A RISING STAR ANNIE FRISBIE, by Carolyn Mather for RunBlogRun

Carolyn Mather is a long-time contributor to RunBlogRun. For decades, Carolyn was a monthly contributer to Bruce Morrison’s Running Journal, one of the most iconic of regional running publications. Carolyn Mather was at the recent 2025 Grandmas Marathon, a historic marathon in Minnesota, held every June. This is Carolyn’s second story on the event in 2025. 

A RISING STAR ANNIE FRISBIE

From struggling a few years ago Minnesota Distance Elite team member Annie Frisbee is beginning to shine brightly as she rises in the ranks of women runners. Starting with winning the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in 2024 in a course record 1:07:34, Annie has continued to perform well on the women’s stage. Her 14th place finish at the 2024 Chicago Marathon was eclipsed by her 8th place finish at Boston in 2:23:21. She was the only American in the lead pack for many miles before she got stranded on her own to then recoup and work her way back up. She couldn’t stay with Jess Tonn when she passed her in the final mile but she finished strong behind Jess in an impressive race. Recently she had a decent race at the loaded New York Mini ,finishing in 32:05 on a hot and humid day.

Catching up with Annie she said her hamstring injury is finally under control and training has been going exceptionally well. After Boston she took a couple of weeks off then came back to Minneapolis to start base training to recoup her aerobic fitness. She has recently started “track stuff” including mile repeats and 1200’s and 200’s on the track.After the half, she plans to run the USATF 6k in July before taking a bit of summer vacation before she gets ready for a fall marathon.

Currently she is doing 75-80 miles per week. Annie and  2024 Olympian Dakotah Popehn are best friends and train together. She stated that they are both about equal in their fitness and their friendship drives of them to be better. There is no toxicity and they are both excited for the half marathon. She has no specific goal except to put it all out there and see what happens.

Chris Lundstrom coaches Minnesota Distance Elite. Chris has given the ladies no strict race plan and encourages them to be adaptable during the race. Chris does a fantastic job with the team and has a good pulse on things and tells them when to back off. Annie feels she and Dakotah will probably run the first few miles together and then the race to the finish begins.

Annie uses visualization on her easy runs and takes inspiration from other runners. The 28 year old has no specific mantra but utilizes different mantras to get through the tough patches that are encountered in every race.

Annie and Dakotah are both sponsored by PUMA and she feels the company really cares about their athletes.She loves that PUMA asks for input from their athletes and she says they are so great and supportive.

Talking about shoe technology, she loves their new state of the art carbon plated shoe. She feels the shoes make a huge difference especially for recovery. She feels they help her bounce back more quickly and is continually amazed how women ran so fast before the advent  of the ”super shoes”.

Having been in this sport nearly 50 years I am impressed with the support PUMA is giving female athletes. PUMA has definitely up the ante in shoe company backing of their athletes.

As for the future, Annie feels she is on an improvement curve and learning more about herself as she navigates the world of professional running.Since. I first reported that Dakotah was going to Paris, I am going to say if she stays injury free Annie will be going to LA. That is certainly her goal.