Long Run to Glory

On August 5, 1984, four of the greatest marathoners who ever lived lined up in Los Angeles for a race that had taken decades to win the right to run: the first women's Olympic marathon.

Joan Benoit held the world record but entered as the underdog, months after knee surgery. Grete Waitz had never lost a marathon she finished. Ingrid Kristiansen was the fastest woman alive at every distance short of the marathon. Rosa Mota had already shown she ran her best in the biggest races. Only once in their careers did all four meet in the same race.

Long Run to Glory is the story of that race and of the women who made it possible. Into the 1960s, the longest race American officials allowed a woman to run was a mile and a half. Stephen Lane follows the runners who entered anyway, from Stamata Revithi on the 1896 Olympic course the day after the men to Kathrine Switzer and Jackie Hansen, and the advocates who worked the governing bodies of international sport until the Olympic door opened.

The race itself unfolds in interludes between the chapters, building toward the final miles, while the chapters trace the rivalries of Benoit and Waitz through the early 1980s, the trials, and the Games. By decade's end these four had lowered the world record by thirteen minutes, won twenty-seven major marathon titles, and swept every Olympic and world championship of the 1980s.

For anyone who has run Boston or New York, is training for a first half marathon, or wants to know how a sport changed its mind about what women could do.