I have wanted to do this race almost since its inception in 1991, which officially makes it a bucket list race. This was also the 50th anniversary of Grandma’s Marathon, the grandma event of the weekend, while the Garry Bjorkland half which started in 1991 may be the son or grandson (short generation times when it comes to running events!).
In 1992 we moved in 1992 from New York state to North Dakota (North Dakota!!!??? our NY friends would exclaim when we told them about the move–yeah it was crazy but I did get to study bighorn sheep for my doctoral research). I immediately found out about the half but back then the field size was limited to 1,000 Minnesota residents. So no go.
We did move to Minnesota from 1995-97 as I wrapped up my studies and Tamara found work in the North Star state, but I ran in Manitoba that same weekend in 1995, and in 1996 and ’97 I was battling injuries. So no go again.
Then we moved to far away places for decades (a quick year in Massachusetts an a combined 28 years in Colorado and Alaska).
I did make the trip to Grandma’s in 2021 of course, and although I did not reach my goal of a sub 3 marathon at age 63, it goes down as one of my favorite marathons due to its history, the course, race management, and overall vibe. Note, however, that was during the covid pandemic and field sizes were limited to half size for then (only 3,000 in the marathon, and barely one-third of the participants that we are now seeing). Masks, an odd start, and social distancing aside that was a very different experience from now.
That was the first major race in 15 months for the country and that was at the forefront of this new marathon boom. We can call it a running boom, but it’s very much driven by the marathon.
I wanted to get back for the half someday, and now that we are only two and a half hours from downtown Duluth it was much easier and justifiable to run the half. That and our son said that he would be doing the marathon as a Boston qualifier. Sign up was a major cluster. The race filled up in less than two hours. Fortunately I logged in within minutes of the opening and in time to secure an entry. Nevertheless, wow! 9,000 entrants and sold out so quickly. Duluth would be the place to be if you’re an American road runner, not that there were not many other significant events going on over solstice weekend.
Training
I summarized training last week. Roughly 60 miles a week for 9 weeks, discounting taper for the 4-mile road championships two and a half weeks ago.
Travel and Pre-race
We drove up on Friday morning and picked up our son at the airport. We hit peak craziness for bib pickup as the 5K was wrapping up and thousands of other travelers were making their way to the convention center. The center itself is well set up for big crowds, it’s the traffic and parking that were a challenge. With that done, we made pasta at the house we stayed at–very fortunate to house sit for a couple of house cats. Their owners were away and we got to stay at their place, instead of forking over $800 for two nights at an Airbnb or hotel.
My glitch, however, was forgetting my allergy medicine. I figured I’d be okay missing a night but it does help some with sleep and I woke up at 1:15 AM, with maybe just 4 or 4.5 hours of sleep and that was it. I tossed and turned until the 3:30 wake up time in order to make it to the bus by the 4:00-4:15 AM window for my wave. Crap that’s early!
Penned Chaos
I had a nice chat with a younger (almost all other runners are younger now!) woman on the bus and we compared notes and made suggestions on other races to hit in the Minnesota region–and beyond. The bus dropped us off at about 4:45. There was not much out there but six porta potties to start with, a dozen or so volunteers 50 yards upstream (up the road), and they loudly urged us toward the corrals promising “200 port potties!” I should have known that was a ruse to a false promised land.
Like a sheep I took to the corridor to Corral 1 and walked a ways (it seemed like several hundred meters) to the start site. As promised, there were banks of porta potties, with dozens shaped into connecting C patterns about four times over. Looked good. I still had an hour plus before the start but took advantage of the accommodations. Fine. When I stepped out and surveyed the situation I saw that we really were fenced in. At that time there was still some space to move around near the start and a few athletes had already started jogging in 50 or so meter circles.
Start area about an hour before start. Note corral blocking access to the street ahead.
With an hour to go that was too early. So I sat down for a bit and talked to a couple of friends. With 45 minutes before race time, I decided to find the loo one more time. The corral was filling up quickly and the lines were getting long. I waited in line for 10 or 15 minutes, and by the time I got out they had pushed the corral back even further–with officials yelling at the jogging runners to stop and move back–and now it was standing room only. No place to warm up!
I briefly thought of backtracking those 200 or so meters to find some open ground but that would be like swimming against thousands of salmon heading to the spawning grounds, the walk way was only 2 wide (maybe 2 meters). That may have been a poor decision.
With 20 minutes to go I moved up to take my position near the front. For record purposes in Minnesota they use gun time so if that’s on your mind you had better move up near the front–maybe farther up than you might want to or should be! We weren’t packed shoulder to shoulder but there was barely enough room to stretch. After the elite introductions (they had all the room they needed of course) and national anthem (always too long and drawn out for my taste), I ran/jogged/hopped a little in place for 5 minutes. That was my warm up.
Racing the 36th Annual Garry Bjorkland Half Marathon
The elites went off and five minutes later they counted down for wave 1 and we were off! It took less than 2 seconds to cross the timing mats and we were off without a hitch. My plan was to run 6:35 for mile 1 and then about 6:30 for a couple of miles, and I wanted to settle into 6:25-6:30 until the final miles, where hopefully I could pick it up some more. My A+ goal was sub 1:24 but that seemed to be a stretch based on this spring’s training block. But 1:24:30 to 1:25 seemed reasonable. An A- goal would be 1:25:40, which was right at 90% age grade. That’s my standard for 2026, 90%. So far this year it was 90.6% for 10K, 90% for 5K, and 89.4% for 4 mile but that was on a hot humid morning. I’ll take that!
I needed to hit about 6:32/mile for the 1:25:40 and that seemed very likely considering training and last year’s half time of 1:24:38 at a race in Minneapolis.
My heart felt like it was racing (it was fine according to my wrist watch) and I did not feel quite on in that first mile. I was not feeling awake and my breathing was rapid. But I hit 6:35 on my watch (about 6:40 at the split marker). From then on my watch would buzz about 5-10 seconds ahead of the markers, but was consistent so I’ll go by watch time.
Mile 2 was right where I wanted to be with a 6:28 and, I was in a good group but I was not feeling comfortable! The temperature at about 55 was fine, and I did not feel any wind.
At about 2.5 miles, still not feeling comfortable, I backed off the effort slightly and dropped back from that group. That was an executive decision to save the race. Although the pace was close to what I was aiming for, I did not want to be digging a hole and end up struggling over the final 5 miles and 5 km. I wanted those miles to be the strongest of the day. Had I kept pressing, I think I would have had a much rougher finish. I don’t know if that affected the final outcome, but at the time it was the wiser choice. I slowed to 6:35-6:43/mile. Miles 4-7 were 6:35, 6:39, 6:32, 6:44. At about 7.5 miles we turned slightly inland, the wind picked up and it became more directly in our face. It was not a bad wind, at about 5-7 miles per hour and it felt cooling, but it was enough to make you want to draft if you could.
At about 7 or 7.5 miles I engaged more into the race, shifting from pacing to racing. I ran behind a couple of women and some larger (6-foot plus) guys much for much of that stretch. And when I fell off a bit, which happened every half mile or so, I would re-focus and reel them back in! We had some hills too. Miles 8-10 went 6:37, 6:38, and 6:40. This was the slowest stretch of my race.
Once we were on the downward side of Lemon Drop hill (9-about 9.7 miles) I finally opened it up a bit and started running more aggressively and started passing more runners, which felt great. There were a couple of stretches where I had to back off a bit, but I was mostly keeping the pedal down. I went back and forth with a few runners as we passed others who had slowed. That felt great! The pace was not the 6:20-6:25 I had envisioned but still a solid 6:28-6:30.
The wind was strong in the mile or so through downtown, but there was not time for caution, we had to push through it. I knew we’d have a respite once we got to the harbor area with about a mile to go. I remember really struggling in that stretch in the 2021 marathon, but not in a half this year. It was all solid. A few runners passed by but I was passing just as many who were fading.
The last km of this course is mentally tough because you have to route around the museum ore ship, William A. Irvine. It’s maddening but I knew it was coming and just bore with it. For the final kick, the young woman in red, with whom I had run much of the way, had a huge kick and pulled away. Otherwise, I held my own and I finished reasonably fast in the final couple hundred meters . My final three miles were 6:32, 6:29, 6:29, and the final 200 m were at 6:13 pace.
I was tired, but not overwhelmed with fatigue at the the finish. It just did not seem like a day that I dug deep. I have done that in half marathons before, but this time it was a strong, steady, on the edge effort. Maybe if it had been a championship and places/points, and money were on the line I would have found another 45 or 60 seconds, but I don’t know. If I had pushed harder from miles 3-7 or 8 I might have folded and run worse over the final half or few miles.
I’m not complaining. It went about as well as it could have for me on this day. I won my age group by more than 2 minutes, scored an 89.1% age grade (top 15 overall for men including the pros up front, and top 3 for masters men), and set a new single-year age state record, according to the Raceberryjam website. It was a good day! Not great. But good nonetheless.
Post Hoc
Grandma’s Marathon and the Garry Bjorkland Half have a great reputation. Grandma’s in particular. I’d like to go back for that race, maybe after I turn 70 (which is coming up sooner than I would like!). However, I’ll say that the start line situation was an issue. Runners, particularly the competitive runners (top 20% for sure) need some space to warm up, as well have access to the porta-potties. According to friends who have done this event, this is the first time they funneled everyone into smaller corrals without access to adequate space for a warm up jog.
I can see keeping people out of landowners yards and lots of for businesses near the start–you don’t want people going to the bathroom on those properties! But there is a way to keep it open. Normally, you can warm up alongside the elites–why couldn’t we do that this year? I’ll be writing to race management, and will let them know that leaving no warm up area for a half marathon is not really acceptable for a runner.
Other Activities
It was our anniversary and Father’s Day weekend, so we celebrated by cheering our son at 22 miles, as well as watching the elite runners go by. He ran a 10 minute PB and qualified for Boston. We all went out for a fun dinner on Saturday evening and topped off the weekend with some sight seeing in Duluth.
Lead women at 22! Bashanke Bilo (2nd) and Dakotah Popehn (1st).
Our son cruising to a 10 minute personal best and a Boston qualifier.
Closing out a great day in Duluth!
rrunnin234 