing four 100-mile races in the summer of 1989. And in fact, she went on to complete a fifth 100-miler that same year. Peyton started running just a few weeks after her first child was born in 1968. She's also the co-founder, with her husband, of the Arkansas Traveler, a 100 mile race that's still going on today.
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33 | Julia Chase-Brand
08/10/2023
33 | Julia Chase-Brand
On Thanksgiving Day 1961, at 19 years old, Julia Chase-Brand turned heads when she defied the orders of the Amateur Athletic Union and entered and completed the historic Manchester Road Race. Her participation in the widely followed event opened the door for women’s cross-country later that spring and in turn a great number of other changes allowing women to run distance events. Julia faced discrimination from both men and women. Among many things, she was told she’d risk her fertility and ruin her beauty if she ran distance events. But Julia pressed on. She competed in distance running at the elite level for six years and then went on to challenge academic gender norms by pursuing a graduate degree in science where she studied bats and orangutans. Twenty years later, she challenged age norms by completing a medical degree in psychiatry at the age of 53.
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32 | Ingrid Walters
07/20/2023
32 | Ingrid Walters
Running was not Ingrid Walters’ first love. Nor was it her second, or her third. She didn’t run in earnest until she turned 41, at which point she immediately began (quite literally) making up for lost time. After swimming competitively through the first two years of college, she began lifeguarding, and picked up beach running to stay in shape. She enjoyed it enough to accept a college classmate’s “dare” to run the 1993 Los Angeles Marathon, which she completed in 4:03:00. After that, she effectively spent two decades away from the sport. At age 33 she ran the LA Marathon again, this time in 3:37 – almost exactly one minute per mile faster than her first attempt. Then, six years later, she pursued marathoning in earnest, running 3:17 at age 39, then 3:07 at age 40. She first broke three hours at the 2014 Chicago Marathon with a 2:54:58, good for third place in the Masters Division and a spot on “The List” of American-born Black female runners who have run a sub-three-hour marathon. Her marathon progression culminated when she, at age 47, won the women’s Open division at the 2019 Los Angeles Marathon with a time of 2:48:03. Afterward, medical issues temporarily sidelined her—but as she explains, she might not be done with the sport yet. Walters is also an actress who's appeared in the film “Amistad,” and she has appeared in shows including “Baywatch,” “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Shameless,” and “Parenthood,” as well as on stage at the Geffen Playhouse and in over 50 national commercials.
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31 | Toshiko D'Elia
07/06/2023
31 | Toshiko D'Elia
Toshiko d’Elia, the first female in the world to run a sub-three-hour marathon at age 50, took up running at the age of 40 to become a better mountain climber. In 1975, d’Elia started going into Manhattan to race with New York Road Runners, the only races in the area. She made friends with Nina Kuscisk, Fred Lebow, Ted Corbitt, and Kathrine Switzer, and was recruited to run with a female elite team, Atalanta, coached by Bob Glover. She was unstoppable and was given the nickname Seabiscuit after the horse that would never quit. By 1977, she was running 90 miles a week and winning long-distance races as well as sprinting events in 40-years-and-over competition. Despite having open-heart surgery when she was 78, d’Elia kept setting age-group records until December 2014, when she was diagnosed with brain cancer. She passed away peacefully surrounded by family at age 84. NOTE: This interview with Toshi and her daughter Erica was recorded by phone in 2013, a year before she passed away.
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30 | Sika Henry
06/22/2023
30 | Sika Henry
has made a name for herself in triathlon and in running. She became the first African American woman to qualify for her pro card in triathlon in 2021, and in 2022, she broke the Virginia state 100K Road Record. At the 2020 Tidewater Striders Marathon, she finished in 2:57:13, earning herself a spot on ““ of American-born Black women to break three hours in the marathon. She is a two-time champion of the One City Marathon. In April 2023, Henry ran the Boston Marathon as part of Team Bevans, along with two other women on The List— and —to honor .
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29 | PattiSue Plumer (part 1)
06/08/2023
29 | PattiSue Plumer (part 1)
PattiSue Plumer, now the women's cross country and distance coach at the University of Texas, was a professional distance runner in the late 80s and early 90s. PattiSue was a two-time NCAA champion and nine-time All American at Stanford. She went on to win four U.S. national titles and make two Olympic teams, placing 13th in the 3K at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and fifth in the 3K and 10th in the 1500 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She was also the first American woman to break 15 minutes in the 5k, setting the national record of 14:59 in 1989. PattiSue had so many stories to share that we are splitting this episode into multiple parts—stay tuned for part 2!
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28 | Amy Begley
05/25/2023
28 | Amy Begley
Amy Begley started running at age 10, and nearly immediately set a goal of reaching the Olympics. After 20 years of hard work, she succeeded, coming in third in the 10,000 meters in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials to earn a spot in Beijing. Several years later, she was transitioning away from her full-time running career at the same time the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) was embarking on a project to preserve the history of women’s running. Amy signed on and got to work tracking down some of the sport’s most prominent female pioneers, reaching out to Track & Field historians, clubs, and coaches for contact information and race results. She spent hours on the phone interviewing more than 50 of the women. Some of the interviews were later released as podcast episodes, but others have never been heard. That project served as the precursor to this podcast, Starting Line 1928. And now, in the weeks ahead, we’ll be bringing you some of the interviews that Amy conducted 10 years ago, in 2013.
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27 | Erika Kemp
05/11/2023
27 | Erika Kemp
Erika Kemp didn't start running until her freshman year of high school, and went on to attend North Carolina State University; afterward, she trained with Boston Athletic Association's pro team for four years. She recently made a sponsor and coaching change (she's now with Brooks and coach Kurt Benninger) and moved up the marathon, running 2:33:57 in her debut at the 2023 Boston Marathon. Her time made her the fastest Black American female marathoner in history, a title that was previously held by Samia Akbar since 2006, on a list of only 30 Black women who have broken the three-hour barrier. “I knew it was going to be a tall order, and I had no idea what to expect with Boston on the day—I was looking forward to just being on the List,” she says. “After I finished, it took some time before it really sunk in.”
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26 | Mary Wittenberg
04/27/2023
26 | Mary Wittenberg
Mary Wittenberg's successes include being the first female CEO and president of a major sports organization, New York Road Runners; fighting for equal pay for professional female runners; being hand picked by Richard Branson to lead his Virgin Sports start-up; and, becoming a recognized and forceful leader of women’s agendas in the male-dominated world of track and field and road running. One of her most recognized legacies is turning the New York City Marathon into the largest one-day worldwide spectator sport worth millions of dollars in sponsorship money. Mary understands that sports gives women confidence. She has dedicated her life and career to making sure all women have access to that experience.
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25 | Eileen Claugus
04/13/2023
25 | Eileen Claugus
Eileen Claugus grew up in the Sacramento, California area, where she remains somewhat of a local running celebrity to this day. Claugus remembers competing in her first race in a cross-country meet in 1967. She went on to set a national high school mile record of four minutes and 40 seconds, which stood for 10 years. She continued to compete, placing second at the World Cross Country Championships in 1971 and serving as an alternate to the U.S. Olympic team in the 1,500 meters in 1972, at age 16. Eventually, she moved up to the marathon, and claimed victory at the 26.2-mile distance in Honolulu, San Francisco, Mexico City, and the British Marathon in Manchester, England. She ran a personal-best 2:37 at the 1982 Chicago Marathon. Alongside and after her athletic career, she worked as a school counselor and had two sons; she's now retired and living in Telluride, Colorado, where she skiis, cycles, hikes, and works with adaptive athletes.
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24 | Marie Mulder
03/30/2023
24 | Marie Mulder
Marie Mulder’s running career was brief but triumphant—she started in the sport just before her 14th birthday, when a local coach recruited her. The next year, at the 1965 National AAU Track & Field Championships, she won both the 800 meters and the 1,500 meters—the first time women were allowed to compete there at a distance beyond the half-mile. That earned her a spot in the U.S.-Russia meet in Kiev later that year, where days after her 15th birthday, she ran 2:07.3 in the 800 meters to place second and break the American record by 1.5 seconds. She dreamed of competing in the 1,500 meters at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, but it wasn’t in the cards; that distance wasn’t added to the Games for women until 1972, and Marie’s running career came to a close not long after her family moved to Washington, DC, in 1965.
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23 | Chris McKenzie
03/16/2023
23 | Chris McKenzie
Chris McKenzie was born in London in 1931, and was diagnosed at a young age with a serious bone infection that required her to wear a brace. While she was recovering, she had the good fortune to meet a famed runner named Anne Stone, who helped her recover, encouraged her to get into running and, eventually, became her coach. Her talent was quickly evident over a range of distances, including the 880 meters and longer cross country courses. In 1953, she met American Olympian Gordon Mckenzie, and eventually married him and moved to the United States—where, to her dismay, she found women were limited to running 200 yards. Not to be deterred, Chris ran men's races and evetually, staged a protest that was instrumental in the development of U.S. women’s track.
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22 | Grace Butcher
02/16/2023
22 | Grace Butcher
As a child in Chardon, Ohio, Butcher realized she was fast at a young age. In ninth grade, she learned about track and field as a sport that was only available to men—and as a sophomore, she sought to change that, asking the school's track coach to start a girls' team. When he refused, her mother contacted Stella Walsh, the 1932 Olympic champion in the 100 meters and then-coach of the Polish Falcons, a boys and girls track club in Cleveland, Ohio. A couple of days each week, Butcher’s mother would make the 30-mile drive from Chardon, so her daughter could train with the team. Butcher would go on to win three national titles in her signature event, the 880 yards, as well as continuing to advocate for more opportunities for girls and women in distance running. She also pursued passions off the track, including a solo 2,500-mile motorcycle trip through New England and Canada; writing poetry and prose, as well as teaching English; and riding and training horses, which she continues to do to this day.
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21 | Randi Bromka Young
02/02/2023
21 | Randi Bromka Young
Randi Bromka Young can pinpoint the moment her running career started: She woke up one day when she was 31 and ran as far as she could from her house. She only traveled a mile that day, but from there, the transition to running ultramarathons was “rather quick,” in Young’s words. Her first race was the famed Boulder Bolder 10K and then some short summer races and a short triathlon. By 1987, she had run six marathons; in July of that year, Young ran her first ultramarathon, the Vail Valley 50 Mile; and then, she won the in a time of 24:12. She'd return to that legendary course three more times, finishing the race in 1988, 1989, and 1990. She aldo represented the United States at the in 1990 and won the in 1992.
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20 | Sally Edwards
01/19/2023
20 | Sally Edwards
Sally “Sal” Edwards is no stranger to being at the front of endurance races and the forefront of revolutions in running retail and exercise physiology. She didn’t pick up running until after college, but eventually became a Nike-sponsored runner and competed in a number of marathons, including the inaugural US Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984. Her marathons were interspersed with ultramarathons—In 1980 she won the Western States Endurance Run—both of which were ultimately supplanted by triathlons. She also founded two companies—Fleet Feet Sports and Heart Zones, of which she remains CEO—and has shared her expertise in training methods and exercise physiology across 24 books and over 500 articles.
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19 | Cheryl Treworgy
01/05/2023
19 | Cheryl Treworgy
In December 1971, Cheryl Bridges (now Cheryl Treworgy) became the first woman in the world to break 2:50 in the marathon. Treworgy decided to try running in 1964, when she was in high school; though she had no girls' teams to train with, she soon began competing and excelling. Eventually, she ran on five world cross-country teams and came in fourth at the 1969 international cross-country championships. A little more than three decades after Treworgy’s world-record marathon, one of her daughters, Shalane Flanagan, started winning championships, and she medaled at the 2008 Olympics. Once Treworgy retired from competitive running, she stayed close to the sport in other ways, including coaching, becoming a university’s assistant athletic director, and even training herself in photography, covering track and cross country meets as a professional photographer. Because of what she got out of running, Treworgy says she “became an advocate for any woman who really wanted to run or participate in a kind of athletic endeavor.”
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