Grandma's Marathon

Young whipper snappers run for fun

Whether they’d been training for a couple of weeks or had just slammed a pop with a bunch of caffeine, more than 1,000 kids from age 14 down to — well, however old you have to be to walk — gathered at Bayfront Festival Park on Friday afternoon to officially start Grandma’s Marathon weekend.

Briefly threatened by rain, the Whipper Snapper Races for Kids kicked off at 2 p.m. with the highly anticipated race involving popular Northland mascots. Jack the Dog of Wells Fargo beat the Cow from Kemps, Harley D. Huskie of the Duluth Huskies, the Kool 101.7 Penguin, and Tiki Tom and Tiki Tina of the Edge Water Park.

After the mascots left all they had on the racetrack, it was the kids’ turn.

Mascots Tiki Tom (from left) and Tiki Tina of the Edge Water Park, the Kool 101.7 Penguin, Kemps’ Cow, Target’s Bullseye, Jack the Dog of Wells Fargo and the Duluth Huskies’ Harley D. Huskie compete at the start of the Whipper Snapper races at Bayfront Festival Park on Friday afternoon. [Clint Austin / News Tribune]

Girls 4 and under were the first group to take the track. Boys and girls under age 9 raced together in a 100-yard dash and were separated by age and launched in heats. The 4-and-under bracket alone took at least 10 heats, with each heat containing at least 50 kids.

All three of Fallon and Gina Kelly’s children participated in Friday’s races. Gina Kelly will run her first Grandma’s Marathon today, but the family came to Duluth from Lisbon, N.D., on Friday for the Whipper Snapper Races.

Even the family’s youngest member, Seamus, who is only 1, took part in one of the day’s first races.

“He’s only going to run 100 yards, but he could probably run at least a mile,” Gina said.

Their oldest child, Caemon, 9, ran the quarter-mile race and had prepared for the race by running a mile several times last week.

Other training methods employed by Friday’s runners included chasing the dog around the yard, playing capture the flag, consuming lots of sugar and even running the track several times just minutes before race time.

Eight-year-old Autumn Olson of Des Moines, Iowa, was happy with her performance but saw room for improvement if she races again next year.

“It was fine,” said Autumn. “The only thing I didn’t like about it was that there were these girls I wanted to pass but couldn’t because they were too close to each other.”

Last year’s Whipper Snapper Races attracted 1,134 kids. Although this year’s numbers weren’t tallied Friday, event coordinators expect more kids participated this year, according to Jon Carlson, a Grandma’s Marathon coordinator.

Original Source : http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=68964&section=homepage