Grandma's Marathon 2022 Race Recap

This is my full race recap for the 2022 Grandma’s Marathon and is intended for anyone who is thinking about going up to Duluth for a fast race in June. I know I’ve made a bunch of Grandma’s content already, and some may of it may overlap with what’s presented here, but this race recap is intended to be a single location where I’ve collected all my thoughts before, during, and after the race.
0:00 intro
0:56 why Grandma’s?
2:35 kit
5:58 nutrition
12:41 pre-race through 5k
17:48 5k-10k
20:13 10k-half marathon
24:25 13.1-mile 20
29:39 mile 20-finish
39:04 finish and post-race
disclosures: ASICS provided my bib, travel accommodation, race shoes, and some apparel. some items discussed in the kit and nutrition sections were provided by their respective manufacturers. I bought a lot of it though.
Thanks for watching! Leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!
Catch the livestream / kofuzirunclub
Running footage shot on:
GoPro Hero 10 Black (paid link)
amzn.to/3AD5bMz
Music sourced via Epidemic Sound www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Disclosure: It's 2022, so I think we all know how affiliate links work at this point, but for regulatory compliance or affiliate program purposes, I must state that affiliate links do not increase cost to you, but:
"As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”
Also, you do not need to use these links. You can also search for these same items in amazon or on any search engine/shopping site of your choice and buy/research them that way.
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The charity runner of the week #uplitedByASICS is Sean Millich, who is running NY Marathon to raise money for Team For Kids. I've donated $100 and ASICS has donated an additional $400 to support a fellow runner.
www.runwithtfk.org/Profile/Pu...
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twitter: / wordofko
instagram: / kofuzi
subscriber count at time of upload: 103,196
end card music:
Jim Yosef - Checkered
/ jim-yosef-checkered

[@edchan]

In summary, Kofuzi will easily break 2:00 when Kipchoge attempts to steal his GoPro.

[@WhiskyMystery]

That catch the camera story had me laughing. And 26 mile math confusion :-) Perfect finish.

[@kofuzi]

my mind went through a lot there

[@plushie2007]

YT algorithm got me to watch this. Seems every athlete in every corral has legitimate concerns for running goals along with anxiety. As a back of the pack runner, I'll never see a sub 3 marathon but sub 3 halves are in my repertoire. Your journey is relatable on so many fronts. I seriously enjoyed your victory. Continue to do well.

[@bev9708]

We never thought of you as failing at your sub-3 marathon attempts , noooo!!! Each was another valuable step on the path to success!!!!

[@TheRunningRRT]

Love the fact that Ben took the camera & you wouldn’t let him have it back! 😂

[@garp696]

Had the exact same brain fart moment of not knowing the right time from the race clock and fumbling when I could have easily checked my own watch 😂 Guess all runners' brains shut down when racing. It was great seeing you chase down this sub-3 goal relentlessly and finally getting it! 👏🏻

[@ahmadameerhakim]

Congratulation Mike! The 26th mile math was hilarious! 😂

[@Deadbuck73]

Congratulations Ko! You never cease to inspire. Thank You for this and every video you produce for us!

[@mileslinus]

I love these in depth reviews, it's my favorite type of content. Congrats on the race!

[@davidfraseur71]

Congrats on the sub 3hour and glad I found your recap post! I ran Grandma's with my daughter and we both had sub 3:30 PR's. Thanks for sharing your preparation and thoughts on what worked and did not work for you. Appreciate your transparency and honesty too. Several times i smiled as i feel we runners all have similar experiences.

[@macsmachine]

Thanks so much for the deep dive and inspiration, Ko. I’m still trying to crack 4 hrs and this is just what I needed to keep me going.

[@DevRunner]

This was my favorite vlog from you! Full Stop! Loved all the details! Nice to know all the thoughts and feelings you experienced along the way - great to know I'm not the only one who has these thought patterns when going long! Congratulations on the Sub 3! Keep pushing Mike!

[@fellouss]

As a fellow runner, I really enjoyed the way you explained to us your pre/during/after race, many many thanks for that. I think we all felt what you felt during that race!! Keep up the great work!!

[@karatechop]

Excellent recap! I always find these helpful in prep for my own races, especially when navigating the inevitable low points. Every marathon's a roller coaster... Congrats again on the sub-3!

[@wilfredo-teyrosalesfotos]

I love all your videos but Race Recaps are probably my favorite because of the insight and gems 💎 you drop in your recap. These recaps are definitely for the running nerds who use this information for preparing for future races or helping others prepare for theirs. Congrats again and keep that 🔥 content coming 🤜🏾🤛🏻…

[@alexforndran7867]

Congratulations, must be a huge relief! Sounds like your pacer did everything right throughout the whole race, and worked overtime on the motivation aspects as well, huge kudos to them too!

[@mannyportillo5712]

Congratulations!!! Make as many videos as you want, it’s a huge accomplishment for you!

[@chocolatechow7697]

and i just cant seem to get enough

[@pbnotj1]

So proud of you! I lived in Duluth MN for 7 years , this makes me miss it :-) great endurance sports culture (running and xc skiing communities were strong ! ). That race helped me break 1:20 in the half many years ago which was my breaking 3 type of goal :-) fast course (especially for the half) ! Congratulations Mike keep making these great videos .

[@yakiweiss546]

Congratulations ! So exciting, this is the reason why we are doing marathons again again.. well done!!

[@user-kj6gi3dm1x]

As someone who's running my first marathon in December (shooting for sub-4) I find this video really helpful and honestly inspiring. Thank you for the hard work on this and congratulations!

[@wupalbert]

BRAVO Mike - been following you on this journey since 2018 and stoked to see you crush it!!!

[@andrewgill25]

Great video - love the breakdown, congrats and love that Ben is a true pacer and let you cross the finish first

[@flickmybic5940]

Absolutely love these deep dives. I commented on Nick Bare's post last Sunday, so cool to see both of you break your goals on the same day (upload wise). Keep crushing it kofuzi!

[@sun.2801]

It’s great to see a more in depth, play by play recap of your race.

[@derbsruns]

Absolutely awesome to watch you finally go sub 3. Amazing work!

[@christopherhughes8128]

Way to go man! I have really enjoyed watching your sub-3 journey. I hit my mark in November of 2021, only beating 3 hours by 9 seconds! I really know that feeling of trying to do all that math in motion with only a mile or so left! I also know the feeling of coming SO close in previous efforts. Believe it or not, about a year prior I ran a 3:00:00 even. Glad to finally have it, and I know you are too!

[@brokenfreddy7676]

"Thinking just hurts the team" is an old expression I embrace for long distance racing..if you are prepared it will go ok..if you're not it's not gonna feel good..congrats on your race PB.

[@RaymondTusk74]

Watching again before Grandma’s tomorrow morning, thanks for the help prepping us!

[@markchangcoco5427]

Talk about battling through! Super impressed with the effort and hearing about the mental battle through 26.2...you freaking did it! 💪#sub3

[@jmac13131]

This makes me smile 😊 and makes me want to go run at 10 PM. Congratulations and thank you for taking us along for the ride!

[@Stevenc1984]

Love the in depth race recap videos!

[@MattRunsColorado]

Idk why but I really enjoy the way you tell the story of your races in these videos, super interesting. Congrats again!

[@LuisBecerra79]

I just saw like 5x the other 2 videos. So happy to now hear all the recap and see extra footage of this marathon course. Again Ko, congratulations!!!! Years in the making so, don’t worry if you make another video 🤷🏻‍♂️🤣😂

[@Drew.Whitcomb]

This was great. Played it on my phone podcast style while I did other stuff and was never bored. Great stories all the way through. Marathon brain creates some interesting moments 😂

[@michaelcrespo2928]

I’m totally running tomorrow morning. Great recap!! Congrats.

[@jamstar876]

This is awesome, and I literally laughed out loud at Ben using your camera as a dangling carrot. Excellent effort, job well done, and congrats on a well-run race.

[@shyway6916]

Congrats. Got my morning knitting in while watching; now time to run!! Congrats again.

[@GoSlowToGoFastOG]

It’s super motivating to watch you chase and achieve this goal. You embraced the suck.

[@bettstp]

Congrats Mike on finally achieving your goal, I have seen many of your attempts and I did wonder if you would ever get there, even though you always looked to have it in you physically. Great job getting it done and enjoy the achievement!

[@JavierISampedroTNF]

This was almost like a podcast. Just listened while in the office and minimized windows at time :D congrats once again!

[@exemplarinstructor]

Congrats on a great race and a solid analysis. Thanks for all of the helpful content

[@travymoto1]

Awesome Mike. So much fun to watch. Congrats!

[@laurainthehaute918]

Love this, Mike! Grandma and medical staff stood with me as I heaved after the half. I told grandma between my relentless leaving-it all-out-there, “I’m sorry to puke in front of you.!”to which she replied, “that’s alright, dear, it often happens.” 😂This race! I’m still stoked you got to run it-I knew you’d dig it! Was awesome to meet you!🌊🌊🌊🌊

[@VinceHill]

Love the retelling of your run! So cool! Congrats!

[@marvinenerio3659]

Congrats Ko! I'm so happy for you, been following you for years and have tracked your pursuit of under-3 which I'm shooting for this year. hope I'll see you at NYSC marathon this year.

[@topoisomerace]

Hard work pays off! Great to see.

[@nezbian]

Congrats Mike. Goes to show that a marathon is as much a mental battle as it is physical.

[@sampillar5906]

Well done man! Great effort! You must be happy with that.

[@paultimothyL]

That is amazing!! Been following you for 3 years and very happy you finally broke 3! I'm still on my mission to do the same and hope Chicago 2022 is the place!! Really enjoy all your videos! And marathon math is always soo confusing 🤣🤣

[@RobHale81]

Great recap Mike. I loved the footage of you struggling and Ben smiling and having a great time. lol.. Good job. Cant wait to see if you push harder.

[@mooona9542]

Congratulations! Love these recap videos

[@richardarthur9706]

Awesome video. I'm not sure how I missed this one until now. Thank you for sharing this.

[@kofuzi]

Thanks for watching!

[@boeyalam9048]

Excellent recap. Felt like I was running the race with you. Enjoy your success!

[@jcambridge46]

Bummed I did not get to meet you. I’ve done Grandmas over 10 years and love the course and lake views. You had a good review and hope others will come up for this race.

[@kofuzi]

it's worth the trip

[@sherylbogardus3062]

Congratulations!!!! Loved the recap!

[@mauiswift6391]

Amazing Mike! Congratulations 👏🏻

[@shannonsides6017]

You really do such interesting, awesome race recaps, Ko! So well organized. So much congrats! And James McKirdy was SO gracious in talking to me post-Boston, I could not believe how willing he was to talk about everything. Really is as energized about running as he comes off online. Cheers and safe travels!

[@kofuzi]

He was so generous with his time

[@fastinradfordable]

@@kofuzi that’s what she said

[@kathleenbolanos]

Loved the walk through. Congrats!

[@cristiannieto2981]

So emotional Kofuzi. Following you for a couple of years. Really motivating this race. Regards from Mexico

[@vincewarne228]

Loved hearing about it all of this!

[@TheReeseFiles]

Found this channel today and now have binged about 10 videos. Really quality content.

[@kofuzi]

thanks for watching!

[@duzer]

Whoaaaaaa dude!!!! Way to go!!!

[@kofuzi]

Thanks Duzer!

[@suzannelaburt2641]

Excellent effort! Love how you fought your marathon demons 👍🦾

[@dpeddler123]

Thanks for the review, I was hanging on every word. So relatable to runners that have done a few marathons 👍

[@kofuzi]

thanks so much for watching! I know these can get long

[@markforquer8214]

Really one of your best videos ever！

[@gokiwi2642]

Awesome race recap Michael, haha great job 👏 looks like a fun atmosphere & choice weather, glad everything went your way on the day, sub 3 hour marathon done in the bag yeahhh! 🥳✅👣👣🏃🏼👍👏🏃🏽‍♀️🥳⚡️

[@JayMo-jn1lu]

Good job, my man very proud of you.

[@stevenleung1759]

congrats again! thank you for sharing.

[@KevHutch]

Great video. Completely relate to the salt loading. I take SaltStick capsules with me during the run, but I'll try preloading the salt next time. Congrats on the sub-3. Wow, just wow.

[@vigneshkrisnan3744]

a big congratulations to you! a milestone achieved ✌

[@ericzhangozhin8532]

Thank you sir. Very informative and interesting video. I laughed out loud at rhe end of the story. Really proud of you.

[@kofuzi]

thank you

[@lifelove7161]

Very inspiring! Thank you for sharing your experience….

[@drzen2]

Congratulations, very nice recap, keeps me motivated to run after my goal.

[@TommyHackett]

Great vid, and congrats on the great result!!!

[@cloudinthewater5337]

Congratulations! So motivating!

[@DianneSullivan]

I am binge watching your videos 5 days before I run in the Chicago 2023 marathon. You are the reason that I entered Chicago back in 2019 when I got a GFA qualifying time of 3:36 at my local marathon here in the UK. We all know what happened next and I opted to defer out to 2023 because I turned 50 this year. Watching you break 3 hours is so inspirational as I so desperately want to finish Chicago in sub 4h (3:45 would be nice). Thanks again for making such a detailed video that has helped me with the maranoia this week 🙂

[@kofuzi]

Good luck this week!

[@Steve-vh2mc]

Very cool ko! amazing how our|my mind plays tricks on us during a race. excellent commentary as always. kinda feel like "we" broke 3 :)

[@dicksonc5447]

Big congrats 🎊. Awesome sharing.

[@manueltan8962]

Great Video ! Love it

[@wouw]

great recap, really inspiring!!!

[@jamesaylward681]

Congratulations Mike ! Delighted to see you have achieved Sub 3 in the Marathon. Love the post Marathon recaps which provide a lot of useful info for other runners 🏃‍♂️ who want to run a Marathon. Thank you for taking us on your running 🏃‍♂️ journey and providing inspiration for fellow runners 🏃‍♂️ #NONELITESUB3

[@Dannyrunsphilly]

I’m running grandmas in a couple days, so so helpful to have this breakdown.

[@kofuzi]

have a great race!

[@PiercingArrowz]

great work! Was an awesome race. I took my PR from 4:00 to 3:37 this year at Grandma's. Thanks for breaking down everything in detail, helps me to plan strategies to get to 3hrs myself. Be well!

[@kofuzi]

huge! great job!

[@winbjm]

Huge congrats! So relatable on the digging deep😂

[@Discrage]

Congrats again! Officially a Sub 3hr Marathoner!!!

[@drberrydds1]

I haven’t been following as much since I switched up my training to weights but I’m so happy to see you achieved your goal!!!

[@kofuzi]

thanks for checking in!

[@WorldT]

just an update on this grandma's as i had watched this video over a year ago. I did do Grandma's this year June 2023. Was really good marathon, i am going to do it again next year as well. Ran good race at 3:21 which gives me something to work from, so i hope to beat this time next time. Good race, good location, good festival, good vibe, a good event overall. thanks on your video review again

[@kofuzi]

Glad you had a good race!

[@mopoffool]

Congrats again! I also don't warm up at all before marathons (I've run 17 and also have a 2:58 PR). I ran Grandma's in 2014 and had very similar weather (minus the tailwind) and loved it. But my impression is that warmer weather is more common. I stayed up in Two Harbors, which made the morning before the race easy, and taking the bus back up there afterwards was fine. Definitely second your recommendation to pack warm clothes.

[@briancastro4209]

Great vid Kofuzi! Felt like a podcast while I made my granola. That end b roll was worth waiting for.

[@kofuzi]

thanks for making it to the end!

[@JMoff67]

You picked a good one for a PR, congratulations! I’ve run Grandmas 2x - home of my first BQ and all time PR of 3:33 at 50 years of age. At that time the 3:35 cliff bar pacer QUIIT at the half marathon, which annoyed the hell out of me, but in the end gave me the freedom to just go! Your experience of what you felt was very similar to mine. You gotta just go and hang with it. It’s an expensive race travel considered but if you can swing it, it’s a fantastic marathon. Watched this to remember. Thanks.

[@gregphillips8785]

Great detailed recap! A good tip for the cups, I saw a while back, is to squeeze them on the sides so it's a lot narrower when you put it up to your mouth. Less up your nose & down your front, more in your mouth

[@mariodavidsaitto9261]

huge congrats!!!

[@barrysackett7005]

Great recap, I was running as well, but did not have your day, but back in 2013 I broke 3:00 at Grandma’s for the first time, so I was able to relive that special day with you. Think about coming and running Sioux Falls Marathon on August 28 and if you do let me know. It is one of the last BQ races and a great community event.

[@kerry_runs]

Superb job mike!

[@iamdihan]

amazing man. congrats

[@marylandflyer5670]

Congrats! Great race report. I know exactly what you mean about after a certain number of miles your body just wants to run faster and it’s hard to hold back.

[@kofuzi]

it's a weird compulsion, isn't it

[@Nonixification]

Nothing to say, I am really happy for you well done!

[@RunningWithSamuel]

Amazing video! Congrats on the new PB!!

[@kofuzi]

Thank you!

[@WorldT]

thanks on the update about the race, hope to do it myself next year

[@annieyeung8244]

Amazing!