She is the woman at the centre of the iconic black-and-white images that went around the world in 1967 recording a defining moment in the history of women's running.

Next week, the woman hailed by Runner's Magazine as one of running's "four visionaries of the 20th century" will be on the Island to take part in Bermuda International Race Weekend.

Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run the world's most prestigious marathon - the Boston Marathon - with an official race number.

She had signed her entry form as "K.V. Switzer" giving no clue to her gender.

After discovering there was a woman in the 'men-only' event, angry co-race director Jock Semple made an infamous attempt to force the 19-year-old Switzer off the course.

However, a running companion along with Switzer's boyfriend at the time managed instead to bundle the irate co-race director off the road.

Switzer went on to finish and prove that women were capable of running 26.2 miles. Five years later the Boston Marathon allowed women to compete.

Switzer went on to champion women's running. In the 1970s she created the Avon Running Global Women's Circuit, which provided a series of women's running events around the world and is credited as playing a major part in having the women's marathon added to the Olympic schedule in 1984.

She herself won the New York Marathon in 1974 and set her best time for the distance in the 1975 Boston race where she achieved a-then world ranking 2 hours 51 minutes.

Now in her late 50s, Switzer is a guest of Fairmont Bermuda and will arrive on the Island next week to take part in race weekend. She is amongst the 50 or so athletes signed up for the inaugural Bermuda Triangle Challenge, which involves running a race on three consecutive days starting next Friday.

She will also be promoting her newly published memoir Marathon Woman.