Repeat win for Kenyan, personal best for Minnesotan in half marathon

DULUTH – Husband and wife, Tyler and Katy Jermann of Burnsville are on the same running schedule. And when in the same road race, in order to compare finishing times in a gender-equal way, Katy gets a handicap of 35 seconds per mile.

Saturday morning, Katy Jermann won the 29th Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon women's title and bested her husband along the North Shore with a significant personal-best performance.

An ideal weather morning also led to a repeat victory by Kenyan Panuel Mkungo in 1 hour, 2 minutes, 37 seconds. The half-marathon winners won $3,000 from a prize money purse of $21,600. A field of 9,237 had a cool, tailwind morning at 6:15 a.m.

"This is like a hometown race, living in Minnesota. I was smiling the whole way," said Katy Jermann, a 27-year-old Iowa native who is a 2015 Iowa State graduate and competes for Team Minnesota USA. "It was beautiful; some of the best conditions I've run in."

She won in 1:10:27, crushing her previous best of 1:12:11 set May 5 in Pittsburgh. Tyler Jermann, 26, was fourth in the men's race in 1:03:31.

Bethany Sachtleben, 27, was second in the women's race in 1:10:43; Lexi Zeis, 23, was third in 1:12:42.

Katy Jermann fits running into a busy schedule, one that includes part-time teaching at Level Up Academy Charter School in White Bear Lake, coaching at Minneapolis Washburn High School and working for the TC Running Company.

"I knew this was going to be competitive. Starting at Mile 6, I tried to start pushing [the pace]," said Mkungo, who ran a best of 1:01:51 in a Nairobi half marathon in March. "I knew my colleagues were coming very fast. I was looking back and saw five guys and I said, 'You have to go.' "

Mkungo is the first repeat Garry Bjorklund men's winner since Ryan Meissen of River Falls, Wis., in 2004 and 2005. Katy Jermann is the first Minnesota resident women's winner since Katie McGregor of Savage in 2011.

After two straight half-marathon victories in Duluth, Mkungo hinted he would return in 2020 to run Grandma's Marathon.

Grandma's Marathon course records were rewritten in grand fashion as teammates Aaron Pike and Susannah Scaroni, based in Champaign and Urbana, Ill., repeated as wheelchair division champions.

Pike, 33, won a third consecutive title in an 1:20:59, breaking Joshua George's course mark of 1:22:55 in 2012.

"When we started our race it was so fast and it felt comfortable," Scaroni said. "[Teammate Tatyana McFadden] pushed that pace and we're both strong, and it was perfect weather. We were very lucky today."

Scaroni said she averaged 18 miles per hour in her 18-pound racing chair. At 24 miles she passed 2015 champion McFadden. The 2019 World Para champion, McFadden, 30, finished second in a personal-best 1:31:30.

The women's world best is 1:28:17 by Switzerland's Manuela Schar, set in the 2017 Boston Marathon. Grandma's and Boston are point-to-point courses with a net elevation drop, which makes race results ineligible for world records.

Pike also had the luxury of a willing competitor, Ireland's Patrick Monahan, as they alternated in the lead almost every mile. Monahan, 33, was second in 1:22:23, breaking his personal best by nearly seven minutes.

"The two of us got away right from the start, and I said 'Hey, let's work together.' I kept looking at my speedometer and we were at 20 mph," Pike said. "I knew we were on pace for a fast time. This is such a fast course and the field is strong, maybe just one tier down from major races like Boston, London, New York and Chicago."

Both have raced well in 2019, including victories at the Lilac Bloomsday 12-kilometer race May 4 in Spokane, Wash., where Scaroni set a course record of 29:58.

Seemingly ageless Kenyan Christopher Kipyego, 45, added to his 40-and-older masters titles, placing eighth overall in 2:17:03. He won the Grandma's men's title outright in 2011 in 2:12:15.

Heather Lieberg, 40, of Helena, Mont., was the women's masters champion, 17th overall in 2:40:41. Each won $2,500.

Former Grandma's three-time overall winner Mary Akor, 42, of Hawthorne, Calif., ran 2:39:07 Saturday, yet she wasn't considered for the masters title, said marathon officials. Akor was given a two-year drug ban in 2013 after testing positive for an anabolic agent.

Qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon trials was also available in Saturday's races, with 73 men and women running fast enough to get to the Feb. 29 race in Atlanta. Men needed to run 2:19 or faster and women 2:45 or faster, or 1:04 or 1:13 in the half-marathon. The 2020 Olympic Games are in Tokyo, July 24-Aug. 9.

Naslund has also finished all 37 Twin Cities Marathons, giving him 80 in a row in Minnesota's two oldest and largest marathons.

As of 6 p.m. Saturday, there were 6,356 timed finishers in the marathon and 7,492 in the half-marathon.

The Grandma's Marathon finish line medical tent staff treated 208 runners, medical director Ben Nelson told the Duluth News Tribune.

"That's a good day. Not the lowest, but definitely not the highest," Nelson said. "It was just a really good day for running. The runners looked good crossing the finish line. They looked happy. I don't think we could have asked for anything better."