2024 Race Recap Grambassador: Rachel

How do I even begin to explain my favorite weekend of the year? 2024 was my 13th Grandma’s Marathon weekend and somehow, every year just gets a little bit sweeter. This year I ran the William A Irvin 5K and the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. This was my first time running the 5K since 2012 and my first time running the half marathon since 2019. Although I missed running the full marathon, these two races were absolutely amazing (and crossing into town at mile 5 rather than mile 18 wasn’t half bad either!!). I’m excited to share with you my favorite parts of the weekend and why 2024 was another amazing year.

 

My family has been participating in Grandma’s Marathon since the early 80s. I take a lot of pride in our traditions and often say that we know how to do Grandma’s right. Unfortunately, the rain this year derailed a couple of our traditions, such as our annual golf outing before leaving for Duluth on Friday morning. But many of our traditions remained the same, like caravaning north with our running crew, blasting “America the Beautiful” over our car speakers as we came down the hill towards Duluth, and making way too many stops along the way for the hydrating runners.

Once we made it to Duluth we checked into our apartments at UMD and got settled in before heading downtown. The expo was AWESOME, as always! And oh man, the spaghetti dinner was somehow even better than usual!

 

This year, we had seven runners in the William A Irvin 5K on Friday night, which was a new record for our running crew. Five of which were running the half or full marathon on Saturday as well. This was my first time doing the challenge at Grandma’s and it was totally worth it! The 5K course is SO beautiful and the crowd support was the best I have seen for a 5K!

 

After finishing our race and cheering on our other runners, we headed back up to UMD for our “night before the race” meeting and race predictions. It was an early night for all of us as we prepared mentally and physically for our races in the morning.

 

The alarms went off early on Saturday morning, especially for the half marathoners. We had three runners in the half marathon and eight runners in the full marathon. We all were a little nervous about the rain, but I think the records that were broken, both in the entire race and within our own group, shows that the rain didn’t slow many of us down. Before I get into my own race, I just need to brag about the runners in our group…

 

All eleven of our half and full marathoners crossed both the starting line and the finish line. This alone is an accomplishment, but the accolades don’t stop there. We had a half marathoner (my husband) who finished his fourth half marathon after once saying he would “NEVER be a runner”. We had a full marathoner who set a six minute PR and qualified for Boston with a 10 minute buffer, two more full marathon PR’s (one by 21 minutes the other by almost AN HOUR!), three brand new full marathoners, and my dad who ran his 24th Grandma’s Marathon.

 

My own race went about as expected, slow and steady. For those of you that don’t know, I graduated with my doctorate in May and passed boards four days before the race. Needless to say, running took the backburner for much of this training cycle. A lot of runs were cut short or rearranged to allow me plenty of study time and enough days to complete all of my clinical hours. Therefore, the race was far from perfect and I finished in the back of the pack. But as I always say, the distance is the same regardless of your finish time. 13.1 miles is 13.1 miles whether you finish first, last, or anywhere in the middle. I am proud to add another half marathon medal to my collection.

After cheering on all of our runners, we all headed over to the party at Bayfront Park before heading back to UMD for our traditional BBQ and post-race wrap up meeting. We had A LOT to celebrate this year!

 

On Sunday, we all wore our race t-shirts to church in the morning before heading to Canal Park Brewing for our traditional “end of the weekend” brunch. It’s always so fun to see the other runners hobbling around canal park the next morning and know that they also completed something amazing the day before.

 

Grandma’s 2024 was one for the record books, in many different aspects. I am so incredibly proud of all of the runners and the accomplishments they worked so hard to achieve. I am also so grateful to the people who came up to me at the expo, spaghetti dinner, and during the races to introduce themselves. It truly meant the world to me to hear your incredible stories and cheer you on! Thank you, Grandma’s Marathon, for allowing me to share my running story, my family traditions, and my love for Grandma’s again this year. It was an honor to share the course with all of you and I am already looking forward to celebrating my favorite weekend of the year once again in 2025.

Rachel Barger

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Favorite Grandma’s Marathon Memory: Just one?! How do I decide? I guess I will have to say, Grandma’s 2014. I had run the William A. Irvin 5K twice in high school, but Grandma’s Marathon 2014 was my first time on the Grandma’s course. After watching old VHS tapes of my dad and uncles running Grandma’s in the 80s and 90s and spectating Grandma’s for YEARS as my family ran, it was surreal being out there among all the runners. Making it even more special, this race was after my freshman year of college, was only 1.5 years after severely breaking my ankle and having multiple surgeries on it, and was my first ever marathon. It was absolutely incredible, and I guess you’d have to say the rest is history as I have now been back on Grandma’s course 9 times since then!

Quote that guides, inspires, or embodies your training, racing, or life: Whether you are first, last, or anywhere in the middle; if you cross both the starting line and the finish line, the distance is the same. That finish is something to celebrate and be proud of, no matter what.

A song that must be on your running playlist: “For Those About to Rock” AC/DC

Running superstition: Whatever race I run, I run on the far left side of the course the entire way (I started this at Grandma’s Marathon, so I could be closest to Lake Superior, and it stuck!)

Three words to describe your training, racing, or life: Persistent, resilient, joyful