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By Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
June 14, 2001
Nine-thousand people will bolt across a starting line in Two Harbors Saturday, to arrive hours later and 26 miles away in Duluth's Canal Park. Grandma's Marathon is celebrating it's 25th anniversary. The long-distance footrace has become a venerable institution in Duluth. It's the single top draw to the port city, and it's well established as one of the nation's premier foot races.
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THERE'S MORE ON THE MOVE along Duluth's lakefront than ships and seagulls. With a steady "wump, wump, wump," like a puffing locomotive, everywhere there are runners, side by side on the wooden lakewalk, on downtown sidewalks, through the parks and parkways; men and women, lanky and lean with flimsy shorts and loose shirts flapping the fog. Everyone's getting ready for Saturday's marathon.
Rick Jackson's here, facing the traffic on the long spit of land called Minnesota Point. Only four people have run all 24 Grandma's Marathons, and he's the only one from Duluth. Jackson's purple shorts and green jersey just hang on his lean frame. Forty-something, with grey overtaking a trim beard, Jackson's in better shape most people 25 five years younger.
He run's lots of marathons- the City of Lakes, the Twin Cities Marathon; the Fiesta Bowl Marathon in Arizona. But Grandma's is his favorite. "Grandma's is right in my backyard," he says. "Some of us runners like to think we were instrumental in the start of the first race, and actually some of us were."
It's easy to see why Grandma's is his favorite. It's run on a nearly flat course with a stunning backdrop. As runners thread Lake Superior's north shore, a generous east wind can provide refrigeration and a helpful push on to Duluth.
Hal Higdon knows Grandma's well. He's the senior writer for Runners' World magazine, and author of the book Marathon, the Ultimate Training Guide. He's been to Duluth for many Grandma's weekends, and he's run the entire marathon once himself.
"I think one of the unique things about Grandma's Marathon, it's sort of really out in the middle of nowhere. But yet you can still attract 10, 15,000 runners to come up there," Higdon says. Higdon says that reflects the respect runners have for Grandma's, which has managed to draw world-class runners to a June race in northern Minnesota. Grandma's turns out a field of strong athletes led by world-class runners, like Garry Bjorkland, a track standout from Twig, Minnesota. Bjorkland captured the first Grandma's title just a year after running in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The 1981 Grandma's is considered a classic, pitting Bjorkland against fellow Minnesotan Dick Beardsley. Beardsley ran the ninth-fastest marathon in history; Bjorkland was two minutes behind.
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Higdon's poll of top running coaches places Grandma's in the top 10, right beside higher profile races like the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon. "I also think it's because people come up to Duluth and say, 'Hey, this is a pretty nice city,'" he says.
Higdon credits the marketing ploy of tying the marathon to what's arguably Duluth's most memorable restaurant, Grandma's Saloon and Deli. But Higdon's highest praise is for 25-year race director Scott Keenan. Keenan's persistence and dedication have kept Grandma's going and growing, even when the runner craze dipped in the 1980s.
"My recollection is that he had this car that was about 20 years old, and the whole filing system of the marathon, along with his sleeping bag, was in the back of that car. It was really a grassroots organization," Keenan says.
Scott Keenan was a member of the North Shore Striders Running Club, when the idea jelled for an annual marathon race back in 1977. The race headquarters was home. "I used my dad's house and that's where all the first posters were. Everybody said if you wanted information on Grandma's Marathon you had to write to that address. Then we just worked out of my apartments and friends' houses, and it was pretty low key, actually," Keenan says.
Keenan credits an army of 3,600 volunteers, and the financial support of corporate sponsors. For many, Grandma's is good business. Runners visitors leave more than $7 million. Hotel rooms fill in an ever widening circle, with some finding rooms in Ashland, Wisconsin - about 70 miles from the starting line.
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