Live Coverage: 33rd Grandma's Marathon

Find our live Grandma's Marathon coverage archived below.

Complete results will be posted HERE.

-- Official Women's Results: 1. Mary Akor 2:36:52 ... 2. Alina Ivanova 2:36:58 ... 3. Robyn Friedman 2:38:03 ... 4. Serekalem Abrha 2:41:06 ... 5. Albina Gallyamova .... 7 Jenna Boren 2:47:49

-- Official Men's Results: 1. Christopher Raabe 2:15:13 ... 2. Charles Kanyao 2:18:36 ... 3. David Tuwei 2:19:49 ... 4. Rueben Chesang 2:19:54 ... 5. Tesfaye Girma 2:20:40 .... 10 Chris Lundstrom 2:24:11


-- Mary Akor wins a record-tying third-straight Grandma's Marathon in 2:36:51 ... Alina Ivanova runner-up in 2:36:57, unofficially!

-- Alina Ivanova is still in contention behind Mary Akor, says the lead vehicle ... it's now a 10 -second lead for Akor.

-- Mary Akor is in downtown Duluth ... and in the lead by 15 seconds!

-- Sauk Rapids native Christopher Raabe wins Grandma's Marathon in 2:15:13!

-- At 25M, Christopher Raabe still leads!

-- Reports from the course say the crowds are going wild for Raabe!

-- Chris Raabe's 24th mile was 5:12.

-- Heading to the 24M mark ... Christopher Raabe is up by 2:00!

-- At the top of Lemondrop Hill, past 22M ... Chris Raabe leads by 1:30! Dick Beardsley --the last Minnesota man to win Grandma's and a radio man today -- says Raabe still looks strong.

-- Joshua George wins the men's wheeler division of the marathon in 1:32:01

-- At 18M in the women's race ... Mary Akor and Janet Cherobon have dropped Alina Ivanova.

-- At 19M ... Chris Raabe is up by a full minute in the men's race ... 5:02 and 5:01 for the last two miles.

-- At 17M ... Chris Raabe is up by 26 seconds.

-- At 16M … Chris Raabe leads by 100m … his last three miles have been 5:08, 5:03, and 4:58.

-- After 14M in the men's race, Chris Raabe, the Sauk Rapids native, is in the lead ... 25m ahead of the pack!

-- At 12M into the women's race, the lead pack is down to three runners -- Alina Ivanova of Russia (a former Olympic raacewalker!), double defending champ Mary Akor, and Kenyan Janet Cherobon.

-- At 10M, the women's lead pack numbered five -- including defending champ Mary Akor ... 58:37

-- Men's 13.1M split 1:07:50

-- At the marathon 12M mark ... the men's pack numbers a dozen runners ... it includes last year's runner-up David Tuwei of Kenya, who trains in Coon Rapids, as well as Minnesota native Chris Raabe and fellow American Peter Gilmore.

The pack has averged 5:04 miles through 11 miles, but has slowed to 'five-teens" miles of late.

-- Belainesh Gebre's post-race interview is here ...

-- Ernest Kebenei's post-race interview is here ...

Assisted? ... According to the interview, Kebenei said he was kept informed about the size of his lead the race's lead cyclists.

-- Official Women's Half Marathon Results: 1. Belainesh Gebre 1:11:57 (course record) ... 2. Hyvon Ngetich 1:12:41 ... 3. Caroline Rotich 1:14:46 ... Alemtsehay Misganaw 1:16:38 ... 5. Frashiah Waithaka 1:16:38 6. Michelle Lilienthal 1:17:51

-- Official Men's Half Marathon Results: 1. Ernest Kebenei 1:05:17 ... 2. Ezkyas Sisay 1:05:26 ... 3. Fernando Cabada 1:05:30 ... 4. Matt Gabrielson 1:05:36 ... 5. Mike Reneau 1:05:57

-- At 5K into the marathon ... a men's pack of 20 runners ... a 4:55 first mile, 15:10 at 3M.

-- Belainesh Gebre wins the women's half in 1:11:57, unofficially.

-- Ernest Kebenei of Kenya wins in 1:05:16, unofficially.

-- The marathon runners are off! Conditions: 64 degrees, 85% humidity, 59 degree dew-point.

-- The wheelers are away in the 33rd Grandma's Marathon.

-- With ten minutes until the start of marathon, HERE's today's Star-Tribune story about two-time women's champ Mary Akor, written by Rachel Blount ... who's sitting next to me in the media center right now.

-- In the women's half marathon, Belainesh Gebre of Ethiopia leads Hyvon Ngetich of Kenya and Ethiopian Alemtsehay Misganaw, the 2009 Get in Gear champ.

-- Around the 5 mile mark of the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, reports have Kenya' Ernest Kebenei in the lead by 200m over 2008 TCM champ Fernando Cabada, Ethiopia's Ezkyas Sisay, and Team USA Minnesota's Matt Gabrielson.

Kebenei has a smoking 1:01:50 PR for the distance.

-- Radio reports from the course all seem to start with a comment about how warm it is already.

-- We're still waiting for our first report on the half marathon. There was an important scratch there as well, defending champion Mathew Chesang scratched due to an ankle injury.

-- There's another late scratch in the marathon, Christopher Toroitich of Kenya, a 28-year-old 2:11:58 runner, got stuck at the Houston airport last night, with no flights to Minnesota in time for the race.

-- Dick Beardsley, the Grandma's Marathon course record-holder (and a radio commentator here today) made his race-winner prediction just now. He thinks American Peter Gilmore will become the first USA winner at Grandma's since Mark Curp won in 1995.

-- Anticipating the marathon start at 7:30 a.m., we can tell you that two more Kenya athletes -- Benson Cheruiyot and Francis Kipketer -- who planned to race the marathon will not be on the start-line today, due to problems obtaining U.S. visas.

-- While we're waiting for an update on the half marathon, we can tell you that John Heitzman and Michelle Oman were the winners at last night's William A. Irwin 5K, the kick-off race of Grandma's weekend. Oman has now won four of the last five Irvins.

The Duluth News-Tribune's coverage of the Irvin 5K is HERE.

-- The Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon is underway!

Welcome to Down the Backstretch's finish-line coverage of the 33rd Grandma's Marathon!

It's a clear sunny day here at the finish-line at Canal Park in Duluth. At 6:25 a.m., just before the start of the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, the Duluth temperature was 63 degrees, the dew-point was 57 degrees, and the relative humidity was 82%.

Reports from up the course report calm conditions at the marathon start-line, but a building head-wind as runners approach Duluth. Conditions in Duluth are breezy. Hour-by-hour temperature predictions forecast finish-time temperatures for the elite runners not much higher than they are now -- in the mid-60s. The high for the day is forecast at 75 degrees.

We'll update you on progress in the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon and the 33rd Grandma's Marathon as the events progress. Just refresh your browser regularly for news on all the action. The latest info will be posted at the top of the page; older info will be collected below.