Grandma's Marathon - Duluth, MN

http://www.grandmasmarathon.com

The Course:

• Beautifully scenic - Much of this course contains a wonderful view of Lake Superior and lush, abundant evergreen trees. The final miles are through Duluth proper, a quaint interesting town that offers the eye great variability to detract from the thought of pain.
• Friendly - It seems as though the entire town is along the course, cheering for the runners. The people of Duluth take great pride in their marathon and go all out for the event. They bring portable stereos, which blare with uplifting music like "Eye of the Tiger" and "Jump." They hand out lollypops and other sources of carbohydrates. Plus, they cheer so enthusiastically! I think the greatest aspect of this race was the large group of spectators.
• Perfect inclines - The course is predominantly flat, but just when you need an incline to provide relief to those aching muscles, a small hill comes along.
• Weather - The race was delayed due to thunderstorms. The temperature seemed chilly at the start (50s, in CoolMax shirts and shorts) and it drizzled throughout the event, but after a few miles this quickly grew from too cold to ideal marathon weather.

	After flying into Minneapolis, Evan and I, along with two of my medical school pals (Josh and Lysa) rented a car and drove the three hours to Duluth. Featured here, Josh and I flex our muscles in anticipation of the race, only two days away.
	Duluth at sunset is really a beautiful site.
	The following morning, we had breakfast downtown in Duluth. Evan and I pose next to the bakery's trademark, an artificial fellow who really embraces the spirit of the town during Grandma's Marathon weekend.
	Lysa and Josh had never been to Wisconsin, so we drove all of ten minutes to the border. Evan is taking the photo - and he is a native of Sheboygan, WI, so this is his home state. :-)
	Margaret, my running buddy whom I met on the Kiawah Marathon course, flew to Duluth to join us for the race. After picking her up, we enjoyed lunch at Grandma's Saloon, the race's sponsor for twenty-five years.
	4:30AM - We prepare to leave for the bus to the starting line. This is arguably one of the toughest parts of the marathon. ;-)
	The townspeople and race supporters situate themselves along the final miles of the course. This was a point-to-point course, so while it was a fun run, Evan was unable to take pictures until the finish.
	I am finishing the final two miles of the race - I am the long red ponytail behind the man in the red shorts.
	Marathoners completing the race. Check out all of the spectators still cheering an hour and a half after the winners have already crossed! What a great city!
	I finish Grandma's Marathon - in the pink shirt behind the black top. The sports commentator announced my name and city as I arrived, and I remember throwing my arms up in victory, screaming. He responded in a heavily Minnesota-accented voice: "We're proud of ya, Jodi."
	Lysa greets me after I have left the finish line chute. This was my first race experience where the spectators hand out flowers at the end. How nice!
	I am not looking my best, but Evan still loves me. :-) It is wonderful to be accompanied by caring, wonderful people.
	Margaret, Josh, and I huddle together for a picture. Don't we look like victors?! Cheesecake was the most frequent topic of discussion at this point.
	At mile 23, I felt my left knee give out. After the race, the pain grew worse. Lysa, the team "massage therapist" tries to loosen the muscles around the joint as Margaret and Evan watch.
	Because all hotel rooms in Duluth were booked months in advance, we ended up paying a small fortune for an even smaller room at the Willard Munger Inn. Yes, we all crammed into the same room.
	I was able to fulfill my F. Scott Fitzgerald obsession, thanks to my wonderfully understanding compadres. Fitzgerald was born in and grew up in St. Paul, so I put together a small tour of his early life. This plaque is the only evidence that I was standing in front of his birthplace.
	Fitzgerald's birthplace - it's a beautiful house, don't you think? The city of St. Paul has done a beautiful job of preserving its historic homes.
	I wanted to see the University Club, a place where Fitzgerald and his cronies used to have drinks. The woman at the front desk let me enter because I described to her in detail what the bar looked like before seeing it (thank you, Dr. Matthew Bruccoli, University of South Carolina).
	This is what the exterior of the University Club looks like.
	After our self-guided Fitzgerald tour, Evan, Lysa, Josh, and I drove to the Mall of America. In addition to retail stores and restaurants, the mall houses several museums and roller coasters! Evan and I are featured here at a turtle exhibit in the mall.

After completing the Kiawah Island Marathon, Dr. Peter Werner, a faculty member in the PE department at the University of South Carolina as well as the father of a friend, suggested Grandma's Marathon as my next big race. At that point, I thought he was kidding. I had run my one marathon, and I was finished. That is, until I started medical school in 2001, and a classmate started the "Jimmy Green Running Club." Approximately ten people met twice a week to run a loop around the Charleston Peninsula (5 miles) or the length of the James Island Connector and back (6.2 miles). A close medical school friend, Joshua Mou, was also a member of the group.

One day in January, as Josh and I sat listening to a physiology lecture, I pulled the Grandma's Marathon brochure out of my backpack and handed it to him. "It filled pretty quickly last year," I told him. "Do you want to run this with me in June? It's in Minnesota, and it's 26.2 miles. I'm mailing the forms after class, so you have one hour to decide." Much to my delight, Josh, being the good-natured fellow he is, answered, "Sure! Why not?"

We composed a sixteen week training schedule, similar to the one I followed for the Kiawah Island Marathon, but with slightly increased distances. Like the previous time, we only had to run four days a week - two short runs, an intermediate distance run, and a long run. While Charleston is a beautiful place to run, recall that it is very flat, and we had difficulty finding good hills for training. There were times we had to run the Charleston Peninsula twice and follow it up with a run across the James Island Connector.

Training for Grandma's Marathon was a much more pleasant experience. Perhaps the greatest aspect to it was that I had a committed friend with whom I could tackle those long runs. I recall finishing our final exam in histology lab, leaving the school, and going for a twenty mile run mid-day in May. Yikes! Yet the hours ticked by quickly because a good source of conversation was present.

Josh, Evan, and I flew to Minneapolis on June 20th. Lysa joined us from Arizona, and the four of us drove to Duluth. Josh and I experienced White Castle for the first time along the way. Ha! Anyway, as I mentioned with the pictures above, apparently calling for a hotel room four months in advance was not enough, because all of the hotels in Duluth proper were booked. Evan found the Willard Munger Inn, a place where we split a small fortune to stay there. I think it usually functions as a ski lodge. The rooms were tiny, but comfortable. Maybe they just seemed tiny, because once Margaret arrived, five of us shared this room. We look back on it with extremely fond memories, though!

The following day we collected Margaret from the airport and proceeded to walk around Duluth. I loved the way the people talked, and yet they constantly wanted to hear me speak! It was great. That night we ate at Grandma's Saloon, the restaurant that had sponsored the race throughout its 25 years.

The morning of the race, Josh, Margaret, and I were ready to catch the bus to the starting line at 4:30AM. Because it was a point-to-point course, the bus took a great deal of time going back and forth, but everyone arrived on time. It was chilly - I remember taking my sweatpants off and feeling like I would freeze in shorts. It was in the 40s and raining. Then, the start was delayed due to thunderstorms. After about 30 minutes, the gun was fired, and it took me nearly five minutes to cross the starting line. There were so many enthusiastic runners present. I looked at Josh and said, "Wow! Can you believe we are actually running a marathon in Northern Minnesota?!" It was a Surreal experience.

The three of us started together, but after three miles Josh ran ahead. Margaret and I ran together for another ten miles or so before we separated. I started experiencing some pain in my left knee (the right knee had already had ACL reconstruction surgery in 1997), but I was so energized by the increasing crowds. One lady was handing out lollypops, which I could hold in my mouth and feel myself relaxing. I heard lots of stereos booming Van Halen's "Jump" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." It's amazing how fired up this music can make a fatigued runner feel. And the people - there were thousands of people along the course, screaming for us. I have never felt so much support in a race of any distance. I have found that crowds disperse after the winners cross, but not these spectators. They were terrific!

Around mile 23, I felt my left knee finally give, but calmly picked myself up from the ground and continued. This injury, I later learned, would keep me in physical therapy for two months and off the running course for a year. The faster I ran, the better my knee felt, so I broke into a brisker pace. Evan approached me soon after that to tell me that he and Lysa would meet me at the finish line.

As I approached the finish line, the sports commentator announced, "And now coming in all the way from Charleston, South Carolina is Jodi Anderson!" I threw my arms in the arm and started screaming excitedly. The announcer replied in a cute Minnesota-accented voice: "We're proud of ya, Jodi."

I learned after finishing that Josh had finished about a minute ahead of me. His goal had been to beat the girls in the grass hula skirts. He was tired of being next to them because they received cheers secondary to their costumes. He met his goal.

Afterwards, Evan and Lysa greeted us, and later - showers greeted us. We then ate lunch, and followed our meal with Grandma's Saloon cheesecake.

Upon returning to Charleston, I felt compelled to thank the town for such a great race experience. I decided to send a letter-to-the-editor of The Duluth News Tribune, which was actually published on June 30, 2002:

To anyone who is considering a marathon, I highly recommend Grandma's Marathon. It will be an unforgettable experience!

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