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The runners who come to Duluth to compete in Grandma’s Marathon might run for the joy and satisfaction of competing against world-class athletes, or they might be trying to win a share of the $100,000 in prize money.

While there are set amounts that go to top finishers, there are also bonuses for certain things, and it turns out that women’s marathon winner Kellyn Taylor probably made the biggest haul.

Taylor won the $10,000 for her victory, but when she won in a course record time, she also won $10,000, giving her a $20,000 payday.

Elisha Barno of Kenya won his $10,000 and another $2,500 for breaking 2:11, giving him a $12,500 payday.

Incidentally, Barno’s four straight Grandma’s victories also means that the last nine consecutive victories have gone to Kenyans. For Barno, coming to Minnesota must be a treat. He not only is 4-for-4 in Grandma’s Marathons he’s entered, but he has finished second three straight years in the Twin Cities Marathon, and all three of those have been won by Dominic Ondoro, another Kenyan who trains with Barno in Eldoret, Kenya. Ondoro holds the Grandma’s record of 2:09:06, set when he won the 2014 race — the last one before Barno’s four-race winning streak began.

The usual crowd of onlookers and well-wishers lined the course to cheer on and help refresh the runners, and everybody got a chance to take part in the festivities that accompany the marathon. Live music, good food and lots of partying came through after the week-long projections for foul weather all day Saturday did not come through.

Then, of course, there were the unexpected visual treats for visitors, such as when the huge, thousand-foot-long ore carrier American Spirit tried to leave the Duluth after the late rain and fog finally did inundate the harbor area. Oce carriers have to glide through the harbor, then make what amounts to a 90-degree right turn to make it through the Aerial Bridge.

The American Spirit went a bit wide, overshot the Bridge, and headed straight for the Paulucci Building adjacent to the bridge. Slowing down as much as possible, the American Spirit also dropped its anchor with a splash, and that may have been the determining factor in allowing it to come to a stop no less than 20 feet from crashing through the breakwater and into the Paulucci Building. Think of it as a shippers version of the movie Silver Streak.

In the process, the big ship ran aground, too, and it took several tugs, and the rising water level in the harbor thanks to the flood-like rainfall of about 5 inches in Duluth in a 48-hour period to allow the American Spirit to lift enough to get clear sometime before midnight Sunday night.
Marathon fans should know, we Duluthians will stop at nothing to provide entertainment.

I also must bow in thanks to Grandma’s organizers, who presented me with the Marsh Nelson Media award for trying to promote and cover Grandma’s Marathon like the big league event it has become.
I’ve always enjoyed attending Grandma’s, and since returning to Duluth I’ve had a chance to cover the last 20 races, for the Budgeteer, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Reader, and KDAL radio, before management there ended my show. 
It is always flattering to get such an award, and particularly when you had no idea it was coming. And the Marsh Nelson award is significant because for my first real journalism job, I worked for Marsh, writing sports scripts for him to read cold on television at Channel 3 as he came running in from doing live play-by-play of a high school game somewhere every Friday night.

Baseball rising to Midsummer peak

 Marshall made a ferocious run at the state Class AA baseball championship and almost made it, before falling 8-4 to Maple Lake, which rose up from a 3-1 deficit to claim the title.
Marshall beat Caledonia 6-3 in last Friday’s semifinals at St. Cloud to get the chance to play for the title at Target Field. It was a strong showing by Marshall, which reached the state tournament for the first time last year with a sophomore dominated team. This year’s outfit is mostly juniors, meaning that next year...Well, wait till next year!

The state high school tournament is always a highlight, but usually without Northern teams playing headline roles.
Fittingly, both the Minnesota Twins and the Duluth Huskies are in the midst of midseason surges also.
The Twins won two impressive games before falling 4-1 to Cleveland, then they returned home to Target Field and beat the Boston Red Sox 6-2 with some impressive offense to support  Jose Berrios’s strong pitching and, for once, adequate bullpen support.
Once again, the Twins were ignited by the dynamic duo of Eddie Rosario and Eduardo Escobar, who appear to have solidified the batting order for Paul Molitor. With Joe Mauer back and heading for getting back into a groove, Molitor put him at leadoff, followed by Rosario and then Escobar, with Brian Dozier batting cleanup.

Mauer’s average is only .275, and we can expect it to move up from there, but his ability to put the bat on the ball and the ball in play makes him work at leadoff. Escobar rose to .305 with another double and a triple Tuesday, and he leads the league with 31 doubles. Rosario leads the Twins at .316, making him perfect as the No. 3 hitter.

The fact that Mauer, Escobar and Rosario all hit left-handed makes it an imposing lineup for any right-hander to face. On Tuesday, Dozier hit fourth, but, alas, he went 0-for-3 and his miniscule batting average became a more-miniscule .217. Even Robbie Grossman, batting fifth, was at .234, which isn’t good, but beats the heck out of .217.

Dozier will come out of it, we’re confident, but as of Tuesday night, he was in a 1-for-34 rut. That will take the starch out of a batting average.
Amazingly, the Twins are doing this without the likes of Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton, both of whom have been having such dreadful seasons they have been banished to the minor leagues and we can only hope we’ll see them again, in some form of rejuvenated play. Otherwise, the Twins absolutely might be better off without them.

Escobar is playing phenomenal third base, getting to balls Sano would have no chance at, and retiring batters from sure-hit situations.
Meanwhile, the Huskies went on the road and continued to hammer the ball and get good enough pitching to win six straight games before returning to Wade Stadium for a brief home pair.