This past weekend saw the running of the 37th annual Grandma’s Marathon, along with the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon. The weather forecast going into the weekend had us all a little on edge, but we dodged one when the predicted showered and thunderstorms held off through the start up of both races and almost all of the race itself.
This year we ran 140 buses to the start of the half-marathon to drop off racers (not counting the elite buses for the U.S. Women’s Half-Marathon Championship), and 123 plus a train to the start of the full marathon.) In 2 1/2 hours we bused roughly 12,000 people from points around the Twin Ports and Two Harbors to the start of their race. In addition, we spent the day making sure that those runner who, for whatever reason, just couldn’t complete the course were transported safely back to the DECC area, and also helped those runners who finished get back to their hotels and/or cars at the various parking sites.
Putting this event on is a major work, and our Operations Manager, Rudy Lundahl deserves nearly all the credit for taking on the task year after year, though meeting after meeting, rough draft after rough draft, encouraging and cajoling drivers to participate, and all in all dedicating his working life for over a month to making sure it gets done without a hitch.
Until the 38th Annual – June 21, 2014…
There are pictures from the morning here.
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