Lurdes Gabarain concludes most of the episodes he lived with the same phrase: “I liked running.” As a child, he always came out of the house in a hurry. In his youth, he liked to “compete” more than train. When he was young, when he went to do the marathon in Oviedo, he was told to do 20 kilometers. “But I didn’t; I told them I wanted to do 42,195.” In 1981, he was kidnapped by members of the ETA military, put in the trunk of his car... but he doesn’t want to talk about these issues. “It has nothing to do with the issue and I am very angry with everyone. “Victim and non-victim, I’m not a victim.”

At the age of 58, the Tolosa woman Lurdes Gabarain was the first woman in the Basque Country to finish a marathon.In his book Del Jogging a la marathon, Josep Maria Antentas wrote: “1977. Last year, a Basque athlete, Lurdes Gabarain, finished a marathon for the first time. She was the first Spanish woman to achieve this.” That's what that quote says.

It was in Bordeaux. Gabarain then ran with a boy from Irun, Ricardo Toro. “Everywhere I went, I also went to participate in popular races.” They went mostly to the North Basque Country and France; “but also to Switzerland.” This gave the Tolosa the opportunity to do the Bordeaux Marathon: “I didn’t have any problems there, but I did in Oviedo during my second marathon.”

In the early 1970s, women in Spain were not allowed to participate in long-distance testing. “If I’m not mistaken, the longest was 3,000 meters,” recalls Gabarain. In 1972, Francisco Castello wrote in the newspaper El Mundo Deportivo: ‘In Spain, foreigners are allowed what is forbidden to local women. We saw a woman in the United States at the International Marathon.”

After the marathon in Bordeaux, Gabarain thought that he was going to do the one in Oviedo: “After 20 kilometers, they told me that they would stay and give me a test because it was the longest distance I could go. I had to show them my Bordeaux diploma to show them that I had done a marathon.” He remembers that as soon as he started running, a van of the organizers was placed in front of him and another behind him. “20. A mile away, and nothing happened. I kept going until it was over.” After Oviedo, the Tolosano ran three other marathons, including the San Sebastián and Oiartzun marathons.

It was 1966 when a woman named Roberta Gibb Bobbi signed up for the Boston Marathon. At that time, only men had the opportunity to go to that race. The organizers said no to Bobbi. But the 24-year-old runner went to the exit and hid among the men. Despite not having a dorsal, she was the first woman to run a marathon. The following year, in 1967, Kathrine Switzerland became famous. This 20-year-old student signed up for the Boston Marathon and got the dorsal. Of course, not the full name, he put KV Switzerlander on the registration page.

As he made his way, organizer Jock Semple saw him and started running from behind, shouting, “Get out of my race and go back to the dorsal.” As the press truck was present, everything was recorded. With 261 dorsals, Switzerland managed to finish the marathon. Four years later, in 1971, the New York Marathon opened its doors to women. In 1972, the same step was taken by Boston, and Switzerlander and Semple are hugging each other in the 1973 marathon.

“Now everyone knows these pictures,” says Gabarain. “I remember Switzerland’s long pants when I looked at her.” The account of the calves is stuck to the Tolosa's face: “When the summer came, the girls were waiting for someone to wear their pants. We had a hard time getting out in our pants. This was a matter of the boys in society; there was this pressure. I was going to run in my pants. That’s how everyone looked at me...”

Slapping the viewer

Gabarain had to grow up and educate himself with matters that were not petty, always against the wind: “The kids were my friends because I was always with them. You always hear that, but what are you going to do?” In a cros, however, he exhausted his patience and gave a slap to a spectator. “I think it was in Renteria. I was in first place, and a spectator came out on the road. He told me that my boobs were big and they moved a lot or something. I stopped and slapped him. In spite of everything, I won the race,” he explains with a sense of humor.

In addition to the marathons, Tolosa has been the subject of many other sports: triathlon, cycling, cross-country skiing... “I liked everything. There was no help then, and I had no one by my side to lead me to one or the other. I did everything myself.” Until the body told him it was enough. The vein of Achilles gave Gabarain countless warnings. Without the desire to operate, he decided to end his sports career. Now, despite looking back and having painful memories in the middle, the pretty ones always prevail. “I actually liked running, I felt happy.”

This report has been published by the Portal de Tolosaldea and we have brought it to you thanks to the Creative Commons license.