Grandma’s winners are from Kenya and Russia
DULUTH — Benjamin Matolo of Kenya passed countryman Joseph Kahugu with two miles to go Saturday, and ran off to a 34-second victory in the 25th Grandma’s Marathon, in which Kenyans finished 1-2-3 and placed six runners in the top 10.
On a sunny, windy morning, winning seemed like an easy task for Matolo. Too easy, according to Matolo. “These people were not running, they were just jogging,” said the witty Matolo, never letting his accent affect his rapid-fire English. “Everyone wanted to go slow, and of course I could have done better if everybody had run faster.”
Matolo expressed disappointment in his winning time of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds. “I was shooting for 2:07,” he said, although he also acknowledged that his personal best ever was 2:11. A 2:07 would have broken the event record, which runners have been dreaming of for 20 years, ever since Dick Beardsley stopped the clocks in 2:09:37 to win the 1981 Grandma’s Marathon. Matolo missed the record by five minutes, while, coincidentally, Beardsley made a ceremonial return at age 45, and did better than his original goal of coming within an hour of his record time, by clocking 2:55:39, placing 88th.
While runners from Kenya dominated the men’s and overall competition, the women’s segment was equally dominated by Russians, as Lyubov Denisova, from the city of Perm, in Russia’s Ural Mountains, clocked a 2:35:13 and broke away to beat fellow-Russian Linaida Semenova by 46 seconds.
Entries were cut off at 9,000 for the popular event, but after no-shows and scratches, and some who didn’t make the distance, the total number of finishers was 6,699, including 4,271 men and 2,428 women. Adding in the 3,788 runners in the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon, including Bjorklund himself, and 16 more in the wheelchair marathon, a total of 10,503 folks were running around on the North Shore during the bright and mid-60-degree morning, which was followed by a brief but heavy mid-afternoon downpour.
Running is a comparatively natural pastime for a lot of young men in Kenya, which paid off for the pace-setters along the stretch of Highway 61 from Two Harbors to Duluth. After Matolo, fellow-Kenyans Joseph Kahugu was second, in 2:14:59; and Penvel Osoro third, at 2:15:32. Patrick Kaotsane of South Africa was fourth, at 2:16:03, followed by Russians Yuriy Chizhov and Pavel Andreyev, and then Kenyans James Kuria and Elly Rono. Andrew Musuva of Russia was ninth and Kenyan Gideon Mutisya, who was second last year, was 10th.
The top American finisher was 15th-place Christopher Lundstrom of San Francisco, and top Minnesota runner was Pete Miller of St. Louis Park, who was 19th. Tom Heinitz of Duluth was the top Up North finisher, at 33rd.
The top two Russian women were followed by Wioletta Kryza of Poland in third, almost a minute and a half behind Denisova. Gillian Horovitz of New York was the top American woman at 11th, and Eve Rukavina of Minneapolis the top Minnesotan, at 12th.
The top three men’s finishers all said they grew up running in Kenya. Matolo, from Kenya’s capitol city of Nairobi, crossed the finish line and immediately bowed his diminutive 5-foot-4 frame. “I was praying to my god, because I win the race,” he said.
Asked why Kenyans are such strong runners, Matolo cracked: “Because they eat meat. Good food.”
He also said he had no coach, and that he trained in the Mgong Hills in Kenya. “I started running when I was in school,” he said. “I am from the Mukueni District, but I train in the Mgong Hills. Very steep hills. I usually run 20-30 kilometers at a time, and about 350 kilometers a week.”
Runner-up Kahugo said he grew up in Kiambu, which is 10 miles from Nairobi. “A lot of people ran when I was a boy,” he said. “I lived 6 miles from school, so I used to run 6 miles every morning to school, and 6 miles home each afternoon, from the time I was 8 years old, until I finished high school at age 18. Now we have school buses everywhere.”
Does that mean the future of running in Kenya might be diminishing? “No,” Kahugo said. “I have some kids I’m training. They see that I have a car, a Toyota Corolla I got from the Dublin Marathon in 1996, and I’ve got my own house in Nairobi now, which I was able to get from running. So I can be an inspiration to kids because they see that they can benefit from running.
“I got married last year, and my wife, Irene, just had a baby three weeks ago. His name is Michael. I came to Chicago last week, and I go back home Monday. I am anxious to go back, because I know our baby will be completely changed since I’ve seen him.”
Osoro, the third-place runner, stayed among the leaders from the clogged-up start, then as the still-congested lead pack drew away, and down to a four-Kenyan group, and he was still there making a three-man lead group at the 20-mile mark, before falling back. He had a different training incentive. “I ran with my brother, Ondoro, from the time I was young,” said Osoro, who was born in Kissii, and now stays in Nakuru Town, and trains in Niahururu.
“My brother won the Chicago Marathon in 1998 with a 2:06, and he was fourth last year in the Boston Marathon at 2:07:58. My brother is 35, and I’m 29. Now I am copying his running style. He coaches me, and we run together 25 kilometers every day,” added Osoro, who is in the Kenya Air Force.
As for the race, all three also had hoped for better times. “I’m tired; very, very tired,” said Matolo, although he had to keep repeating that because his demeanor suggested otherwise. “I’ve never seen the course before, but the course was good — wonderful. Of course I waved to the people along the way. Why not? They are my friends.
“At the halfway point, I felt comfortable, and that’s when I thought I’d win easily. But the guy in front of me [Kahugu] was good — very good. But in the last four miles, I was still strong, and I knew I’d win.”
Kahugo said it was a tough race, “because the field was very good.” But he, too, wanted someone to force a faster pace.
“Nobody would move,” Kahugo said. “I was here to try to break the course record. At about 18 miles, I broke in front. When Matolo passed me, after about 24 or 25 miles, I saw the time, and I knew we couldn’t break the course record. I didn’t slow down, but his pace was very good.”
Osoro said he’s known Matolo for a few years but this was the first time he had run against him in a marathon. “We had a very close group for over half the race,” he said. “But nobody went fast at the start.”
Women’s winner Denisova said sports, and running, helped her cope with a difficult life in her Ural Mountain home. Her parents were divorced when she was a baby, and when she was 13, her mother went off to a birthday party and never was heard from again. Her body was found in a river, six months later. From that time, Lyubov took care of her younger brother, brought him with her to school, continuing through the time she lived in a dormitory at a vocational college. After graduating from high school and the vocational college, she also graduated from a university and became a high school trainer.
She was married three years ago and ran her first marathon before giving birth to a baby girl, Anastasiya, just over a year ago. In her first marathon since becoming a mom, she finished fourth, in Hong Kong in February, with a time of 2:38. Grandma’s was the follow-up, and she said her winning 2:35:13 proves that having a baby is a good recipe for running.
Denisova was in a three-woman group with Semenova and Kryza through the first half of the marathon, but Denisova broke free at about the 19-mile mark and drew steadily away. One of the reasons for her speed to the end, she said, was that she thought other challengers were right behind her, even though they had fallen more than 30 seconds back.
“I pushed ahead at the 20th mile,” she said, through an interpreter. “But always I was in fear that somebody might pass me. I never looked to see how far ahead I was.”
MARATHON NOTES: Minnesota-Wisconsin runners didn’t challenge for the marathon, but did much better in the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon. Ryan Meissen of Hudson, who just graduated from UW-Whitewater, won the 13.1-mile event at 1:06:10, while Kelly Keeler of Bloomington won the women’s portion at 1:15:48. Duluthian Patrick Russell was 11th in the men’s, while Desiree Budd of Duluth was fourth among women. Bjorklund, from Twig, who is now a 50-year-old financial adviser living in Fort Collins, Colo., ran leisurely with his wife, Rhonda McGrane, jogging in at a sociable 2:20:30 as the 3,026th finisher among 3,788 in the 13.1-mile event. … Keeler not only still felt good after her victory, she felt good enough to jog back a couple of miles back to Lemon Drop Hill, to cheer on a couple of cousins running in the full marathon. … Two-time defending champion Saul Mendoza of Warm Springs, Ga., again won the wheelchair marathon with a 1:46:59, which was good enough to win by 16 seconds, but more than 15 seconds off the pace he set in winning two years ago, which was the second-best all-time. … Sen. Paul Wellstone, an avid workout enthusiast who has previously run in Grandma’s, and Duluth Mayor Gary Doty held the ends of the finish-line ribbon for the winners.
Kenyan men, Russian women dominate 25th Grandma’s Marathon
Benjamin Matolo passed Kenya countryman Joseph Kahugu with two miles to go Saturday, and ran away to victory in the 25th Grandma’s Marathon. On a sunny, windy morning, it seemed like an easy task for Matolo.
How easy? Too easy, according to Matolo. “These people were not running, they were just jogging,” said the witty Matolo, never letting his accent affect his rapid-fire English. “Everyone wanted to go slow, and of course I could have done better if everybody had run faster.”
Matolo was disappointed in his winning time of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds. “I was shooting for 2:07,” he said, although he also acknowledged that his personal best ever was 2:11. A 2:07 would have been a course record, which runners have been dreaming of for 20 years, ever since Dick Beardsley stopped the clocks in 2:09:37 to win the 1981 Grandma’s Marathon.
Instead, Matolo missed the record by five minutes. Beardsley, in fact, made a ceremonial return at age 45, originally hoping to run within an hour of his record time, and breezing to a strong 2:55:39, placing 88th.
While runners from Kenya dominated the men’s and overall competition, the women’s segment was dominated by Russians, as Lyubov Denisova, from the city of Perm, in Russia’s Ural Mountains, clocked a 2:35:13 and broke away to beat fellow-Russian Linaida Semenova by 46 seconds.
Running is a comparatively natural pastime in Kenya, and it paid off in the men’s field as Kenyans sped to a 1-2-3 sweep across the stretch of Highway 61 from Two Harbors to Duluth. Their countrymen also placed 7, 8 and 10 to claim six of the top 10 spots. After Matolo, Joseph Kahugu was second, in 2:14:59, and Penvel Osoro third, at 2:15:32. Nobody else came in under 2:16, with Patrick Kaotsane of South Africa fourth, at 2:16:03, followed by Russians Yuriy Chizhov and Pavel Andreyev, and then Kenyans James Kuria and Elly Rono. Andrew Musuva of Russia was ninth and Kenyan Gideon Mutisya, who was second last year, was 10th.
The top American finisher was 15th-place Christopher Lundstrom of San Francisco, and top Minnesota runner was Pete Miller of St. Louis Park, who was 19th. Tom Heinitz of Duluth was the top Up North finisher, at 33rd.
The top two Russian women were followed by Wioletta Kryza of Poland in third, almost a minute and a half behind Denisova. Gillian Horovitz of New York was the top American woman at 11th, and Eve Rukavina of Minneapolis the top Minnesotan, at 12th.
The top three men’s finishers all said they benefited by varied upbringing in Kenya.
Matolo, a diminutive 5-foot-4 from Nairobi, crossed the finish line, and immediately knelt down. “I was praying to my god, because I win the race,” he said.
Asked why Kenyans were such strong runners, Matolo said: “Because they eat meat. Good food.”
He also said he had no coach, but trained in the Mgong Hills in Kenya. “I started running when I was in school,” he said. “I am from the Mukueni District, but I train in the Mgong Hills. Very steep hills. I usually run 20-30 kilometers at a time, and about 350 kilometers a week.”
Runner-up Kahugo said he grew up in Kiambu, which is 10 miles from Nairobi. “A lot of people ran when I was a boy,” he said. “I used to run 6 miles every morning to school, and 6 miles home each afternoon, from the time I was 8 years old, until I finished high school at age 18. Now we have school buses everywhere.”
Does that mean the future of running in Kenya might be diminishing? “No,” Kahugo said. “I have some kids I’m training. They see that I have a car, a Toyota Corolla I got from the Dublin Marathon in 1996, and I’ve got my own house in Nairobi now, which I was able to get from running. So I can be an inspiration to kids because they see that they can benefit from running.
“I got married last year, and my wife, Irene, just had a baby 3 weeks ago. His name is Michael. I came to Chicago last week, and I go back home Monday. I am anxious to go back, because I know our baby will be completely changed since I’ve seen him.”
Osoro, who was running with the leaders when there was still a three-man group at the 20-mile mark, had a different training incentive. “I ran with my brother, Ondoro, from the time I was young,” said Osoro, who was born in Kissii, and now stays in Nakuru Town, and trains in Niahururu. “My brother won the Chicago Marathon in 1998 with a 2:06, and he was fourth last year in the Boston Marathon at 2:07:58.
“My brother is 35, and I’m 29. Now I am copying his running style. He coaches me, and we run together 25 kilometers every day,” added Osoro, who is in the Kenya Air Force.
As for the race, all three also had hoped for better times. “I’m tired; very, very tired,” said Matolo, although his demeanor suggested otherwise. “I’ve never seen the course, but the course was good — wonderful. Of course I waved to the people along the way. Why not? They are my friends.
“At the halfway point, I felt comfortable, and that’s when I thought I’d win easily. But the guy in front of me [Kahugu] was good — very good. But in the last four miles, I was still strong, and I knew I’d win.”
Kahugo said it was a tough race, “because the field was very good.” But he, too, wanted someone to force a faster pace.
“Nobody would move,” Kahugo said. “I was here to try to break the course record. At about 18 miles, I broke in front. But When Matolo passed me, after about 24 or 25 miles, I saw the time, and I knew we couldn’t break the course record. I didn’t slow down, but his pace was very good.”
Osoro said he’s known Matolo for a few years but never before ran against him in a marathon. “We had a very close group of four for over half the race,” he said. But when Matolo and Kahugu took off, he was unable to keep up with their pace.
Women’s winner Denisova said that sports, and running, helped her cope with a difficult life in her Ural Mountain home. Her parents were divorced when she was a baby, and when she was 13, her mother went off to a birthday party and never was heard from again. Her body was found in a river, six months later. From that time, when she was 13, Lyubov took care of her younger brother, and brought him with her to school, and when she lived in a dormitory at a vocational college. After graduating from high school and the vocational college, she also graduated from a university and became a high school trainer.
She was married three years ago and ran her first marathon before giving birth to a baby girl, Anastasiya, just over a year ago. She finished fourth in her second marathon, in Hong Kong in February, with a time of 2:38. Grandma’s was the follow-up, and she said her winning 2:35:13 proves that having a baby is a good recipe for running.
Strangely, Denisova was in a three-woman group with Semenova and Kryza through the first half of the marathon, but Denisova broke free at about the 19-mile mark and drew steadily away. But she was unaware that her lead built to 46 seconds.
“I pushed ahead at the 20th mile,” she said, through an interpretor. “But always I was in fear that somebody might pass me. I never looked to see how far ahead I was.”
Minnesota-Wisconsin runners didn’t challenge for the marathon, but did much better in the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon. Ryan Meissen of Hudson, Wis., who just graduated from UW-Whitewater, won the 13.1-mile event at 1:06:10, while Kelly Keeler of Bloomington won the women’s portion at 1:15:48. Duluthian Patrick Russell was 11th in the men’s, while Desiree Budd of Duluth was fourth among women.
Two-time defending champion Saul Mendoza of Warm Springs, Ga., again won the wheelchair marathon with a 1:46:59, which was good enough to win by 16 seconds, but more than 15 seconds off the pace he set in winning two years ago, which was the second-best all-time.
Kenyan men, Russian women dominate 25th Grandma’s Marathon
Benjamin Matolo passed Kenya countryman Joseph Kahugu with two miles to go Saturday, and ran away to victory in the 25th Grandma’s Marathon. On a sunny, windy morning, it seemed like an easy task for Matolo.
How easy? Too easy, according to Matolo. “These people were not running, they were just jogging,” said the witty Matolo, never letting his accent affect his rapid-fire English. “Everyone wanted to go slow, and of course I could have done better if everybody had run faster.”
Matolo was disappointed in his winning time of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds. “I was shooting for 2:07,” he said, although he also acknowledged that his personal best ever was 2:11. A 2:07 would have been a course record, which runners have been dreaming of for 20 years, ever since Dick Beardsley stopped the clocks in 2:09:37 to win the 1981 Grandma’s Marathon.
Instead, Matolo missed the record by five minutes. Beardsley, in fact, made a ceremonial return at age 45, originally hoping to run within an hour of his record time, and breezing to a strong 2:55:39, placing 88th.
While runners from Kenya dominated the men’s and overall competition, the women’s segment was dominated by Russians, as Lyubov Denisova, from the city of Perm, in Russia’s Ural Mountains, clocked a 2:35:13 and broke away to beat fellow-Russian Linaida Semenova by 46 seconds.
Running is a comparatively natural pastime in Kenya, and it paid off in the men’s field as Kenyans sped to a 1-2-3 sweep across the stretch of Highway 61 from Two Harbors to Duluth. Their countrymen also placed 7, 8 and 10 to claim six of the top 10 spots. After Matolo, Joseph Kahugu was second, in 2:14:59, and Penvel Osoro third, at 2:15:32. Nobody else came in under 2:16, with Patrick Kaotsane of South Africa fourth, at 2:16:03, followed by Russians Yuriy Chizhov and Pavel Andreyev, and then Kenyans James Kuria and Elly Rono. Andrew Musuva of Russia was ninth and Kenyan Gideon Mutisya, who was second last year, was 10th.
The top American finisher was 15th-place Christopher Lundstrom of San Francisco, and top Minnesota runner was Pete Miller of St. Louis Park, who was 19th. Tom Heinitz of Duluth was the top Up North finisher, at 33rd.
The top two Russian women were followed by Wioletta Kryza of Poland in third, almost a minute and a half behind Denisova. Gillian Horovitz of New York was the top American woman at 11th, and Eve Rukavina of Minneapolis the top Minnesotan, at 12th.
The top three men’s finishers all said they benefited by varied upbringing in Kenya.
Matolo, a diminutive 5-foot-4 from Nairobi, crossed the finish line, and immediately knelt down. “I was praying to my god, because I win the race,” he said.
Asked why Kenyans were such strong runners, Matolo said: “Because they eat meat. Good food.”
He also said he had no coach, but trained in the Mgong Hills in Kenya. “I started running when I was in school,” he said. “I am from the Mukueni District, but I train in the Mgong Hills. Very steep hills. I usually run 20-30 kilometers at a time, and about 350 kilometers a week.”
Runner-up Kahugo said he grew up in Kiambu, which is 10 miles from Nairobi. “A lot of people ran when I was a boy,” he said. “I used to run 6 miles every morning to school, and 6 miles home each afternoon, from the time I was 8 years old, until I finished high school at age 18. Now we have school buses everywhere.”
Does that mean the future of running in Kenya might be diminishing? “No,” Kahugo said. “I have some kids I’m training. They see that I have a car, a Toyota Corolla I got from the Dublin Marathon in 1996, and I’ve got my own house in Nairobi now, which I was able to get from running. So I can be an inspiration to kids because they see that they can benefit from running.
“I got married last year, and my wife, Irene, just had a baby 3 weeks ago. His name is Michael. I came to Chicago last week, and I go back home Monday. I am anxious to go back, because I know our baby will be completely changed since I’ve seen him.”
Osoro, who was running with the leaders when there was still a three-man group at the 20-mile mark, had a different training incentive. “I ran with my brother, Ondoro, from the time I was young,” said Osoro, who was born in Kissii, and now stays in Nakuru Town, and trains in Niahururu. “My brother won the Chicago Marathon in 1998 with a 2:06, and he was fourth last year in the Boston Marathon at 2:07:58.
“My brother is 35, and I’m 29. Now I am copying his running style. He coaches me, and we run together 25 kilometers every day,” added Osoro, who is in the Kenya Air Force.
As for the race, all three also had hoped for better times. “I’m tired; very, very tired,” said Matolo, although his demeanor suggested otherwise. “I’ve never seen the course, but the course was good — wonderful. Of course I waved to the people along the way. Why not? They are my friends.
“At the halfway point, I felt comfortable, and that’s when I thought I’d win easily. But the guy in front of me [Kahugu] was good — very good. But in the last four miles, I was still strong, and I knew I’d win.”
Kahugo said it was a tough race, “because the field was very good.” But he, too, wanted someone to force a faster pace.
“Nobody would move,” Kahugo said. “I was here to try to break the course record. At about 18 miles, I broke in front. But When Matolo passed me, after about 24 or 25 miles, I saw the time, and I knew we couldn’t break the course record. I didn’t slow down, but his pace was very good.”
Osoro said he’s known Matolo for a few years but never before ran against him in a marathon. “We had a very close group of four for over half the race,” he said. But when Matolo and Kahugu took off, he was unable to keep up with their pace.
Women’s winner Denisova said that sports, and running, helped her cope with a difficult life in her Ural Mountain home. Her parents were divorced when she was a baby, and when she was 13, her mother went off to a birthday party and never was heard from again. Her body was found in a river, six months later. From that time, when she was 13, Lyubov took care of her younger brother, and brought him with her to school, and when she lived in a dormitory at a vocational college. After graduating from high school and the vocational college, she also graduated from a university and became a high school trainer.
She was married three years ago and ran her first marathon before giving birth to a baby girl, Anastasiya, just over a year ago. She finished fourth in her second marathon, in Hong Kong in February, with a time of 2:38. Grandma’s was the follow-up, and she said her winning 2:35:13 proves that having a baby is a good recipe for running.
Strangely, Denisova was in a three-woman group with Semenova and Kryza through the first half of the marathon, but Denisova broke free at about the 19-mile mark and drew steadily away. But she was unaware that her lead built to 46 seconds.
“I pushed ahead at the 20th mile,” she said, through an interpretor. “But always I was in fear that somebody might pass me. I never looked to see how far ahead I was.”
Minnesota-Wisconsin runners didn’t challenge for the marathon, but did much better in the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon. Ryan Meissen of Hudson, Wis., who just graduated from UW-Whitewater, won the 13.1-mile event at 1:06:10, while Kelly Keeler of Bloomington won the women’s portion at 1:15:48. Duluthian Patrick Russell was 11th in the men’s, while Desiree Budd of Duluth was fourth among women.
Two-time defending champion Saul Mendoza of Warm Springs, Ga., again won the wheelchair marathon with a 1:46:59, which was good enough to win by 16 seconds, but more than 15 seconds off the pace he set in winning two years ago, which was the second-best all-time.
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Beardsley returns to run Grandma’s, reflect on 1981 record
Dick Beardsley said he enjoys coming back to Grandma’s Marathon, and he has returned every year but one since 1981, when he set the event’s record, of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 37 seconds. He has come back in recent years as a celebrity, as a color commentator, and this year he returned as a marathon runner.
He ran the distance in 2:55:39, which placed him 88th overall. Not bad, for a 45-year-old. While his life has been full of all sorts of incredible situations, ranging from several life-threatening incidents and injuries, to a well-documented chemical dependency problem that he conquered along the way, one thing has remained constant: Nobody has ever threatened to beat Beardsley’s record time in Grandma’s Marathon.
“I’m amazed it still stands,” he said. “But it will be broken.”
Maybe. But with each succeeding year, it seems less likely. More and more runners are competing almost as a recreation rather than as a serious competition, and while the number of entries increases by the year — with over 9,100 starting the full marathon on Saturday — the record stands out there, all alone. Benjamin Matolo won Saturday. His personal best is a 2:11, and he claimed he was focused on running a 2:07, but instead, he ran a 2:14:25, almost two full minutes shy of denting the list of top 10 finishing times.
“Those times, like my 2:09 and Garry Bjorklund’s 2:10, are good times today,” Beardsley said. “I can’t remember exactly, but I’m sure I was hurting a little back then in 1981. Today, the engine felt good, the legs felt good. But when I got to the last two miles, it seemed like I was taking a long time to get to the finish line.”
In 1980, Bjorklund ran a 2:10:20 to win Grandma’s, which stands as the second-best time. Bjorklund was training for the Moscow Olympics at that time, and he was in fine tune. If you don’t recall the Moscow Olympics, it’s for good reason. President Jimmy Carter chose to play a trump card in the cold war that summer, and boycotted the Moscow Olympics, so all the athletes who had spent so much of themselves getting ready to represent the U.S., were left out.
But in 1981, Bjorklund, who was from Twig, and ran for Proctor High School before starring at the University of Minnesota and on the world stage, ran against Beardsley. The two staged the greatest duel in Grandma’s history, running far ahead of the field, and pushing each other to an incredible pace. That pace let Beardsley set a record that may never be broken, while Bjorklund’s second-place 2:11:31 stands as fourth-best in the event’s history.
Bjorklund, also, came back for the 25th anniversary of the event, because he also won the first one. He lives in Colorado now, and he ran the aptly named Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon with his wife. They finished back in the pack somewhere, but the return of Bjorklund and Beardsley rekindled memories of their legendary 1981 race.
“I didn’t know how fast B.J. was going to go,” recalled Beardsley, who now lives in Detroit Lakes. “We went out fast, running sub-5-minute miles from the get-go. Two miles into the race, I looked back but you couldn’t see anything because of the fog. B.J. said, ‘It’s just you and me, and I’ll run with you as far as I can.’
“B.J. came to our school, and we had a chance to run with him. He and his good friend, Mike Slack, would take off and be gone. So it was really neat for me to get to the point when I could actually run with him.”
Beardsley also recalled how swift the pace was going in 1981, and that he had no real idea of how fast they were going.
“They had set out coffee cans with mile markers, but as the race went on, the signs wilted so you couldn’t read ’em,” Beardsley said. “And my watch had broken.”
Then he chuckled, and added, “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know; I might not have run that fast.”
Bjorklund and Beardsley pushed each other to the record pace, and that is what might be missing today, Beardley suggests, as the top runners claim that they are all holding back, waiting for someone else to set a fast pace, which they can follow to set up their own strong finish.
“The great thing about a marathon is that there are such variables that can affect it,” he said. “What has to happen, for someone to break the record, is you’ve got to go from the get-go.”
To run a 2:09:37 for exactly 26.2 miles means a runner must average just UNDER 5-minute miles, for every mile. So if waiting causes a runner to run a few miles over the 5-minute pace, the record becomes hopelessly out of reach.
And that’s probably OK, because it brings Beardsley back, year after year.
“I love coming back here,” Beardsley said. “I ran it in ’81, ’82 and in 1987 I ran a 2:22 in a comeback, trying to make the Olympic team. The only year I missed was 1989 or ’90, when I had made a commitment to be the M.C. at a walleye tournament in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, and I couldn’t get out of it.
“The great thing about this is that this is what’s going on in Duluth, and the whole community comes out and embraces it. It’s big-time, but it’s still got a charm you couldn’t get in a bigger city.”
The lure of the 25th anniversary lured Beardsley back to actually compete. “About the only marathon I’ve run is a thing they had for past winners in London in April,” said Beardsley. “I was going to do 22 miles, just to help me get ready for Grandma’s. My initial goal for Grandma’s was to run a 3:09 — one hour off the record time. But when we got to where my hotel was, I thought, what the heck, I’d go the rest of the way. I ended up doing a 3:09 then, so I got the time I had hoped to train for here.
“Now? I guess I’ll take a couple of days off, then go back to running four or five miles a day with my dog.”
One of the treats for Beardsley was not only to finish the marathon in under his targeted 3:09 — by 6 minutes, yet — but to renew acquaintences with Bjorklund.
“I didn’t know B.J. very well before the race, and I haven’t talked to him in years,” said Beardsley. “In ’81, he owned a bunch of running shoe stores, and I worked in one of them.”
And, sportsman that he is, Bjorklund didn’t fire his upstart employee, just because the employee beat the store-owner and set the all-time record at Grandma’s Marathon. Twenty-five years later, Grandma’s is still “home turf” for both Beardsley and Bjorklund, and an appreciative crowd cheered appreciatively, to welcome them home.
Kenyan men, Russian women dominate 25th Grandma’s Marathon
Benjamin Matolo passed Kenya countryman Joseph Kahugu with two miles to go Saturday, and ran away to victory in the 25th Grandma’s Marathon. On a sunny, windy morning, it seemed like an easy task for Matolo.
How easy? Too easy, according to Matolo. “These people were not running, they were just jogging,” said the witty Matolo, never letting his accent affect his rapid-fire English. “Everyone wanted to go slow, and of course I could have done better if everybody had run faster.”
Matolo was disappointed in his winning time of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds. “I was shooting for 2:07,” he said, although he also acknowledged that his personal best ever was 2:11. A 2:07 would have been a course record, which runners have been dreaming of for 20 years, ever since Dick Beardsley stopped the clocks in 2:09:37 to win the 1981 Grandma’s Marathon.
Instead, Matolo missed the record by five minutes. Beardsley, in fact, made a ceremonial return at age 45, originally hoping to run within an hour of his record time, and breezing to a strong 2:55:39, placing 88th.
While runners from Kenya dominated the men’s and overall competition, the women’s segment was dominated by Russians, as Lyubov Denisova, from the city of Perm, in Russia’s Ural Mountains, clocked a 2:35:13 and broke away to beat fellow-Russian Linaida Semenova by 46 seconds.
Running is a comparatively natural pastime in Kenya, and it paid off in the men’s field as Kenyans sped to a 1-2-3 sweep across the stretch of Highway 61 from Two Harbors to Duluth. Their countrymen also placed 7, 8 and 10 to claim six of the top 10 spots. After Matolo, Joseph Kahugu was second, in 2:14:59, and Penvel Osoro third, at 2:15:32. Nobody else came in under 2:16, with Patrick Kaotsane of South Africa fourth, at 2:16:03, followed by Russians Yuriy Chizhov and Pavel Andreyev, and then Kenyans James Kuria and Elly Rono. Andrew Musuva of Russia was ninth and Kenyan Gideon Mutisya, who was second last year, was 10th.
The top American finisher was 15th-place Christopher Lundstrom of San Francisco, and top Minnesota runner was Pete Miller of St. Louis Park, who was 19th. Tom Heinitz of Duluth was the top Up North finisher, at 33rd.
The top two Russian women were followed by Wioletta Kryza of Poland in third, almost a minute and a half behind Denisova. Gillian Horovitz of New York was the top American woman at 11th, and Eve Rukavina of Minneapolis the top Minnesotan, at 12th.
The top three men’s finishers all said they benefited by varied upbringing in Kenya.
Matolo, a diminutive 5-foot-4 from Nairobi, crossed the finish line, and immediately knelt down. “I was praying to my god, because I win the race,” he said.
Asked why Kenyans were such strong runners, Matolo said: “Because they eat meat. Good food.”
He also said he had no coach, but trained in the Mgong Hills in Kenya. “I started running when I was in school,” he said. “I am from the Mukueni District, but I train in the Mgong Hills. Very steep hills. I usually run 20-30 kilometers at a time, and about 350 kilometers a week.”
Runner-up Kahugo said he grew up in Kiambu, which is 10 miles from Nairobi. “A lot of people ran when I was a boy,” he said. “I used to run 6 miles every morning to school, and 6 miles home each afternoon, from the time I was 8 years old, until I finished high school at age 18. Now we have school buses everywhere.”
Does that mean the future of running in Kenya might be diminishing? “No,” Kahugo said. “I have some kids I’m training. They see that I have a car, a Toyota Corolla I got from the Dublin Marathon in 1996, and I’ve got my own house in Nairobi now, which I was able to get from running. So I can be an inspiration to kids because they see that they can benefit from running.
“I got married last year, and my wife, Irene, just had a baby 3 weeks ago. His name is Michael. I came to Chicago last week, and I go back home Monday. I am anxious to go back, because I know our baby will be completely changed since I’ve seen him.”
Osoro, who was running with the leaders when there was still a three-man group at the 20-mile mark, had a different training incentive. “I ran with my brother, Ondoro, from the time I was young,” said Osoro, who was born in Kissii, and now stays in Nakuru Town, and trains in Niahururu. “My brother won the Chicago Marathon in 1998 with a 2:06, and he was fourth last year in the Boston Marathon at 2:07:58.
“My brother is 35, and I’m 29. Now I am copying his running style. He coaches me, and we run together 25 kilometers every day,” added Osoro, who is in the Kenya Air Force.
As for the race, all three also had hoped for better times. “I’m tired; very, very tired,” said Matolo, although his demeanor suggested otherwise. “I’ve never seen the course, but the course was good — wonderful. Of course I waved to the people along the way. Why not? They are my friends.
“At the halfway point, I felt comfortable, and that’s when I thought I’d win easily. But the guy in front of me [Kahugu] was good — very good. But in the last four miles, I was still strong, and I knew I’d win.”
Kahugo said it was a tough race, “because the field was very good.” But he, too, wanted someone to force a faster pace.
“Nobody would move,” Kahugo said. “I was here to try to break the course record. At about 18 miles, I broke in front. But When Matolo passed me, after about 24 or 25 miles, I saw the time, and I knew we couldn’t break the course record. I didn’t slow down, but his pace was very good.”
Osoro said he’s known Matolo for a few years but never before ran against him in a marathon. “We had a very close group of four for over half the race,” he said. But when Matolo and Kahugu took off, he was unable to keep up with their pace.
Women’s winner Denisova said that sports, and running, helped her cope with a difficult life in her Ural Mountain home. Her parents were divorced when she was a baby, and when she was 13, her mother went off to a birthday party and never was heard from again. Her body was found in a river, six months later. From that time, when she was 13, Lyubov took care of her younger brother, and brought him with her to school, and when she lived in a dormitory at a vocational college. After graduating from high school and the vocational college, she also graduated from a university and became a high school trainer.
She was married three years ago and ran her first marathon before giving birth to a baby girl, Anastasiya, just over a year ago. She finished fourth in her second marathon, in Hong Kong in February, with a time of 2:38. Grandma’s was the follow-up, and she said her winning 2:35:13 proves that having a baby is a good recipe for running.
Strangely, Denisova was in a three-woman group with Semenova and Kryza through the first half of the marathon, but Denisova broke free at about the 19-mile mark and drew steadily away. But she was unaware that her lead built to 46 seconds.
“I pushed ahead at the 20th mile,” she said, through an interpretor. “But always I was in fear that somebody might pass me. I never looked to see how far ahead I was.”
Minnesota-Wisconsin runners didn’t challenge for the marathon, but did much better in the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon. Ryan Meissen of Hudson, Wis., who just graduated from UW-Whitewater, won the 13.1-mile event at 1:06:10, while Kelly Keeler of Bloomington won the women’s portion at 1:15:48. Duluthian Patrick Russell was 11th in the men’s, while Desiree Budd of Duluth was fourth among women.
Two-time defending champion Saul Mendoza of Warm Springs, Ga., again won the wheelchair marathon with a 1:46:59, which was good enough to win by 16 seconds, but more than 15 seconds off the pace he set in winning two years ago, which was the second-best all-time.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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