When Boston Marathon official Jock Semple hopped off a press truck four miles into the 1967 Boston Marathon and yelled "get out of my race" as he tried to rip #261 off of K.V Switzer, pictures of the altercation ran in newspapers around the world, changing women's running forever. Turns out "K.V" was 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially — if illegally — enter the Boston Marathon.

"I knew that women were capable of running marathons if they were only given the opportunity," she later told the press. Her Boston finish created that opportunity.

Through her tenacity, stubbornness and belief that women too can run 26.2 miles, she scaled the male bastion of the Boston Marathon that barred women from its race and helped to open its doors to women, which it officially did... five years later.

She went on to win the 1974 New York City Marathon, and was influential in the creating of the first Avon International Marathon in Atlanta in 1978, which featured 20 of the world's top female distance runners. She was also a prime lobbyist for the 1984 women's Olympic Marathon and put her degree in journalism and her love for running to good use

and furthering the cause for women in sports through her award-winning commentary at the Olympics and other major marathons.

Local athletes will have the unique opportunity to compete against Ms Switzer during this weekend's running festival. She is one of about 50 brave runners participating in the inaugural Bermuda Triangle Challenge. However, this marathon legend will also be sharing advice with fitness enthusiasts as a guest speaker at the Health and Fitness Expo hosted by Bermuda Track and Field at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

Fairmont Bermuda is hosting Ms Switzer during her stay as part of their sponsorship of the Bermuda International Race Weekend.

"There's no place in the world like Bermuda! It has it all - charm, grace, a sense of history and friendliness," Ms Switzer says. "As a runner, it's a perfect place for a race, as it is small enough to involve the whole community and feel their excitement, the weather is ideal, and at every turn in the road there's another scenic outlook. You never get bored on the run in Bermuda! And afterwards! Why there are all those amazing, shall we say, FRUIT JUICES to re-hydrate with... I can't wait!"

As for that historic event in 1967, Ms Switzer recalled the day she filled out her entry form and says she signed "K.V" Switzer instead of Kathrine because she always signed her name that way: "Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a writer and K.V was going to be my signature name. It seemed to my young mind then that all the good writers used their initials like J.D Salinger, E.E Cumings, T.S Elliot, W.B Yeats — so ever since I was 12 I signed all my papers K.V Switzer, thinking I was totally cool."

Her coach at the time, Arnie Briggs, sent her application in with the rest of the track boys from Syracuse who were planning on running the marathon. To celebrate she went out that night with her boyfriend Tom Miller — who fell down laughing when she told him she was entering the Boston Marathon.

"He said if I could run a marathon he could too and decided to sign up. He weighed 235 pounds, but that didn't discourage him. He just felt if I could do it, he could. To prove his point he went out and ran nine miles and declared he was ready. So we all go to Boston," she recalls.

"The day of the race was horrible. Sleeting, snowing, windy and cold. All the runners had on big baggy sweats and windbreakers and hoods. I wore my worst stuff because Arnie said when we got warmed up, we'd throw away our old sweats and just leave them behind. As I pinned on my number, the other runners around me noticed I was a woman and got very excited and supportive. They thought it was great that a woman was going to run Boston. We all lined up to go through the starting pen and as I went through the pen, I had to lift my sweatshirt to show my number. Will Clooney himself, the race director, pushed me through the starting gate."

Four miles into the race, the media flatbed truck loaded with photographers came through and the young Ms Switzer and her co-runners had to get out of the way to let it pass.

A bus followed the truck with journalists and on that bus were co-race directors Will Clooney and Jock Semple.

Ms Switzer describes the drama that unfolded: "The photographers saw me first and started shouting, 'There's a girl in the race,' and then slowed up in front of us and started taking pictures. By now, I'd thrown away my top sweatshirt and my hair was flying. I didn't try to disguise my gender at all. Heck, I was proud of myself, I was wearing lipstick!

When the journalists saw me, they started teasing Jock that a girl had infiltrated his race. They looked up my number and saw K. Switzer and started heckling Jock some more. 'She doesn't look like a Karl,' they'd say. Their bus was still behind us. I was unaware what was going on behind me as we were waving at the photographers in front of us. Jock was well known for his violent temper. He seethed for awhile, and then erupted. He jumped off the bus and went after me. I saw him before he pounced and let me tell you, I was scared to death. He was out of control. I jumped away from him as he grabbed for me, but he caught me by the shoulder and spun me around, and screamed, 'Get the hell out of my race and give me that race number.' I tried to get away from him, but he had me by the shirt."

She adds that her coach, Arnie tried to wrestle Jock away from her, but failed until her 235 pound boyfriend Tom came to the rescue and smacked Jock with a cross body block and he went "flying" through the air.

Arnie shouted "Run like hell!" and she did — all the time cameras were snapping away. And the rest, as they say, is history.