Man Boards Wrong Bus, Accidentally Runs Full Grandma’s Marathon

Sean Elmquist was signed up to run the half, finished the full

DULUTH, Minn. – Some people train months before running their first marathon, but one Duluth man ran and finished the 42nd annual Grandma’s Marathon by accident.

Sean Elmquist was planning to run the half marathon, but he boarded the wrong bus and was taken to the full marathon starting line instead.

“Then I got this really sinking feeling like I missed the race,” said Elmquist. “Then I was really sad but then I was like maybe I can just run the whole race, so I kind of hid my bib because I didn’t have the real bib, it was kind of fraudulent, so then I just ran the whole race.”

Elmquist tells us he was nervous at first because he had never run twenty-six miles before.

He had trained for the half marathon and was hoping to run it fast, but he took the full marathon slow and finished the race.

“I mean, I think a lot of people thought I was like the slowest half marathon runner of all time and they kind of felt bad for me, but I guess now that I finished it I feel a sense of accomplishment,” said Elmquist.

He says he had a good time and would consider running another full marathon on purpose.