Jun. 19—Shane Bauer, the executive director of Grandma’s Marathon, was down at Bayfront Festival Park on Thursday helping get things ready for race weekend when he saw something that prompted him to pull out his smartphone and snap a picture.
“I took a photo of the Bernie’s Biffys down at Bayfront all lined up,” Bauer said. “Just to see them all lined up, what a welcome sight. Normally something that isn’t the most pleasing thing to see. It’s just so cool to see that at Bayfront after a two-year absence.”
Bayfront Festival Park didn’t receive much use a summer ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but on Friday evening it — and the Biffys — were back in action for the first time since the summer of 2019 as Grandma’s Marathon weekend kicked off with the William A. Irvin 5K.
This year’s race, first run in 1994, began at Bayfront with an enthusiastic “GO!” from Grandma’s Marathon race director Greg Haapala and ended at Bayfront to the tunes of Boxcar. In between, the 3.1-mile course worked its way around Canal Park, passing the retired William A. Irvin ore boat (now a maritime museum) it is named after.
The 28th running of the Irvin 5K used a rolling start and was a chip-timed event to allow more distancing on the course. Mason Shea and Kristina King were the first two runners to cross the finish line Friday — no tape awaited them, as everyone needed to finish before a winner could be declared — and both of their times held up.
Shea, 19, of River Falls, Wisconsin, ran the Irvin in 16 minutes, 26 seconds, while King, 29, of Chicago, crossed in 17:16 — 15 seconds shy of Katie McGee’s 1994 event record and the fourth fastest all-time.
“That feel of adrenaline, I haven’t had that in a while,” said King, who last ran in the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. A hip injury has her only running the Irvin this weekend in Duluth. “That’s why you compete — the drive and adrenaline that comes with it, and that feeling of accomplishment after. It’s been a while.”
Shea just completed his freshman year at Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he also ran on the track and field team, specializing in the steeplechase. He’s run a number of competitive races already this year, but they were all in empty stadiums and masked. He said it was nice to have people cheering him on along the course Friday.
“The crowd was awesome,” said Shea, who is also running the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon on Saturday. “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that too. It’s a beautiful event. I’m just happy to be out here.”
Friday’s Irvin 5K featured 1,052 finishers. Saturday’s Bjorklund Half Marathon and Grandma’s Marathon are slated to feature over 4,000 entrants each. That’s half of what would normally be running along Lake Superior’s North Shore between Duluth and Two Harbors — a safety measure because of COVID-19.
With the 2021 Boston Marathon postponed from April to October and every other major marathon in the United States scheduled for the fall, it’s believed this weekend’s Grandma’s Marathon is the largest running event in the U.S. since the pandemic shut down the world in March 2020.
Olympian and Dawson, Minnesota native Carrie Tollefson, going for her fourth-straight win in the Irvin 5K and sixth overall, said the return of Grandma’s Marathon this weekend is huge for runners.
“The running community is so tight, especially here in Minnesota. It’s been really fun seeing faces,” Tollefson said after finishing second to King in 18:24. “It just warms people’s hearts. This was a hard year, but we’re all getting through it.”
Bauer said it has been an emotional week for him and everyone at Grandma’s Marathon after last year’s event was completely virtual. He said the reality of the weekend happening began Wednesday when the tents went up at Bayfront.
“Talking to the runners has been emotional, talking to the vendors at the expo, they’re all just as excited to be doing a show again,” Bauer said. “I don’t know how it’s going to go, nobody does. But they’re just so excited again to be loading into an expo and having runners come by their booth space.”
The festivities will shift from Bayfront to Canal Park on Saturday morning for the finish of the Bjorklund Half Marathon and Grandma’s Marathon, and then return to Bayfront again for the rest of the day.
Bayfront will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday with local bands Rock-a-Billy Revue, Boxcar, Big Wave Dave and the Ripples, and Whiskey Trail scheduled to play sets from 9 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.
“Bayfront is something to really look forward to this year,” Bauer said. “It’s free, it’s highlighting some local talent and $5 cold beer. What’s not to look forward to there?”
