Grandma's Marathon Hall of Fame honors three longtime employees
Three longtime Grandmas Marathon staffers were inducted into the Hall of Fame, honoring 85 combined years of behind-the-scenes work that helped build a Duluth institution.
Grandma’s Marathon used its Hall of Fame to honor the people who kept the race running long after the crowds left Canal Park. Laura Bergen, Sarah Culver and Linda Hanson were inducted as part of the 2026 class, recognizing 85 combined years of service to an event that has become one of Duluth’s defining institutions.
The honor carries extra weight as Grandma’s Marathon prepares to mark its 50th annual race weekend on June 20. What started in 1977 with 150 participants has grown into the 10th largest marathon in the United States, with more than 235,000 finishers crossing the line in Canal Park since the beginning. Last year’s race drew 7,582 finishers, the largest field in the event’s 49-year history, and organizers expect the quarter-millionth finisher to come during this year’s anniversary weekend.
The Hall of Fame itself was created to recognize longstanding and meaningful contributions to both the race and the community, and it now includes more than 100 individuals, groups and municipalities. Bergen, Culver and Hanson fit that mission through work that rarely shows up in race-day photos but shapes nearly every part of the operation, from registration and athlete services to finance, logistics and weekend programming.
Hanson’s career stretched back to 1987, when she joined Grandma’s Marathon and went on to serve as finance and operations director. Her work covered the budget, race operations, the spaghetti dinner and race-weekend entertainment. Raised in West Duluth and a graduate of Duluth Denfeld High School, Hanson retired after nearly four decades with the organization.
Bergen began working with Grandma’s Marathon in 1999 and later became registration and expo director, a role that places her at the front end of the runner experience. Culver serves as elite athlete and administration director, handling a different but equally important slice of the race’s planning. Organizers said elite athlete registration for the 2026 races was already closed, underscoring how far in advance the weekend is managed.
The 2026 race weekend also shows how much the event has scaled. The marathon field is capped at 9,500 runners, the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon at 7,000 and the William A. Irvin 5K at 1,500. Registration for the 50th annual weekend opened Oct. 1, 2025, at 7 p.m. CT, with demand high enough that organizers used a controlled queue and set the marathon entry fee at $155.
Shane Bauer said the trajectory of the race and the organization would look entirely different without Bergen, Culver and Hanson. The Hall of Fame induction made that point visible: Grandma’s Marathon is sustained not only by runners on the course, but by the staff who built its logistics, its culture and its reputation over decades.
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