MINNEAPOLIS — Finishing the Boston Marathon at any age is a very big accomplishment — now imagine completing the race at 75 years old.
"It was a mountaintop experience," said Val Rogosheske, who traveled from Minnesota for the race on Monday.
Rogosheske says it was the journey up the mountain, which started decades ago, that made reaching the top so sweet.
"It's pretty crazy to start with eight women 50 years ago, and then to see all these women on the course with me," Rogosheske said, moments after finishing.
In 1972, Rogosheske was part of the first group of eight women ever allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon. Fifty years later, she was among five of the women to run the marathon again as part of Boston Athletic Association's Honorary Women's Team.
Kent Erdahl: "Fifty years ago, when you crossed that finish line, did it hit you that you had made history?"
Rogosheske: "I think it hit me more on the starting line when I finally gathered with the other seven women. At that point, I think we kind of knew that history was in the making."
Rogosheske says that her own historic run was inspired by Roberta Gibb's unauthorized run in 1966. Gibb hid in a bush until the race began and became the first of several women to finish the full marathon without permission.
"I had read about women hiding in the bushes and jumping out and just running, so I thought I would do that," Rogosheske said.
A few weeks before the race, she learned she wouldn't need to hide at all. The Boston Athletic Association opened up its first women's division, and Val joined seven other women, despite never officially qualifying.
"The other seven women had all done marathons before and I think they had all broken 3:30," Rogosheske said with a laugh. "This was going to be my first marathon and the farthest I had run was 16 miles."
Her inexperience was no match for her determination. Rogosheske finished sixth in the women's division that year with a time of 4:29:32, and she was most proud of keeping a promise that she had made to herself.
"It was so important to me not to walk at all," Rogosheske said. "I mean, I was going to die first because there were eyes on us. A lot of people thought that women should not be running marathons, so we wanted to show them that we could and loved it."
Fifty years later, Val witnessed how much that love has grown. She served as official starter for the professional women's division, and then took to the course herself, surrounded by the women in her life.
Rogosheske: "My daughters and my cousin ran beside me. They made me signs that pointed to me about my 50-year anniversary, and so — all along the course — people were cheering for me by name. That was a pretty heady experience. Kind of fun."
Erdahl: "It sounds like it might be emotional, too."
Rogosheske:"Yeah, you know it was almost like passing on the baton to the next generation, and a lot of women runners would just come up and be very emotional and say how much it meant to them. Then I got tuned into that emotion and there were some very sweet moments."
And this time, Rogosheske took the time to soak it all in. She decided to rotate between running and walking every 30 seconds, no matter how long it took to finish.
Rogosheske: "I believe it was close to six-and-a-half hours. That's a long time to be out on the road."
Erdahl: "I haven't finished a marathon so, you've got me beat."
Rogosheske: "Listen, this run-walk thing, that's the cat's meow. I feel perfectly fine today. I mean, I was hurting last night — I crawled into bed, but I can do anything today. This is so easy on your joints, so my message to people who thought maybe they weren't set up to be runners, try the run-walk. It's really a fun way to approach it."
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