Bellingham author and lifelong runner Tom Murphy has launched an essay competition, based on his book, ‘Runner in Red.’

The competition was launched on March 27 and hosted by the women runners of Boston College.  

Led by their coaches, Randy Thomas and Julie Heyde, they participated in an open mic session to share positive ways that running contributes to their lives.

The contest runs through April 20th and the winner and two (2) runners-up will be announced at Boston College on May 4th.

The competition is inspired by the real-life Boston Marathon legend which contends that a woman wearing red slipped into the 1951 Boston Marathon, which would make her the first woman to run any marathon in America.

Murphy talks about the essay competition in our Q&A:

Q: Tell us why you are having the contest?

A: Women runners from Boston College’s track team offered comments at our kick off for the essay competition that show how young women value running. “Running gave me a voice when I did not have one,” said one Boston College runner.

She told how she was in high school and looking for a way to “fit in,” but didn’t know how.  Running opened the world for her, she said.

Another told how she looked to an older woman in her community – a runner – for guidance when she was growing up and that woman became a mentor. As Randy Thomas, the coach of the Boston College women’s team, himself a champion American marathon runner in the 70s and 80s, told the group:  “Men have always had a chance to talk about their love for running, now this essay competition gives women a chance to share the joy.”

Q: Tell us how you arrived at ‘Runner in Red’ as the book title?

A: The name derives from a real-life Boston Marathon legend, which in turn, springs from a contention by a group of Canadian runners in 1951 who insisted they saw a woman “wearing red” slip into the marathon that year.

That was an era, 1951, when rules precluded women from competing.

I learned about the legend from Jock Semple, the colorful race co-director, when I wrote Jock’s life story, “Just Call Me Jock,” with John J Kelley, the 1957 Boston winner, in 1982.

The “what if” possibilities of that stayed with me, the idea that women may have an “unsung heroine” a decade and a half before history credited Bobbi Gibb and Kathrine Switzer with breaking the gender barrier.

Who was she, this runner “in red?” Was she real?

The possibility struck me as a great vehicle to tell a story about women’s struggle for inclusion.

The novel is a search for that mystery woman, but the “Runner in Red” story also provides a platform for an essay competition to give today’s women a chance to share the joy they get from running against the backdrop of that earlier era when women were not allowed to participate.

Q: Who are the judges?

A: Joann Flamino, past Chair of the Boston Athletic Association, Gina Caruso, past Treasurer., Cathy Utzschneider, a 9-times national masters champion, and Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1966 will judge the pilot. Kathrine Switzer, Founder of 261 Fearless, has been very supportive as well.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: I run an institute at Fordham, the Human Resiliency Institute.

We offer a program to help veterans get jobs and we work with major pharma companies, which produce drugs for lung cancer.

Proceeds from my novel, Runner in Red, go to help find a cure for lung cancer in memory of my wife, Barb, who was a Boston Marathon runner and passed away from lung cancer.

We’ll invite the pharma companies who partner with us on the veterans program to sponsor expansion of the essay competition for women runners as well, since lung cancer takes more women’s lives than any other cancer.

We invite folks to go to runnerinred.com for full details on the essay pilot, how to participate, and our plans to grow the project into a national effort to showcase the stories of women runners as part of a larger effort to support a cure for lung cancer.

It all ties into an effort to support women.

Run With It supports the essay competition.

Christine Blanchette runwithit

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For more information about the contest  runnerinred.com/runner-in-red-essay-contest/