Jane Welzel

Welzel's father Hank, who had escaped Berlin in the late 1940s, returned to the city for the first time to see his daughter's race.

Jane Welzel (b. April 24, 1955, d. Aug. 31, 2014) was a pioneering long-distance runner who advocated for women to be added to the sport.

She graduated from Hopkinton High School in 1973.

She attended University of Massachusetts and competed on the swim team, joining the water polo team as well.

However, a problem with the pool facilities canceled practices during one season, and Welzel tried training with the nascent college cross country team.

She won her first race and decided to stick with the sport, where she competed with many other pioneering female runners such as Joan Benoit.

She would spend three years in cross country, and two years on the track and field team.

Her cross country team finished in the top 10 at the AIAW National Championship in 1975.

In the middle of her college career, the age of 20, she trained for Boston, plodding 30-40 miles a week, never going past 10 miles for a run.

On the day of the 1975 marathon, she entered the starting crowd, not realizing there was a qualification requirement.

She ran as a bandit and finished around 3:35, somewhere in the top-30 women.

She would advance in the marathon distance, and in 1979, she won the Nittany Valley Marathon in State College, Pennsylvania.

She ran a 2:41:07 in Louisiana in 1980.

Four times she tried to break the 2:40 barrier.

Then in 1983, at age 28, she took the lead from the start and won the Philadelphia Marathon by eight minutes in 2:36:38, a personal best time.

Jane Welzel and her husband were driving from Hamilton, New Zealand, to Auckland, New Zealand, while on vacation in 1984.

On the way, their vehicle swerved on a gravel road and flipped into a cow pasture.

The top of the car was crushed, and Welzel was trapped in the wreckage.

He neck was broken.

She survived, but spend several weeks strapped to a specialized bed that limited movement before being put into a full-body plaster cast for two months.

For nearly three years, she persisted in regaining movement, then fitness, then competitive form.

She was selected to represent America at the 1988 and 1989 World Road Racing Championships as well as several World Championship races: the 1992 Half Marathon, the 1993 Marathon, the 1993 Marathon Cup, and the 1994 Half Marathon.

Welzel grew up in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, the city that hosts the start of the Boston Marathon.

By the 1988 Olympic Trials Marathon, she had fully recovered and was a contender to win the race.

She had qualified with a 2:42 time at the Twin Cities Marathon.

In 1990, she became the U.S. Marathon Champion when she ran 2:33:35 at Grandma's Marathon in Minnesota.

Her career spanned decades.

She competed in five U.S. Olympic Trials Marathons and won more than 50 major races.

Welzel ran the 1990 Boston Marathon, finishing in 11th.

She was the 1990 U.S. Champion in the marathon when she won the Grandma's Marathon (named for the sponsor, Grandma's Restaurant) in a personal best time of 2:33:25.

The day was muggy and warm, and participants described struggling in the high heat index.

Welzel went out faster than local favorite Janice Ettle, then caught Minnesotan Janis Klecker at the halfway mark.

Welzel credited her training in Colorado with the ability to hold the lead to the finish.

She raced to 6th place against international competition in the 1990 Berlin Marathon, in which she outran East Germans such as Birgit Jerschabek.

She was sponsored by Reebok at the time.

In 1991, she was 10th.

She was the first American woman in 1992 and 10th overall.

In 1992, she finished 10th at the Boston Marathon just after running to 9th place at the 1992 Olympic Trials Marathon in 2:35:55 during the hot and humid weather Houston provided.

She showed that she was back to form by finishing 13th in the trials in 2:36:08, prompting Runner's World to call her the "Comeback Runner of the Year."

She was present at the first U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, and ran with the fastest women in the nation to finish 14th in 2:35:53.