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From the winner of the Austrian Woman`s Run Award 2005: Small Article for Austrian Women´s Run, 2007 Edition It is amazing to have one of your most pleasant and memorable running experiences after 45 years of participation in the sport. Who would ever have imagined that something you do innocently one year can pay such rewards many years later?

In 1986 Ilse Dippmann ran the New York City Marathon and found one of the brochures for the New York Mini Marathon. She was impressed with this all-women's running event and with my own history in being a part of the creation of it in 1972. Then, the Mini was the first-ever women's only road race-we had 78 women in our first event and we thought this was a really big number! Of course, the race grew to have thousands of women participating and was so important because it spawned other women's only events, and all of these changed millions of women's lives around the world for the better. Women who never before had an event that welcomed them and gave them a goal found that the running experience transformed their lives with fitness as well as a sense of self-esteem.

Ilse was one such woman, and running gave her both the inspiration and the confidence to organize the first women's only road race in Austria. The race was an immediate success and it grew wildly, but there were many years when the work was so hard she didn't know if she could continue. Like most artists and poets, Ilse was driven by a dream, and in this case, running gave her the strength and the women gave her the belief to keep trying.

I didn't know it, but Ilse had set a goal of 10,000 women in her race as a personal triumph. If she achieved it, she would ask me, Kathrine Switzer, to come and wear the honorary bib number 10,000 and receive the Austrian Women's Run Award. When 10,000 women registered and Ilse invited me, I immediately said YES! 10,000 women is a mighty number; it is more than the New York Mini ever achieved! But that was only a small part of my experience.

When I arrived in Vienna, I was treated like a queen. All I had to do was relax, go to the opera (such a hardship!), talk to the media, and appear at the race. I did all those things, but I also ran, and during the race I saw that every modern detail of running had been attended to. The Austrian Women's Run-if it wants to-is ready to host even a world championship event. I also talked (as much as I could as I don't speak German!) to hundreds of women. All of them felt like Ilse and I do: that running has changed their lives. By the time I was presented with the award, I was already deeply touched. But the cheering I received when I was on the stage made me feel that much of the work that I had done for 40 years, and that Ilse is doing now, was so worthwhile and satisfying that I felt overwhelmed.

I felt like I'd made 10,000 new friends. And indeed, I had. I am sure you feel the same way. Enjoy this wonderful anniversary day. Please thank those that made it happen. And go make your own history.

Happy Anniversary and my thanks to all of you,
Kathrine Switzer

As a "world-wide ambassador for Austrian dm Woman`s Run" Kathrine Switzer received the silver "Rathaus-Mann" from the Vienna district council Silvia Rubik on 10th June 2006 - because of thanks and acknowledgment.