Grandma’s Marathon in-person June 2021: Registered and hoping!

The in-person Grandmas Marathon (Duluth, Minnesota) is scheduled for June 21, 2021. Whether the event happens, of course, depends on public health assessments. I’m registered, hoping it takes place, and hoping I’m one of the in-person persons!

I’m starting this blog to share the experience of training for this event and, if it happens and I’m able to participate (you never know…), what it was like to take part in one of the earliest large in-person races since COVID-19 changed the world.

Last year’s race was cancelled. For this year, registration was capped at 4,000 (half of normal capacity) and elaborate plans are being made for busing mask-wearing runners in groups of 25 to the starting area in Two Harbors, Minnesota, where they would be released in waves of five, somehow sequenced in a way their crowd science simulation model (see https://www.start-right.run/) predicts would “allow for a minimum of 12 or more feet of spacing between participants at all times.” They would also disallow spectators.

A little different from past years! I’ve run Grandma’s before. Early, early in the morning I was packed into a runners’ bus in Duluth. All of the runners were then amassed for a long wait at a Two Harbors car dealers’ lot (transformed into a porta potty lot) before we were really tightly packed (almost touching) behind the start line to hear pre-race announcements, a live rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, then a recording of the theme song from the movie Chariots of Fire after the start line was finally opened. There were usually other runners close by throughout the race. Spectators, with or without signs, cowbells, etc., were sparsely scattered along the early miles but appeared in hordes when we got into Duluth. The finish line area was a major crowd scene.

I will be 64 years old when Grandma’s 2021 is scheduled to go. I’ve identified as a runner for about thirty years. There were some long stretches when I wasn’t running at all (and quite unhappy about that) but I’ve been running quite regularly since moving to Minneapolis nine years ago, apart from some time off due to injuries (always super unhappy about that) and some Minnesota weather and daylight constraints (recently have learned to run in most but not all weather conditions and use a headlamp if necessary on the shorter days). I’m definitely not gifted as a runner. I am, however, an unusually enthusiastic and motivated runner for many different reasons, and I’d like to share a lot of thoughts and information about why.

Also, I’d like to share thoughts about and experiences with trying to get more out of running in the months and years ahead, which predictably will include some exciting successes as well as dealing with mundane to unusual challenges and set-backs.