Spaghetti and Other Motivations Fuel Grandma’s Runners

Memories, health and family are among the reasons people run.

Something that always goes well before twenty-six miles of running, is twenty-six miles of spaghetti noodles.

Visitors could start slurping their noodles and sauce at the DECC beginning at eleven Friday morning.

There are many traditions associated with Grandma’s, and the pasta feed is just one of them.  Meaghan Burns and her husband from Lino Lakes will be running. This will be her second full marathon, and it’s far more than just a run.

“My husband and I started in 2011. We did the half in honor of his dad who had passed away that year,” Burns said, “And since then, we’ve just used it as a way to keep our bodies in check and stay healthy, and something to work towards. So last year, running the full, it meant everything to me. I would chalk it up there with our wedding day, the pregnancies, the birth of our children. Because it was very, very emotional,” she said.

There are almost as many individual stories as there are runners. It is a fun thing to keep in mind Saturday for anyone who watches runners put one step in front of the other–each for their own reasons.