DULUTH, Minn. — Acer Iverson and Kasandra Parker arrived at the 36th annual Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon as talented contenders in fields packed with proven champions, Olympians and established road-racing stars. By Saturday morning's end, both had transformed from overlooked challengers into first-time champions on one of
The race attracted 2,525 finishers, narrowly missing the event record of 2,548 participants set in 2025. The William A. Irvin 5K serves as one of the traditional kickoff events for the annual Grandma's Marathon weekend, drawing runners from across the region and beyond to Duluth's waterfront.
Garry Bjorklund and Dick Beardsley are not merely former champions. They helped transform a promising local race into a world-class event.
Howie's daily column is sponsored by Lyric Kitchen Bar. The story of Grandma's Marathon has always lived in pieces scattered across the Northland — in shoeboxes filled with fading race bibs, newspaper clippings tucked into basements, volunteer jackets hanging in closets and family photo albums showing exhausted
It’s that magical time of year when the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center kitchen revs up to serve hungry marathon runners at the annual Michelina's All-You-Can-Eat Spaghetti Dinner. The event, which began in an outdoor tent in 1977, now serves 8,000 in the Lake
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council's mission is to create a healthy art and cultural ecosystem by offering support and resources for artistic professional development and equitable access for arts organizations and individuals to benefit all communities.
"If someone has a heart attack, they don’t care who shows up – whether they’re a doctor, a paramedic, or a firefighter – if they know what they’re doing. With us strategically spread out with eight stations across the city, we can get to your house quickly." -- Eric Thompson
EVENTS Happy Pride! June 1 – DPD Sidewalk and Streets event 11:30-1 PM at Denfeld H.S. providing vouchers to replace headlights, taillights and turn signals. June 8 – Trans Joy Fest June 11 – Summer Day of Caring with Head of the Lakes United Way | Community-wide volunteer events. Project
All three brothers are now members of the Grandma’s Marathon 1,000-Miler Club, each having completed 39 or more races in Duluth, and it was while receiving that award that the magnitude of the race finally hit.
“I’m humbled by such a great honor. I’m always in awe when I hear stories of Marsh, and it’s amazing that he’s still such a pillar of the sports community in Duluth.” -- Clint Austin
With each travel party spending $1,239 in 2024 as compared to $778 in 2019, that shows a nearly 60% jump in consumer spending on Grandma’s Marathon race weekend.
Organizers wondered what an earlier start time and new racecourse might do to the interest level in the kickoff race to Grandma’s Marathon weekend, the William A. Irvin 5K. They now have their answer. The race has officially sold out, with more than 2,500 people registering in less
2025 race reaches sellout in under 18 hours.
Including each of the weekend’s three races – Grandma’s Marathon, the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, and the William A. Irvin 5K – the 2024 race weekend was the largest in the organization’s history, with 17,401 total finishers across the three events.
Elisha Barno wins sixth Grandma's Marathon; Volha Mazuronak earns women's title, by Kevin Pates (StarTribune.com, paywall) Half marathon records fall in Duluth under good early running conditions, by Kevin Pates (StarTribune.com, paywall) Stevenson, Files set new William A. Irvin course records, by Zach Schneider
By Zach Schneider Noah Stevenson, Khia Kurtenbach and Caleb-Michael Files all made quite an impression in their first-ever William A. Irvin 5K, with each winning their debut to kick off the 2024 Grandma’s Marathon weekend. Stevenson, who had been to Duluth before but never participated in a
