On Thursday, June 23, we celebrated 50 years of Title IX, the landmark law that provided equal rights in accessing sports and education, regardless of gender. Today, our local papers laud sports teams for men and women in the same bold headlines and inspiring photos. Young athletes are cheered on from the stands by their peers, parents, teachers and neighbors. We all take immense pride in their effort, their growth and their victories, and it’s always thrilling to welcome local championship teams to be recognized at the State House. Title IX’s impact is undeniable.

Some of you may know the story of Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. Kathrine was a journalism student at Syracuse University. Because, at the time, there was no women’s cross country team, she trained — unofficially — with the men’s team. Even then, her otherwise supportive coach told her that women’s bodies were just too fragile to run a full marathon, but Kathrine was determined. In 1967, she registered for and ran the Boston Marathon, even though at the time women were prohibited from the race. While Kathrine recounts that the reaction from her fellow runners was positive and supportive, the photos that remain famous from that day focus on a different part of the story. Particularly famous are the photos of Jock Semple, an organizer of the marathon, assaulting Kathrine just four miles into the race, trying to tear off her running bib and force her off the track, screaming at her to “get the hell out of my race!”

Kathrine said that in that moment, she at first felt fear and humiliation. She considered stepping off the course and leaving. But her doubt was fleeting. “If I quit, it would set women’s sports back, way back, instead of forward. If I quit, I’d never run Boston,” she later wrote. “If I quit, Jock Semple and all those like him would win. My fear and humiliation turned to anger.”

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, finishing alongside one of her fellow Syracuse runners and her coach. Five years later, in 1972, just months before Title IX went into effect, eight women ran the race. This year, 12,171 women ran.

It seems pertinent not just to this story, but to debates happening today, that the Boston Marathon is always held on Patriots’ Day — a holiday observed in Massachusetts and Maine, recognizing the legacy and sacrifice of the patriots who helped found our county. Much like a marathon, America’s quest for independence was about strategy, planning and perseverance. In designing our democracy, our founding fathers tried to be forward-looking, knowing full well that they were laying the groundwork for the kind of government the western world had never seen before. Even now, the Great American Experiment continues.

Just as important to our country’s founding were the work and words of the founding mothers. Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband John Adams in 1776: “… in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

Since our nation was founded nearly 250 years ago, women have had the need to constantly foment rebellions, fighting for the right to vote, to have equal access to education, to have the right to manage our own finances, to earn equal pay for equal work, and of course to manage our own health and body autonomy. The progress we have made is undeniable and worthy of celebrating. But the fight continues. Just as our founding mothers thought of the legacy they would leave for future generations, it’s clear that our work to cement the rights of the generations that will follow us is not done yet.

There are, unfortunately, still men like Jock Semple in the world, ready to tear us out of the race just because they think we’re unworthy of even trying to make it to the finish line. Women have been proving men like that wrong for generations, and I have no double that we will continue to do so. The fight, the work and the race continues. Thankfully, we’re not running alone.

Eloise Vitelli is a state senator representing District 23, covering Sagadahoc County and Dresden.