Maggie Montoya breaks Kara Goucher's Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon record

DULUTH – Kara Goucher predicted her women's course record would fall in Saturday's 33rd Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. She was correct, but little did she know it would be broken by a runner from Boulder, Colo., where Goucher lives.

Maggie Montoya, 28, won in 1 hour, 9 minutes, 26 seconds for 13.1 miles along the North Shore, lowering the mark by 20 seconds on an ideal, 55-degree day. Goucher, 44, a two-time Olympian from Duluth, set the record while competing in the 2012 USA Half Marathon Championships. And Saturday she was on-hand to see Montoya, while working as a finish-line television commentator.

Joel Reichow of St. Paul set a personal best at the distance to win the men's title in 1:02:30, outdueling Afewerki Zeru of Colorado Springs, who was only 10 seconds back in 1:02:40. Habtamu Cheney, 24, of Provo, Utah, was third in 1:03:19.

The winners earned $3,000 from a $25,425 prize money purse.

Montoya and Goucher know each other, sort of.

"Kara is super nice and I've seen her a few times, and when I've been out running, and she sees me, she'll always wave. She's always been someone I've looked up to," said Montoya, a Baylor University graduate. "I had no idea what the course record was and I didn't know about it until the finish-line announcers mentioned it. "

Montoya, a qualifier for the 2024 U.S. Olympic marathon trials, ran strong from the start in her Duluth debut and wasn't challenged. She had run the Boston Marathon just 61 days earlier in 2:31:19. Jaci Smith, 26, of Colorado Springs, was second in 1:11:27 and Allie Schaich, 30, of Seattle was third in 1:12:57.

Reichow, 29, pulled away from Zeru in the final three miles to secure one of his most satisfying road race victories. He lowered his personal record by 8 seconds.

"I was pretty confident in my race strategy and I tried to keep the pressure on [running a 4:30 mile near the end]," said Reichow, who runs for the Minnesota Distance Elite team and is a sales manager for the Fleet Feet Marathon Sports store in Minneapolis. "This ranks pretty high among my accomplishments. This is an iconic race and it was super cool to hear people cheering my name on the course."

Reichow's time was eighth-best in race history. Tyler Jermann, 30, of St. Paul was seventh in 1:04:29.

The race had 7,496 starters and 7,483 finishers.

Aaron Pike loves Nordic skiing, biathlon and track and field, but lists marathon racing as his favorite activity. He showed that again Saturday with a Grandma's Marathon men's wheelchair title. The Park Rapids, Minn., native won in 1:27:34 for his fifth title in six years. He set the course record of 1:20:02 last year.

"I like the feeling of being outside on the roads and being super fit, and I like pack racing," said Pike, a paralympic star who trains in Champaign, Ill. "This course is good for me and I love the downhills."

The victory was worth $3,500.

Jenna Fesemyer, 26, of Champaign, second a year ago, had a bloody left arm for the last 20 miles because of severe chafing with her chair's left wheel, but carried on to win in 1:47:20. She won $3,150.

"I just tried to distract myself for the rest of the race," Fesemyer said of the injury. "I prayed the rosary and counted to 100 many times."

The two men to have started and finished every Grandma's Marathon reached their goal again Saturday, No. 47 (including a COVID-19 run in 2020). Duluth native Jim Nowak, 73, of Cornell, Wis., ran 5:52:41.

Two Harbors native John Naslund, 73, of Bloomington finished in 6:13:02. He has also started and finished all 40 Twin Cities Marathon races.

A relatively good weather day meant an average amount of runner traffic at the race finish-line medical tent, according to medical director Kaily McLellan, an Essentia Health sports medicine doctor.

She said 200 runners, from the marathon and half marathon, were treated, mostly for nausea, heat-related core temperatures and exercise collapse.