Grunewald delays chemo for a few more races
Middle-distance runner Gabriele Grunewald reserved this month for racing. Next month, chemotherapy. Grunewald delayed her latest cancer treatments a few weeks — with her doctor’s consent — in a quest to qualify for the U.S. track and field championships at the end of June in Sacramento, California.
Should she reach the time standard, she fully intends on taking the starting line — no matter how she may feel in the midst of chemo for a disease that’s gone from her salivary gland to her liver.
“I’m trying to keep my life normal, and not let cancer dictate everything I do,” said the 30-year-old Grunewald , who finished in 4:12.29 in the 1,500 meters at the USA Track and Field Distance Classic Thursday, narrowly missing the qualifying time for nationals of 4:09.50. “So I’m just taking it a week at a time, one race at a time, just trying to live as much of my life as I can in a meaningful way.”
Her next chance to achieve the standard for nationals will be at the Prefontaine Classic next weekend in Eugene, Oregon. She’s also contemplating racing at the Adidas Boost Boston Games June 2, which would happen to be right around the time she’s scheduled to undergo the first of up to six rounds of chemo.
“If this is the end (of competitive running) for me, I want to get in a couple of more races,” explained Grunewald, who could be added to the field at nationals if it isn’t full. “I don’t want to drop everything just because I have cancer.
“I do think that I have some good running in my legs right now.”
The former University of Minnesota standout got a late start on training, but those frigid runs over the winter in Minneapolis made her stronger and stronger. And that’s with a healing 13-inch scar across her stomach, the one from surgery last August to remove cancer from her liver.
It’s a cancer that resurfaced on a follow-up scan in March — the latest chapter in her ongoing battle with the disease.
In 2009, Grunewald was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of cancer in her salivary gland, which led to surgery. A year later, it was found in her thyroid and she had that removed, along with receiving radioactive iodine treatment.
Then, for the next several seasons, she was symptom-free, and racing better than ever:
• Fourth at the 2012 Olympic Trials, narrowly missing the squad for the London Games
•A 3,000-meter title indoor championships
• Personal-best times in the 800, 1,500, mile, 3,000, two-mile and 5,000
There was also this race, one of her more memorable performances: Finishing the 1,500 in 4:01.48 on July 19, 2013, in Monaco. The three Americans who wound up in front of her that day — Jenny Simpson, Brenda Martinez and Shannon Rowbury — would later comprise the Olympic team for the event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
“That was a race where there was a glimmer there, of what’s possible for me,” said Grunewald. “But things haven’t turned out as perfectly as I’d hoped.”
Early last August, a month after finishing 12th at the Olympic Trials, her husband , who’s just finishing up his residency in internal medicine, gave her a hug and noticed her stomach felt different.
A tumor in her liver. She had surgery Aug. 26 to remove the growth, with doctors feeling optimistic they got it all.
Her recovery was slow, though, with a four-mile run causing pain because of the incision. Around December, she ran eight miles, which was a big step toward feeling more and more like her old running self. at the 2014 USA