Power Trip Kicks Off 2026 Grandma's Marathon Weekend In Duluth

For the second year in a row, Minnesota's most popular morning show kicked off Grandma's Marathon Weekend in Duluth.

KFAN's Power Trip Morning Show has made an annual tradition over the years of bringing their hilarious and engaging show to Duluth every summer, having kicked off the Duluth Airshow in years past, and last year coming up at the beginning of Grandma's Marathon.

This year, Chris Hawkey, Cory Cove, and Paul "Meatsauce" Lambert returned to celebrate Grandma's Marathon, marking the race's 50th anniversary. Joining Hawk, Sauce, and Cory were former NHL star Mark Parrish and midwestern sports broadcasting legend Marney Gellner, both regular guests on the show.

The show was hosted by Duluth's KFAN affiliate, the FAN 106.5, to a packed house in the atrium of the Holiday Center in Downtown Duluth. The FAN 106.5 also calls the Holiday Center home, working with the venue, along with Valentini's and Lyric Kitchen-Bar to prepare space and provide breakfast and beverages for guests.

Being the kickoff to Grandma's Marathon Weekend, the race's Marketing & Public Relations Director, Zach Schneider, joined the show to talk about the race's history and set the stage for the big anniversary this year.

A Duluthian in the crowd also made an appearance on the air after a sign he was holding caught the eye of the Power Trip crew. The sign declared that the correct way to eat mac & cheese is with a fork, which got a conversation going on the show.

As any fan of the show knows, Friday episodes of The Power Trip culminate in "The Initials Game", where a listener has the chance to win a cash prize (which was over $100,000 this week) by guessing the initials of the week for the game, and then the show's crew competes against each other in identifying the phrases of each round using the initials of the week.

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Marney Gellner made things very interesting through the game, but in the end, Mark Parrish proved victorious this week with the tiebreaker answer "Pig Latin". Mark's win this week creates a bit of a winning streak, as he also won last week.

Here's a look at some of the fun from the morning: