Grandma's: The Olsen team returns ... 13 years later

John Olsen hopes to finish Grandma's Marathon before the official clock is turned off after six hours on Saturday.

"I'm pretty sure I can make it,'' Olsen said this week, curled up in a chair on the deck of his parents' house. ''I know I can make it, if I keep my mind set on the goal.''

If he does, he will have finished his first marathon but will accept his second finisher's medal.

What?

John Olsen is 12 years old, about to enter the eighth grade. And it's obvious why his middle name is Miles. Thirteen years ago, just two weeks before John was born, his mother ran Grandma's Marathon, 26.2 miles from Two Harbors to Duluth.

Don't be shocked -- Sue Olsen had it all checked out with the doctors before the race and got the medical OK. Besides, for her, a marathon is like a warmup lap. She's goes more for 100-kilometer and 24-hour races. Now 51, she has run for United States ultramarathoning teams in France, Spain, The Netherlands, Japan, Taipei and Italy.

Why, the day before John Miles was born a healthy, happy 7 pounds, 3 ounces, his mom completed more than 60 miles in a local Family Advocate Network System (FANS) 24-hour race along Lake Nokomis.

So mother and son have done a lot of miles together.

There was Grandma's, 13 years ago, of course -- a feat that prompted race organizers to give Olsen two finisher medals. And then there was all that training she did throughout her pregnancy; by her estimation, the two made it through more than 1,500 miles together. And she started pushing John in a stroller while running just two weeks after delivery, and even pushed him in a race once.

But only once.

"I almost wiped a runner out,'' Sue admitted. ''I was going too fast downhill and it was 'Whoa, I almost took this poor man out.'"

John claims to remember sitting in the stroller urging his mom to go faster as she would puff up the steep hill near their house on a training run. So was there any chance he wouldn't, at some point, get interested in the sport?

Well, yes, there was. His mother loved running but hated the thought of forcing it on her son. She just wanted him to be active. (He is, by the way: he's a wide receiver in football and a forward/center in basketball. He hasn't run track yet -- the distances are too short).

For example, when he was very young, she took him to one of those toddlers trots, only to have John get a little freaked out by a guy dressed up in a costume. He still shudders at the thought.

"There was this big bee giving out free macaroni,'' he said, shaking his head.

But it was in his blood.

When he was 7, having watched his mom do several 24-hour runs, he asked if he could do one, too. Again, doctors were consulted and rules issued: You can't run alone, you must sleep during the night portion of the race, and you can't go more than 20 miles in 24 hours. At one point, after running for a while, John left with his father, Tom, to go play in a soccer game. Since then he's done the race a few more times. He and his mother rarely run together, though John did join her when she ran the 2,000th mile of her FANS career.

With a 12-year-old minimum, this is the first time John is eligible to run in Grandma's. And the issue of young people running?

"When he first wanted to run FANS, I talked with my doctor and she said kids won't injure themselves," Sue said. "It's when adults push them. That's my philosophy, for him to set his own limits. And he hasn't had any injuries.''

But Saturday, the two will run the race together, start to finish. They have done a little training together, but not a lot. The plan is to go at an easy pace, but one fast enough to get under that six-hour wire.

"There is a hill called Lemon Drop Hill [which comes about the 22-mile mark],'' John said. ''I guess that's the biggest hill in the race. I've seen it before. I hate running uphill, though I'm pretty good at it. I'm pretty sure that will be the hardest thing.''