"Heroes of Running — Runner's World January 2014

For 50 years, Arlene Pieper had no idea she was a trailblazer in women's running—then came a phone call from a historian. Race organizers from the Pikes Peak Marathon had spent four years trying to track Pieper down. It was 2009, and the 50th anniversary of two milestones: the first woman to run Pikes Peak and the first woman to officially run any marathon in the United States, a little-known fact. When Pieper crossed the finish in 1959, she did so seven years before Roberta Gibb and eight years before Kathrine Switzer became icons of the Boston Marathon.