Gearing Up for Grandma’s Marathon

I'm officially signed up for Grandma's 1/2 Marathon again this year.  Call me crazy, but I had so much FUN last year!  (I'm kind of being sarcastic, but mostly not.)

The one thing I plan on doing this year that I didn't last year (although I had great intentions to) is to TRAIN!

The Grandma's Marathon website has a great training schedule to follow.  You can choose your own skill level as well.  Novice (that's me!), Intermediate, or Advanced.  It maps out your training so you know how many miles per day you should be running to  get to that fantastic 1/2 marathon length.  If you're running the half and plan on training for it, Monday, March 5th is the first run!

There's also a great event going on next weekend to help you get all the info you need if you're running any of the Grandma's Marathon weekend races.

It's appropriately called "Gearing Up for Grandma's" and here's all the info you need from the press release:

If you are training for a race during June’s Grandma's Marathon weekend, then you won’t want to miss the annual Gearing Up for Grandma's pre-race seminar on Saturday, March 10. This free event from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Essentia Health’s First Street Building is a valuable training resource for both first-timers and veteran runners.

The seminar’s featured speaker is Andrew Carlson, who trains with Team USA Minnesota and placed sixth in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials last month in Houston. Racing in his first event at the marathon distance, he finished in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 24 seconds.

Carlson, 29, is a native of Fargo, North Dakota and ran collegiately at the University of Minnesota, where he was a two-time (2002 and 2004) Midwest Region Cross Country Champion and two-time cross-country All-American.

He has captured two national championships as a professional runner (15k – 44:12, 2008 and 25k – 1:14:42, 2010). His personal best in the half marathon is 1:02:21.

Other Gearing Up for Grandma’s presenters include:

Katie Koski – Local Elite Runner – 2:45:27, 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials

Ben Nelson, MD – Grandma’s Marathon Medical Director and Essentia Health Orthopaedic/Sports Medicine Physician

Jim and Mary Stukel – Owners of Tortoise and Hare Footwear

Following the individual presentations, a question and answer session will be held with all of the presenters. A prize drawing will conclude the event, which also includes Duluth News Tribune sports writer Kevin Pates serving as the emcee.