BOSTON (AP) – Forty years after Kathrine Switzer had to cut off her name – and fight off security – to run in the race, women will be out in front at the Boston Marathon.

It’s visible among the elite, who for the second year will get a 30-minute jump on the field so they don’t have to weave their way through the field and finish in a crowd of male stragglers. It’s visible among the top Americans, who have a bona fide contender in Deena Kastor and a supersized contingent competing for the U.S. marathon title.

It’s there in the throngs: a record 40 percent of the registered field is female for the 111th running of the world’s oldest annual marathon. (And it’s there out in space, too, where astronaut Sunita Williams will run the 26.2 miles on a treadmill at the international space station.)

“Women have gone from being excluded to being front and center, and that’s happened in my own lifetime,” said Switzer, who became the first official female competitor in 1967 when she entered under the name K.V. Switzer. “That’s not just running. That’s a social revolution.”

Switzer ran despite being told that marathoning wasn’t a very ladylike thing to do, that she would never get a husband in her baggy and sweaty running gear. She refused to remove her lipstick and go incognito; a race official tried to pull her bib number off at Mile 4.

It wasn’t until 1972 that Boston sincerely welcomed women, and another decade before they comprised as much as 10 percent of the field. This year’s 23,901 entries include 9,534 women – the most women ever to enter the race, even when organizers doubled the size for the 100th edition in 1996.

Among them will be the top three marathoners in the world – winners of the Boston, London and New York Marathons: Kastor, the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist who broke 2 hours, 20 minutes to win in London last year; defending Boston champion Rita Jeptoo, and last year’s runner-up Jelena Prokopcuka.

Jeptoo, of Kenya, edged the Latvian by just 10 seconds in Boston in 2006 – the closest finish in the history of the women’s race. Prokopcuka came back in New York last fall to beat both Jeptoo and Kastor while winning her second consecutive title there.

And while field is strong at the top, it’s deep with Americans – twice as many as usual – who have come to compete for the national title and an extra $25,000 bonus. It’s the first time the U.S. championships will be held in Boston – a precursor to next year’s Olympic trials, which will be contested on a special, loop course the day before the regular race.

“This is going to be the best practice we can have for the trials,” Melissa White, who was the fourth-fastest American in Chicago last year with a marathon debut of 2:39:21, said Saturday. “This is what it’s going to be like next year: Just women out there.”

Following the women onto the course will be a men’s field that features the winners of the last three Boston races and 2006 runner-up Benjamin Maiyo. Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot, who won last year and in 2003, also won in Chicago last year bouncing gruesomely across the pavement when he raised his hands to celebrate and slipped on the slick finish line.

No American has won in Boston since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach in 1985, before the addition of prize money brought in the top international fields. No American man has won since Greg Meyer in 1983; 12 times since then there have been no Americans in the top 10.

Last year, the men had a breakthrough of sorts with five finishers in the top 10, including Nos. 3, 4 and 5. With Kastor among the top contenders, this could be the year for the U.S. women in Boston.

“There’s definitely a resurgence in American distance running,” Kastor said. “It’s great to be a part of it, being able to displace the Kenyans and Ethiopians on award stands, being able to know that we can run with the best in the world if we prepare for it.

“I think if we can all offer a little bit of inspiration to the next person that that will continue to grow this sport. … It’s going to take a while longer, but I think you’ll see that this sport is going to be one of the greatest in our country soon enough.”

Kastor ran the fastest marathon in the world by a woman last year, winning London in 2:19:36 to improve her own American record. She also won Chicago in 2005 and took bronze at the Athens Games – the first U.S. Olympic medal in the event since Joan Benoit won the inaugural women’s run in 1984.

But the native of Waltham, just north of the off the Boston route, hadn’t ever run in the world’s oldest annual marathon, choosing instead to chase goals like fast times or Olympic titles that led her to avoid her hilly, hometown course.

“Your passions unfold as the years tick on,” she said. “Breaking 2:20, or winning the Boston Marathon was more of a dream going back. But as I matured as an athlete, they became more realistic. Winning Boston is what I’m really focused on this year. It just seems like a screaming goal to me, not only run Boston, but to win it.”

AP-ES-04-14-07 1714EDT