Grandma's Marathon 2027 Sells Out in Under 3 Hours

Registration for the 2027 Grandma's Marathon weekend opened Thursday night and all three Duluth races were sold out by 10 p.m., with records falling.

Registration for the 51st Grandma's Marathon weekend opened at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 1, and by 10 p.m. every race on the June 2027 schedule was gone. The Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon sold out in 58 minutes, the William A. Irvin 5K sold out in 118 minutes, and the full marathon was declared a sellout at roughly 10 p.m. in 174 minutes — a record for the race. According to the Duluth News Tribune, 7,000 marathon entries were claimed in the first hour alone, and both Great Grandma's Challenge bundles were gone by 9:50 p.m.

The speed of the sellout is the story. Last year, demand was widely credited to the 50th anniversary of Grandma's Marathon, yet the 2027 field filled even faster despite reduced capacity: the marathon is now capped at 8,000 entrants, the Bjorklund half at 7,500, and the Irvin 5K at 1,750. As recently as 2024, the marathon stayed open through the holidays; in 2025 it took a month to fill. Duluth Country Radio notes organizers leaned into the joke that the half marathon sold out faster than Tebello Ramakongoana's 1:00:17 course record from 2004, posting "Our hearts are full. So is our start line."

The demand numbers are corroborated across local outlets. According to 95 KQDS/KDAL, organizers showed more than 11,000 people in the registration waiting room at 7 p.m., and within 90 minutes more than 17,500 people had signed up for at least one event. The Bjorklund half's 58-minute sellout broke the previous record of 1 hour and 17 seconds reported by WDIO, and the marathon's 174-minute fill beat last year's record of 12 hours. The 5K's 118-minute sellout was quick but just off its record pace, per Duluth Country Radio, while the Duluth News Tribune reported it as 1:58, twelve minutes slower than 2026.

Organizers are seeing fewer and fewer no-shows on race day, which means sold-out fields are converting almost entirely to starters. Grandma's Marathon races set finisher records in each of the last two years — 18,359 in 2025 and 19,978 in 2026, per the Duluth News Tribune — and the 50th running in June 2026 marked the marathon's largest finisher field ever.

Pricing stayed flat from 2026: $155 for the marathon, $145 for the half, $55 for the 5K, and $240/$230 for the full and half Great Grandma's Challenge, which bundle a race with Irvin 5K entry. For the second straight year, every entry sold out before any price increase took effect — even after organizers shortened the introductory price window from fifteen days to five, the Duluth News Tribune reports.

Sold out does not mean shut out. Entries to the marathon, half marathon, and 5K remain available through the charity partners program; in 2026 more than 1,900 official charity runners raised over $1.5 million for 50 organizations. "Run for charity, and everybody wins," said Zach Schneider, marketing and public relations director for Grandma's Marathon, adding that 68 charity partners are aiming to raise $1 million or more in 2027. Duluth Country Radio also points to volunteer opportunities and a bib transfer window as remaining paths to a 2027 starting line. Race weekend runs June 17–19, 2027.