Courtesy B.A.A.
Running often gives opportunity to eccentric talents. America’s great marathons have been shaped by some unlikely movers and shakers an image-conscious Romanian-born garment industry dealer; a quietly intellectual African-American grandson of slaves; a short-fused Scot from working-class Glasgow; a female CIA operative who never ran a step. Fred Lebow, Ted Corbitt, Jock Semple, and Gloria Ratti seem like
unlikely founders, yet each was key in making the New York City and Boston Marathons the triumphant events we now know.
The only one still with us is Ratti, now 89, and her contribution has been mostly under the radar. It began in the 1960s; her husband, the late Charlie Ratti, became hooked at age 41 as a runner dedicated though never elite. She accompanied him to race after race. But she has no skill at being inactive and became impatient with the sport’s ramshackle systems.