LSC’s Virtual Campus Offers Grandma’s Marathon Course; Olympic Hopeful Katie Koski to Teach Course

Lake Superior College is offering the chance to train for and run Grandma’s Marathon or the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon for college credit while working with a world-class athlete. More than 17,000 runners and 50,000 race fans from around the world are expected to participate in June 15, 2007 Grandma’s Marathon weekend.

This year, native Duluthian Katie Koski will teach the online physical education course. Koski is a champion runner who is in training for the Beijing Olympics team trials. She was asked to teach the online course for Lake Superior College because of her experience training for and completing Grandma’s Marathon. “I have run Grandma’s eight times finishing 6th, 7th and 10th respectively with a 2:42 best,” said Koski. “I feel very connected to the Duluth running community and Grandma’s Marathon.”

Koski was named to the 2007? World Cup 100k Team based on her performance at the Edmund Fitzgerald Race in 2005. Although she is only thirty-three years old, this is her twentieth year of competitive running.

“The beauty of running for me is its simplicity,” explained Koski. “One only needs a decent pair of shoes, a path and a vision even if the vision is simply to get from here to there. She continued, “I like to compete and do well in races, but more importantly I find beauty in the movement itself and the people running has brought into my life. Running is a great teacher, and I have learned much about myself by lacing up shoes each day and heading down some path.”

Koski’s goal is to achieve the Olympic Trails Standard at Grandma’s this June. This will enable her to compete in the Women’s Olympic Trials in Boston April of 2008. If she runs the standard, sub 2:47, she will begin to prepare for her third U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials.

Lake Superior College’s Virtual Campus PE courses incorporate regional sporting events. The courses include Grandma’s Marathon held in Duluth, Minnesota every June, the American Birkebeiner cross-country ski race held in February in Hayward, Wisconsin, and the NorthShore Inline Marathon held on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior in September. The courses provide race training and nutritional information in addition to history, etiquette and basic skills.

The registration deadline to sign up for the Grandma’s Marathon course is March 20, 2007. For more information visit or contact Christine Torma, (218) 733-2030, c.torma@lsc.edu