BOSTON — A line stretched the length of the block outside the Boston Marathon store on Boylston Street as runners waited to embroider their finishing times onto the jackets they bought to celebrate their achievement.
Inside, another line of runners was there on Tuesday to celebrate Kathrine Switzer.
A day after she returned to the course on the 50th anniversary of her 1967 landmark run, the first official female entrant saw her bib No. 261 retired by the Boston Athletic Association. It’s the first number to be retired, though B.A.A. spokesman Jack Fleming said No. 61 has been held out of circulation in honor of Johnny Kelley, who started the race a record 61 times (and finished 58).
Fans crowded the brief ceremony, hugging and posing afterward for pictures with Switzer, a women’s running pioneer.
“People have such an appreciation for what running has done for them and how it’s changed their lives,” said Switzer, who named her 261 Fearless foundation after the bib number that was nearly torn from her back on the marathon course.
“It’s beyond me; it’s the number now,” said Switzer, who ran the race on Monday along with 118 women and “seven intrepid men” who raised money for the charity that uses running to improve women’s lives around the world. “We can make it happen through running. The number now stands for all of those things.”
Switzer was a 20-year-old student at Syracuse when she entered the men-only Boston Marathon in 1967, using her initials on the registration form. Although Bobbi Gibb was also in the race for the second straight year, one of the unofficial runners known as bandits, race director Jock Semple fumed at the sight of Switzer in an official bib and tried to pull her off the course.