Grandma’s Marathon Youth Festival and Races

DULUTH, Minn. — Grandma’s Marathon kicked off with the popular whipper snapper races. Along with the races, a new youth festival that took the stage, featuring live entertainment and activities.

The young athletes foundation is a Grandma’s Marathon Program that promotes healthy lifestyles for kids. They also offer a way for kids to participate in the weekend fun by running at Bayfront.
This year, they added the young athletes foundation festival.

A race volunteer, Pez Davila, said that, “the whipper snapper races itself was already a lively-event, so to see them bring in different vendors and people already in the community or the twin ports to get involved with this event itself is super awesome. The kids love it, there’s food, prizes, and mascots all over the place. It’s a lot of just cool stuff going on.”

Race participants received an official number, finisher medal, and a goodie bag. This event allows kids to get their running fix and get a taste of the marathon. Some of the kids will move to the sidelines to cheer family members on throughout the weekend.

Marathon participant and parent to whipper snapper runners, Elizabeth Gorka, said that attending Grandma’s marathon is a tradition for their family. “Father’s day weekend is always just set aside to go up here. you can’t make any other plans because we know were coming up here. It just depends on which race we end up doing, but yeah it’s the one time that we know for sure well be up in Duluth for.”

This weekend is a family affair, as many parents of the young athletes will participate in their own events tonight and tomorrow.