Perham Brave Like Gabe Invitational Recap

The 5th Annual Brave Like Gabe Invitational took place on August 24th in Perham, MN. It started in 2019 as a small, hometown cross country meet to honor Gabe Grunewald and has grown in size to raise around $14,000 over the years. Gabe, a 2004 Perham XC/Track Alumni, went on to run at the University of Minnesota and then professionally for Brooks Running as one of the country’s best middle distance runners. She ultimately passed away in 2019 from complications from a rare cancer diagnosis. Her high school coach, Jeff Morris, honors her legacy by naming the invitational after her and encouraging all runners to warm-up for 14 minutes and 5 seconds—a nod to Gabe’s favorite number, 1405.

“It’s grown from just a 12 team event to a 31 team event. We are super excited to have all the teams come into the community and to celebrate the memory of Gabe and her sister Abby Anderson,” Perham head coach Jeff Morris said.

This year’s event raised over $4,000 through local business proceeds, merchandise sales, and donations. The Brave Like Gabe Foundation was on site giving out “Running On Hope” tattoos to athletes and spectators.

To close out the competition, hundreds of high school athletes ran a cooldown loop together in honor of Gabe and Abby.

The Brave Like Gabe Foundation extends gratitude to Coach Jeff Morris, Perham athletic directors, and local Perham businesses who donated a portion of weekend sales for helping to make such an impact on both the high school running community and rare cancer research.

Photos provided by Dacotah McDonald

Read about last year’s event in John’s Journal by John Millea