It has been both entertaining and enlightening for those of us in, basically, lily-white Northeastern Minnesota to witness the annual arrival of elite East African runners -- all of them very black, very lean, and most of all very swift -- when they arrive in mid-June to dominate Grandma’s Marathon.

It happened again this year, at the 39th running of the North Shore classic, a 26.2-mile jaunt down what is normally a very scenic Hwy. 61 to revisit as it curves around the shoreline terrain of Lake Superior. Only this time, it was more specific.

Dominic Ondoro, who shattered Dick Beardsley’s 33-year-old course record by 31 seconds on his first trip to Grandma’s last year, was confident he could run the course faster this time, perhaps lowering his record even more. There seemed to be no good reason to doubt the 27-year-old from Eldoret, Kenya.

Turns out, the only good reason to doubt Ondoro was Elisha Barno, 29, who broke away from Ondoro just as the lead group was running up Lemon Drop Hill at 27th Avenue East and London Road, and beat Ondoro to the finish by 41 seconds, winning Grandma’s in a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, 36 seconds. The classic is that Barno is also from Kenya, and also from Eldoret, a city that is the fifth-most-populous city in the East African country. A year ago, Ondoro broke the record in his first visit to Duluth; this time, Barno beat his training partner and won in HIS first trip to the North Shore.

But wait, as they say, there’s more.

In the women’s portion, Sara Kiptoo broke the course record for women two years ago, in her first try at Grandma’s, but was disappointed in her performance at Grandma’s last year. She vowed to come back strong this year, and she did. Kiptoo took off and virtually sprinted away from the field, heading for what would have been a record that could last a lifetime. She was running so swiftly, her lead reached two and a half minutes by the midpoint. Much too swiftly, it turns out. Before we forget, Kiptoo is also from Eldoret, Kenya.

Behind her, Jane Kibii kept running at her preferred pace, which was fast enough to start closing the huge gap until it was manageable, and then challengeable. Kibii, 30, ran right past the faltering Kiptoo with a couple miles to go, and won the women ‘s Grandma’s title at 2:32:06. Incredibly, Kibii also is from Kenya, and -- you guessed it -- from Eldoret! And she, coincidentally, was also victorious in her first try at Grandma’s.

Lindsey Scherf, from Scarsdale, N.Y., exceeded her own expectations and charged up after Kibii, also passing Kiptoo to finish second among the women, with a 2:32:19 time, to Kiptoo’s 2:32:51.

That may have prevented the footnote that the top two men and top two women finishers were all from the same city in Kenya, and even though neither of the featured classes held a record in last Saturday’s rainy and drizzly day, it’s just about as amazing that the most dominant runners, the 1-2 men’s finishers and the 1-3 women, were all from the same town.

I couldn’t resist asking the question, what is it about Endoret that spawns so many winning runners? I asked: Is it downhill in both directions? The responses were great, because all four of them tried to answer seriously about how there are downhill parts, uphill parts, and level parts. The key is that young Kenyans grow up there without buses, without moms in minivans, or SUVs, and if they want to go someplace, such as school, they run on down the road.

Running is a way of life there, and these elite runners are magnificent to watch perform. Most of them have been grabbed off by agents, and they come to the U.S. to train in places like Santa Fe, N.M., which has a lot of altitude for overload training for runners. That’s where the AmeriKenyan Running Club is located. It may be a while before someone investigates how much the club is involved in scheduling the Kenyan runners at various marathons, to say nothing of how much of the prize money they may be earning.

For now, we don’t care. We can live with Duluth, and Grandma’s Marathon, becoming “Eldoret West” for one day each summer.

Grandma’s Always Lives Up to Annual Hype

The beauty of Grandma’s Marathon weekend in Duluth is that the participation of thousands of Duluthians earns the gratitude of international elite runners, and every event – from the 5-Kilometer run Friday night, to the wheelchair races and the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon that precedes the actual Grandma’s Marathon on Saturday -- holds its own drama.
This year, the women’s part of the marathon was more dramatic, but the colorful winner, Elisha Barno, brought the men’s featured event to life when he engaged a dozen other top runners in a lead pack, and stayed up there as the others faded back, and ultimately beat his friend and countryman Dominic Ondoro to the finish.
The race started in a rainstorm, with some of the marathoners seeking shelter until the downpour subsided. But it was still raining when it started, just west of Two Harbors on Hwy. 61. Neither Barno nor Ondoro liked running in the rain.
“It was hard running in the rain,” said Ondoro. “But I thought I was going to win it.”
Barno said: “We started in the rain, and that was not good. It took 30 minutes before I became warm, after the rain stopped.

“We were in a group of maybe 12 runners, all running together after the start,” Barno added. “I looked back after a while, and the 12 had become 8, and then 6, and then 3, about the time I got ahead, as we started to run up the hill.
“Whenever I looked back after that, always I saw Dominic. He was smiling, and coming closer.”
Good incentive for Barno. And Ondoro, sitting nearby, smiled again. The two do run with Ondoro in Eldoret, where both of them grew up having to travel from home to school. “It was 5 kilometers to school, and we’d run...or walk,” he said.
Barno said he weighs 120 pounds. Maybe not right after the race, though, it was suggested. “Maybe 110 now,” he said, flashing that winning smile again. Ondoro was only congratulatory to his friend, saying if he couldn’t win, he wanted his friend to win.
In the women’s race, Sara Kiptoo seems to have a problem disciplining herself to start off at something less than a mile-runner’s tempo. She ran away from the field at the start and had a prohibitive lead. The kind of lead that could intimidate opponents to pretty much give up. Not this time, however.

Asked why she started off at such a hot pace, Kiptoo said: “That’s the way I always start. I looked back a few times, and saw nobody behind me.”
But while defending her style as her style, Kiptoo also was asked if she had raced her hometown rival, Jane Kibii, before.
“This was the third time we raced against each other,” Kiptoo said. “She beat me all three times. She was fifth in San Diego last year, and I was eighth. And I was seventh in San Francisco, when she won.”
I suggested to her that I wasn’t a runner, and I could appreciate the psychological edge in building a big lead, if she runs off to a big lead, but then fades and loses, maybe it’s time for a change in strategy?
Kibii said that when Kiptoo ran off, it was no surprise to her.
“It was raining and cold, and it took me about five minutes to warm up,” Kibii said. “I love the course, and I love the people here. I ran for a long time and couldn’t see Sara up ahead. When I got about to Mile 21, I could see her again, and I knew I was gaining. I knew she was a fast starter, but when I was gaining like that I thought she must be fading a little. That gave me more energy.”
With about a mile to go, Kibii caught up and passed Kiptoo. I asked Kiptoo if the realization that she was being passed extracted an extra closing burst from her. But she said: “No, I get more tired when someone passes me.
That meant Kibii won the psychological battle as well as the race. It was a major surprise that she could overcome such an enormous deficit, but almost as surprising was the fact that Lindsey Scherf, who ran at Harvard and Oregon, was able to also pass Kiptoo.
“I’ll take second place, and a personal best, anytime,” Scherf said. “I’m more than happy. I exceeded my expectations.”

Close Half-Marathon

The half-marathon, which now attracts more runners than the full, featured the closest finish in history. Shadrack Biwott, a naturalized American who grew up in Kenya (where else?) won the 25th Garry Bjorklund event with a closing sprint that beat Macdonald Ondara of Kenya and Ben Payne of Colorado Springs. Biwott’s time was 1:03:09, while his foes had 1:03:09.74, and 1:03:09.82, to cluster within a second of Biwott.
Neely Spence-Gracey of Boulder, Colo., won the women’s half.
In the wheelchair marathon, course record-holder Josh George of Champaign, Ill., won at 1:30:11.5, while Tatyana McFadden, of Clarksville, Md., took the women’s crown in her first try, at 1:42:49.5.
The half-marathon had 7,218 finishers, while 6,047 finished the full marathon.