Grandma’s Marathon celebrated its half-century in style on Saturday, 20 June, as a record field streamed down the Lake Superior shoreline from Two Harbors to Canal Park in Duluth, Minnesota. Eritrea’s Amanuel Mesel claimed the first marathon victory of his career in an unofficial 2:11:21, while American Dakotah Popehn won the women’s race in 2:28:51 to write her name into the history of one of the United States’ most beloved point-to-point road races.
The men’s race stayed tightly bunched through the early miles before Mesel pressed the pace with roughly ten miles to run, gradually opening a gap that no one could close on the long run-in along the lake. Elisha Barno, a familiar name at the front of American road races, chased him home in 2:12:40, with the podium completed shortly afterwards. For Mesel, who has spent years racing on the roads and the track, a first marathon win arriving on Grandma’s landmark anniversary made for a fitting milestone.
Popehn’s victory carried even greater historical weight. Her 2:28:51 brought her home 45 seconds clear of runner-up finisher Bilo, who clocked 2:29:36, and made the Hopkins, Minnesota athlete only the third woman ever to win Grandma’s Marathon three times. She joins New Zealand Olympic medallist Lorraine Moller, who won from 1979 to 1981, and American Mary Akor, victorious between 2007 and 2009, in an exclusive club. For a runner who has built her reputation on consistency at the marathon, a third Duluth title on home soil was a defining moment.
Behind the elites, the supporting Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon delivered its own drama and one of the largest fields in its history. Acer Iverson took the men’s race in 1:01:15, while Kasandra Parker led the women home in 1:10:16. Organisers reported a record number of marathon finishers and the third-largest half marathon turnout on record, a reflection of the pulling power the event still commands fifty years on.
The anniversary weekend was also a celebration of endurance in the most personal sense. Two Harbors native John Naslund completed the marathon for a 50th time, overcoming an injured knee and red-flag heat conditions to honour the race he has run every year since its founding. From a modest community event launched in 1977 to a fixture that now draws tens of thousands to north-eastern Minnesota each June, Grandma’s Marathon enters its second half-century with its character, and its grip on the running calendar, firmly intact.