Gearing Up for Grandma's

Shawn Jarvis and Jamie Vesel are two of our 2024 Grambassadors, selected from a large group of applicants to share their passion and knowledge of our race weekend.
Both Jarvis and Vesel have previously participated in Grandma's Marathon weekend and several other events, and together they joined the podcast to share their experience and thoughts on the importance of proper nutrition and crosstraining habits in the buildup to race weekend.
To connect with and/or follow these two Grambassadors in the buildup to our 2024 Grandma's Marathon weekend, please see below:
Shawn Jarvis
- Instagram @spjbear
Jamie Vesel
- Instagram @jamies.journey.in.life

Essentia Health ATC Cristina Nistler joins the podcast for the first of several installments ahead of the 2024 Grandma's Marathon weekend designed to help keep runners focused on the finish line while avoiding any common injuries and/or medical issues.
As part of her role with Essentia Health, Nistler works part-time throughout the year in the Grandma's Marathon office. She's responsible not only for helping lead the organization of our medical personnel on race weekend, but also to educate and inform our runners ahead of their race in Duluth.
Nistler will be every runner's biggest cheerleader when it comes to race day, but she's also hoping this mini-podcast series, as well as several other initiatives, can help ensure that she won't have to meet many of our runners in the medical tent this June.

Carrie Alajoki and Rachel Barger are two of our 2024 Grambassadors, selected from a large group of applicants to share their passion and knowledge of our race weekend.
Both Alajoki and Barger have participated in a Grandma's Marathon weekend event 10+ times in their running careers, and together they joined the podcast to encourage the "non-traditional" or "back-of-the-pack" participants.
Running, even marathoning, can be for everyone if it's something you want to do in your life. Alajoki and Barger share their experiences getting into running and now being multiple-time full marathon finishers.
To connect with and/or follow these two Grambassadors in the buildup to our 2024 Grandma's Marathon weekend, please see below:
Carrie Alajoki
- Instagram @long_run_calybeal
- Tik Tok @calybeal
Rachel Barger
- Instagram @rae.barger94
- Tik Tok @run.rae.run

Laura Bergen began working with Grandma's Marathon in 1999 and, over the past two plus decades, has held a variety of roles within the organization.
She is currently the Registration and Expo Director, meaning she's primarily responsible for overseeing the event's registration processes and organizing the Essentia Health Fitness Expo that's held on race weekend.
In 2021, Bergen was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After having gone through surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy, that cancer is now in remission. However, she's now developed a form of bile duct cancer, of which her treatment is ongoing.
The medical concerns have changed Bergen's availability to the marathon but not her love of the organization and the community that helps make Grandma's Marathon a success each June.

Maggie Montoya had no idea, as she rounded the final turn to the finish line, that she was about to break one of the more storied records in Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon history.
Just as Duluth native Kara Goucher predicted earlier in the week, Montoya was about to break Goucher’s own event record that she had set during the USA Half Marathon Championships in 2012.

Montoya’s time of 1:09:26 was 20 seconds faster than Goucher, ending the hometown hero’s run at the top of the event’s all-time leaderboard. Making her debut in Duluth, Montoya navigated the racecourse brilliantly in route to breaking her own PR by 40 seconds with a time of 1:09:26.
Montoya kicks off Season 4 of our Gearing Up for Grandma's podcast to talk more about that record-breaking run and also what lies ahead in her running career.