In an era when women weren’t allowed to compete in road races, Sara Mae Berman became the first female to regularly race against men in New England. Her first road race was 5 miles in June 1964, where she was an unofficial finisher. She would go to win the Boston Marathon three times and was inducted into the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) Hall of Fame in 2015.
She and husband Larry were one of the first running couples in the United States. In 1962 they founded the Cambridge Sports Union, the first competitive sports club in New England for men and women. Listen to this interview and learn more about this amazingly influential couple. Here’s the link: https://startingline1928.libsyn.com/site/47-sara-mae-berman
Starting Line 1928 was the 2024 winner of the Track & Field Writers Association (TAFWA) Jacobs Online Journalism Award and has developed a library of 49 podcast interviews of the women running pioneers. This includes for the first time Black American women pioneers being interviewed in a comprehensive manner.
Gary Corbitt
Archivist: Theodore Corbitt Institute for Running History Research
www.tedcorbitt.com
Historian: National Black Marathoners Association (NBMA)
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