by John Bertoletti

by John Bertoletti

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ISBN 10: 0-15-351517-1

ISBN 13: 978-0-15-351517-0

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 985 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
 In the autumn of 1976, Miki Gorman stood on the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with a huge group of other
athletes. The thousands of runners—mostly men—were
gathered at the starting line of the New York City Marathon.
A marathon is a 26.2-mile (42.16 km) running race.
One male runner looked over and muttered to himself,
“Why even bother, lady?” Miki was just over five feet (1.52 m)
tall and weighed less than 90 pounds (40.8 kg). The runner
had no idea that the woman he snickered at was one of
the top runners in the world.
Then the race began. The runners surged forward.
Miki Gorman confidently took off, feeling relaxed. It would
be a day she’d never forget.

3
 Miki Gorman was an unlikely American sports star. Her
parents were Japanese. In 1935, when Miki was born, they
were living in China. During World War II, the family moved
back to Japan. The United States was fighting Japan in the
war at the time.
After the war, an American army officer in Japan hired
Miki to be a nanny for his children. In time, Miki wanted to
move to the United States. With the help of the officer, she
moved to the United States in 1964. She went to school in
Pennsylvania and then worked in an office for several years.
In the late 1960s, Miki met Michael Gorman, and they were
married. The couple moved to Los Angeles and soon had
a daughter.

United States and Japanese flags

4
 Miki did not speak much English, and she was shy. She
mainly stayed in her home and took care of her baby. “Why
don’t you go out and do some things?” her husband asked.
Miki wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. Her husband kept
encouraging her to take up a hobby or meet new people.
Miki had said that she wished her body were a little
stronger. Michael Gorman suggested she join the Los
Angeles Athletic Club. Miki found the exercise classes she
took at the club boring. One time, she decided to run on
the track. In that moment Miki’s life changed. She enjoyed
running immediately and felt comfortable doing it. She
began to enter races at the club and was often the only
woman in those races.

5
 One day, Miki was lining up to run an indoor race at the
club. She was the only woman at the starting line. One of
the male racers glared at her and said, “What are you doing
here? Are you trying to compete with men?”
Miki was a little surprised at first. The more she thought
about his comment, though, the angrier she became. “I’m
going to beat him,” she thought to herself, and she did.
Did she quit racing because most runners back then
were men? No, she kept at it. Her husband and others
helped her because they kept encouraging her to run.

6
 In April of 1973, Miki was still running indoor races at
the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Some of the coaches at the
club started to talk to Miki. They encouraged her to run
some outdoor races and to compete in some races other
than those held at the club.
She said she was willing to consider running in
some other races. Since she was excellent at running long
distances, one of her friends even suggested that she run
in the legendary Boston Marathon! The marathon is an
especially hard race since it is so long—26.2 miles (42.16 km).
Runners become extremely tired and sore when attempting
to run that far, and many quit before finishing. Miki decided
to give it a shot. She would try to run a marathon.

7
 Miki and her husband and coach had a meeting.
They decided that she would run in the Culver City
Marathon in California near Los Angeles. The race
would be run in December of 1973.
Running a marathon requires a lot of preparation.
Runners need to build up their body’s strength and
endurance to run that long a distance, and this takes
time. Miki began to take long runs to prepare her body.
Miki was concerned because she’d never run
a marathon before. She and her coach
decided that she could practice for the
Culver City Marathon by running in
a different marathon. They saw
that one would be held in a
nearby town. They planned
for Miki to run about half of
that race and see how
she felt.

8
 The race began. Miki began to run. When she had
finished about half the race, she slowed down to stop,
just like she and her coach had planned. When she did
this many of the fans watching the race told her that she
was ahead of all the other women in the race. “You can’t
stop now!” the fans said, and so Miki kept going.
Miki not only finished the race, but she was the female
winner! Her time was three hours and thirty minutes, which
was very good. She was thrilled to have done so well in her
very first marathon.

9
 Culver City Marathon

Miki felt confident as she began the Culver City Marathon

on December 2, 1973. As the race continued, she stayed
strong and ran well. She led all the other women runners
mile after mile.
When she neared the finish line, the crowd began to
cheer. When the fans looked at the official time clock of the
race, they gaped. It read 2:46:36. That’s two hours, forty-six
minutes, thirty-six seconds. This time broke the American
women’s marathon record by a full two minutes. The world
record at the time was 2:46:30, so Miki was only seven
seconds away from setting a new world record!
This small, 38-year-old woman had stunned the racing
world. She had come out of nowhere to almost set a new
world record!

10

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 Now Miki felt prepared to run the legendary Boston
Marathon. It was considered the most famous marathon
race, and many runners dreamed of winning it.
The race was run in April 1974. Many people who
followed the sport of long-distance running wondered if
Miki’s victory in the Culver City Marathon was just a fluke.
Maybe she got lucky that day, they thought. Perhaps the
other woman runners didn’t feel well that day.
All of those critics were quieted once they saw Miki
run. She dominated the other women runners and won
the women’s 1974 Boston Marathon by six minutes. Her
time was an outstanding 2:47:11. “That is the only race in
which I didn’t feel nervous because I knew I was going
to win,” Miki said.

11
 Miki had quickly become one of the top female runners
in the world. Fans and sportswriters were amazed that a
woman who did not start running until she was thirty-three
years old could become one of the world’s top runners.
Another very popular marathon in the United States is the
New York City Marathon. The organizers of the race wanted
Miki to run in it in 1976. That year’s New York City Marathon,
they said, would be special. New York City is made up of five
boroughs, or sections: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten
Island, and the Bronx. For the first time, the runners would
pass through all five of the boroughs as they raced. Miki
liked the idea and decided to run.

12

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 The day of the race came. Running through the streets of
New York City was quite a challenge. For a while, the runners
had to run on a cobblestone street. A cobblestone street is
bumpy and rough because it is made of old bricks.
They also ran across the large Queensboro Bridge. The
floor of the bridge was metal grates, not flat concrete. “The
Queensboro Bridge did not have a carpet, and in those days
we didn’t have good running shoes, so it hurt,” Miki said.
Despite these obstacles, 41-year-old Miki didn’t flinch.
She won the race in a time of 2:39:11, the fastest marathon
she ever ran. “It was the best day for me because I used up
all my energy. I ran as hard and as well as I could,” she said.

13
 In the spring of 1977, Miki won the Boston Marathon
for a second time. Later that year, she won the New York
City Marathon again. She was getting older, though, and
her body became injured more often. During the years from
1978 to 1981, she ran in some marathons but never was
as successful as she had been. She knew that her racing
career was coming to an end.
By 1982, Miki had decided to stop racing. Even though it
did not last long, Miki Gorman had an outstanding running
career. Running had changed her life dramatically. “I can’t
remember what I was doing before running. I guess
shopping, sewing, watching TV—gaining nothing,” she
once said. Obviously both Miki and the world of long-
distance running gained a lot from her amazing efforts.

14
 Think Critically
1. What words would you use to describe Miki
Gorman?

2. How do you think Miki Gorman felt when a

male runner laughed at her at the beginning
of the New York Marathon?

3. What is a word that means almost the same

thing as stunned on page 10?

4. Why did some men say mean things to Miki

Gorman on the racecourse?

5. What did you learn from this story?

Social Studies
Make a Map Go back through the book and make a list of
the cities and states where Miki ran. Then on a map of the
United States, find and highlight the places.

School-Home Connection Discuss this story with

a family member. Then discuss whether or not you
would like to be a long-distance runner and why.

Word Count: 1,486 (1,500)