After a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic, Grandma’s Marathon and the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon returned to Canal Park in Duluth on June 19.

While many things changed, some things remained the same. Cloquet and Carlton County had a number of runners who were impressive in both races.

The top performance of the day belonged to 1974 Cloquet graduate Brent Smith. Smith ran the marathon in 3:02:11, setting a new record for the 65-to-69-year-old age group. Smith not only set the record in the age group, but was so dominant that his next nearest competitor, Mike Babcock, ran 3:40:06, almost a full 38 minutes slower than the former Cloquet star skier and runner.

In the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, Cloquet’s Isaac Boedigheimer, a 2017 graduate and running star at the College of St. Scholastica, finished with the top local time of 1:12:30, which was good for 20th place overall. Only one place and one second behind Boedigheimer was former Esko runner Jackson Lindquist. Jackson’s brother, Bryan Lindquist, was also impressive with a 34th-place finish and a time of 1:15:23.

Editor's note: This story was changed July 2 to clarify which finishes were in the half marathon.