“I had a friend who was running Grandmas about 43 years ago, and I went to watch her.
To be truthful, I never actually saw her finish, but I saw a lot of women kind of my age finish and in under 4:30, because that was the cutoff.
It’s seven hours now. It was 4:30 (back then).
I came home and was impressed.
My husband had heard about the Twin Cities Marathon starting in the fall. And so he said, ‘well, you should do that!’
So I signed up and got a 12-week training program from Runners World and did the first one.
…when I was done, my time was 3:43.
So I was surprised.
….I did not have a goal.
So, you know, I thought maybe I had some talent or something.
And I just got the bug.
In those days, you ran Grandmas and Twin Cities. That was kind of it. But you ran through the winter.
I (eventually) branched out a little and did a couple of races in California
I did Boston in 1986 and by ‘89, I was doing ultras.
I started out with a road ultra, 50k and a couple of years later, I was doing 50-milers.
…Something that I think is sort of significant about Twin Cities is there’s about 12 left in the charter club.
And it’s pretty unusual for that to happen.”
Editor’s note: “Charter Members” are individuals who have done every single Twin Cities Marathon. Starting in 1982, the racing has been held for 42 years, although 2020 (COVID) and 2023 (Heat cancellation) make 2024 the 41st race. For a frame of reference, Grandma’s marathon debuted in 1977 and has only two charter members remaining.
Since 1982 and the first ever Twin Cities Marathon, Mary has run over 200 marathons spanning all 50 states and all 7 continents (including Antarctica!)
She is registered for the Twin Cities Marathon again this fall.