Gearing Up for Grandma's Grandma's Marathon

Chris Lundstrom is going to Paris!

As head coach of Minnesota Distance Elite, Lundstrom gets to work with 2x Grandma's Marathon champion Dakotah Lindwurm, who qualified for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics via a third place finish at the US Olympic Trials in February.

Not only does Lundstrom work with Lindwurm, he also oversees the training programs for several of the up-and-coming American distance runners from the team's home base in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

He joined the podcast to talk more about his team, formerly called Team USA Minnesota, and about the next few months as he and Lindwurm get ready to take on the Olympic marathon course in August.

Carrie Rodman is one of our 2024 Grambassadors, selected from a large group of applicants to share her passion and knowledge of our race weekend.

Rodman joined the podcast to talk about the dirty, three letter words in running - DNF and DNS. It's a reality in marathoning that not every registered participant will make it to the starting line, and not everyone who starts will finish.

Rodman talks about her experience being unable to start a race she had signed up and trained for, and she shares her memories of almost dropping out of a race. Neither is a place anyone wants to be, but she shares how she was able to process her emotions during a diffcult time in her running career.

To connect with and/or follow Rodman in the buildup to our 2024 Grandma's Marathon weekend, please see below:

Carrie Rodman
   - Instagram @cdrodman

Shannon Hogan is one of our 2024 Grambassadors, selected from a large group of applicants to share her passion and knowledge of our race weekend.

Hogan joined the podcast to talk about her experience with the mental health benefits of running. In this episode, she talks about finding therapy through running and also how to combat the days where training seems too much.

IMPORTANT: Hogan is not licensed mental health professional, and this episode is meant to be purely experiential. If you're in need of medical help, please contact your doctor.

To connect with and/or follow Hogan in the buildup to our 2024 Grandma's Marathon weekend, please see below:

Shannon Hogan
   - Instagram @runningoffbeet

Sarah Stuhr is one of our 2024 Grambassadors, selected from a large group of applicants to share their passion and knowledge of our race weekend.

Stuhr was the first-ever non-binary champion of our Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, finishing that race in a time of 2:56:58.

They joined the podcast to talk about the importance of inclusivity in running, specifically pertaining to non-binary and transgender participants. Stuhr details the important work they've seen done in the past five years, including the addition of official non-binary categories at races like Grandma's Marathon, and also offers a current status of where they believe we are as a running community.

To connect with and/or follow Stuhr in the buildup to our 2024 Grandma's Marathon weekend, please see below:

Sarah Stuhr
   - Instagram @stuhritup

Two-time Grandma's Marathon champion Dakotah Lindwurm joins the podcast to talk about her training leading into the 2024 US Olympic Trials, where she will be one of the athletes expected to compete for a spot in the Paris Games.

In 2021, Lindwurm became the first Minnesota woman to win Grandma's Marathon since Janis Klecker in 1987, and then one year later she returned to become just the eighth repeat women's champion and first since Sarah Kiptoo in 2016.

Lindwurm has been a fan favorite each time she's competed in Duluth, thanks in large part to the smile she proudly displays from start to finish. She's also been an outspoken advocate of the event itself, and she plans to be back in some capacity this June following the results of the Olympic Trials.

Nadir Yusuf made his marathon debut at the 2023 Grandma's Marathon, running a time of 2:15:26 that was good for 13th place overall and qualified him for the 2024 US Olympic Trials.

Yusuf, from Willmar, Minn., attended Minnesota State Moorhead, where he competed mostly in middle and long distance track events. He was a multi-time conference champion, a two-time All-American, and he still holds several school records for the Dragons.

In February, though, he'll be running the race of his life. A race he knows can change the course of his career, if he's able to snag one of the available Olympic spots in the men's marathon.

He joins the podcast to talk about why he made the transition to the marathon in the first place and his training for the Trials, which right now he's doing side-by-side with his day job and graduate school.