Grandma's Marathon is an annual road race

Road running

Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road . These events would be classified as long distance according to athletics terminology, with distances typically ranging from 5 kilometers to 42.2 kilometers in the marathon. They may involve large numbers of runners...

 held each June

June

June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and one of the four months with a length of 30 days. Ovid provides two etymologies for June's name in his poem concerning the months entitled the Fasti...

 in Duluth

Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The course runs point-to-point from the town of Two Harbors

Two Harbors, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,613 people, 1,636 households, and 953 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,120.7 people per square mile . There were 1,631 housing units at an average density of 505.9 per square mile...

 on Scenic Route 61 and continues along Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

 into the city of Duluth. The finish is located in Canal Park

Canal Park (Duluth)

Canal Park is a tourist and recreation-oriented district of Duluth, Minnesota, United States. Situated across the Interstate 35 freeway from Downtown Duluth, it is connected by the famous Aerial Lift Bridge to the Park Point sandbar and neighborhood...

, near Grandma's Restaurant, which is next to the highly visible Aerial Lift Bridge

Aerial Lift Bridge

The Aerial Lift Bridge is a major landmark in the port city of Duluth, Minnesota. The span is a vertical lift bridge, which is rather uncommon, but it began life as an extremely rare transporter bridge—the first of just two such bridges ever constructed in the United States...

.

Grandma's was first run in 1977 with only 150 participants; the first race was won by the Minnesotan runner and 1976 Olympic 10000m

Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics - Men's 10000 metres

The official results of the Men's 10,000 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. The final was held on Monday July 26, 1976 after the qualifying heats were run on Friday July 23, 1976.-Medalists:-Records:...

 runner Garry Bjorklund

Garry Bjorklund

Garry Brian Bjorklund is an American middle and long-distance runner. He represented the U.S. in the 1976 Summer Olympics in the 10,000 m. As a high schooler, he set a Minnesota state record for the mile run which lasted 39 years...

. The newly-opened Grandma's Restaurant was the only local business that would sponsor the then-fledgling event for $600. Race organizers thought it only fitting to name the new race after their sole sponsor. At the present time, Grandma's Marathon is run by almost 10,000 runners every year, has nearly a $2 million operating budget and is credited with bringing tens of millions of tourist money into the City of Duluth.

The men's record time for Grandma's is 2:09:37, set in 1981 by Wayzata, Minnesota

Wayzata, Minnesota

Wayzata is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, a western suburb of Minneapolis. Wayzata came into existence in the center of Chief Shakopee's Indian village.-Early settlement:...

 native Dick Beardsley

Dick Beardsley

Dick Beardsley is an American long-distance runner best known for his close finish with Alberto Salazar in the 1982 Boston Marathon.-Running career:...

. The women's record time is 2:27:05, set in 2003 by Firiya Sultanova

Firiya Sultanova

Firiya Rifkatovna Sultanova-Zhdanova is a retired female long-distance runner from Russia. She set her personal best in the women's marathon on June 21, 2003 in Duluth, Minnesota, clocking 2:27:05...

. In 2005, Halina Karnatsevich

Halina Karnatsevich

Halina Karnatsevich, née Baruk is a Belarusian long-distance runner.She finished twelfth in the marathon at the 2005 World Championships in a personal best time of 2:27:14 hours....

 was the first finisher with a time of 2:33:39 but she was later disqualified for failing her post-race doping test.

Grandma's Marathon also includes other running events in addition to the full marathon. These include the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon

Half marathon

A half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...

, the William A. Irvin 5k

5000 metres

The 5000 metres is a popular running distance also known as 5 km or 5K in American English. It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics. "5000 metres" refers to racing on a track and "5K" usually refers to a roadrace or cross country event...

, the Fitger's 5k, the Park Point 5 Miler, and the Grandma's Minnesota Mile, as well as several "whipper snapper" races for kids.

The 35th edition of the race in 2011 the marathon had its first photo-finish

Photo-Finish

This article is about the album. For the Prison Break episode, see Photo Finish .Photo-Finish is the seventh studio album by Irish blues-rock musician Rory Gallagher...

: eventual winner Christopher Kipyego mistook the electronic timing mat for the finish point and prematurely stopped, leading to an impromptu sprint finish against Teklu Deneke with just two tenths of a second separating the pair.

2009 race

The race was scheduled for June 20, 2009. This was the first year that all of the 9,500 available spots have not been filled, leading to a deficit in its budget. The fee for runners was approximately $85. Executive director Scott Keenan suggested that the economy is the main reason for the downturn in participants; although, there are also two new marathons starting in the area which may be pulling runners away from the Duluth race.

Past winners

Key:

Edition	Date	Men's Winner	Time (h Hour The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds... :m Minute A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units... :s Second The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock.... )	Women's Winner	Time (h Hour The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds... :m Minute A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units... :s Second The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock.... )
1st	25-06-1977	|2:21:54	|3:23:39
2nd	24-06-1978		2:18:42		2:57:14
3rd	23-06-1979	|2:14:44	|2:37:37
4th	21-06-1980	|2:10:20	|2:38:35
5th	20-06-1981		2:09:37	|2:29:35.5
6th	19-06-1982	|2:14:50	|2:41:21
7th	11-06-1983	|2:12:10		2:33:52
8th	16-06-1984	|2:12:41	|2:37:30
9th	15-06-1985	|2:11:08	|2:39:45
10th	21-06-1986		2:12:53	|2:38:45
11th	20-06-1987	|2:16:00		2:36:12
12th	11-06-1988		2:20:07	|2:43:27
13th	17-06-1989	|2:16:49	|2:39:50
14th	23-06-1990	|2:18:12		2:33:25
15th	22-06-1991	|2:13:59		2:35:27
16th	20-06-1992	|2:13:25		2:33:01
17th	19-06-1993		2:16:38		2:34:46
18th	18-06-1994		2:18:19		2:33:42
19th	17-06-1995		2:15:23		2:34:11
20th	22-06-1996		2:13:43		2:32:42
21st	21-06-1997		2:15:44		2:38:44
22nd	20-06-1998		2:12:47		2:35:46
23rd	19-06-1999		2:13:22		2:29:13
24th	17-06-2000		2:14:31		2:33:53
25th	16-06-2001		2:14:25		2:35:13
26th	22-06-2002		2:10:57		2:32:21
27th	21-06-2003		2:11:22		2:27:05
28th	19-06-2004		>	2:35:08
29th	18-06-2005		2:13:18		2:28:43
30th	17-06-2006		2:14:30		2:37:33
31st	16-06-2007		2:15:55		2:35:40
32nd	21-06-2008		2:13:39		2:38:50
33rd	20-06-2009		2:15:13		2:36:52
34th	19-06-2010		2:15:44		2:31:35
35th	19-06-2011		2:12:16.36		2:30:39

Amazing Fact

On the same evening that the North Shore strider's (the founders of the Grandma's Marathon) were celebrating the completion of the first marathon, mayhem broke out at the famous Glensheen mansion located near the 22-mile mark. The heiress of the estate, Elisabeth Congdon, and her nurse were brutally murdered in the house by the husband of Elisabeth's adopted daughter, sparkling national media attention and a high-profile police investigation.

Grandma's Marathon Staff

Scott Keenan, Executive Director –

Jon Carlson, Race Director –

Sarah Culver, Director of Administration –

Bob Gustafson, Public Relations Director –

Linda Hanson, Finance and Operations Director –

Zach Hitchcock, Promotion and Design Director –

Dani Minardi, Director of Event Development –

Jeffrey P. Rosenthal, Director of Race Management Services –

External links

• Official site
• Marathon Info profile