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Outlook: Outlook Weekend: The Re-run

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Juli Windsor running in the Boston Marathon

10/02/2018 GMT

Outlook Weekend: The Re-run

BBC World Service - Outlook, Outlook Weekend: The Re-run

Two people who had a shocker of an experience, and then an opportunity to put it right.

A woman gets to lead her city parade 57 years after she was dropped for being black. And we re-run the Boston Marathon a year after the bombing.

Wouldn't it be nice if life was full of second chances? 

In 1958 a young woman called Joan Williams was chosen to represent the city of Pasadena, California, in their annual Rose Parade. But when it emerged that Joan was African-American, although fair skinned, she was dropped from her role as Miss Crown City and the parade. In 2015 she finally took her place on the parade, 57 years late, and has been honoured by the Californian State Legislature's Black Caucus for her "courage and determination in overcoming discrimination".

Since high school Juli Windsor's ambition has been to run the Boston Marathon. It's a hard enough feat for anyone to complete the 26 mile run, but Juli has dwarfism and is 3-foot-9-inches tall, so has to take twice as many steps as everyone else. She was determined to complete in 2013 and was very close to the finishing line when two bombs went off and the race was abandoned. Juli had to find the courage to run again the following year. Supporting her was journalist David Abel, who had been filming Juli's first attempt, and whose footage of the attack was played around the world. Juli's story has been featured in the documentary "Undaunted, Chasing History at the Boston Marathon".

Audio credit: The archive footage of the 2015 Pasadena Parade was provided by the Pasadena Star-News.

Image: Juli Windsor running the Boston Marathon a year after the bombing.
Credit: Suzanne Kreiter, The Boston Globe

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