Gabriele Grunewald, the elite runner who gained the support of thousands of followers on social media for her perseverance in competing while facing a rare metastatic cancer, died on Tuesday in Minneapolis. She was 32.



The cause was complications of the cancer, her husband, Justin Grunewald, said.

In the blur of professional athletes racing one another, it was easy to spot Grunewald: A scar, crimson and hook-shaped, stretched 13 inches across her abdomen — a visible reminder of the illness and procedures she endured.

The cancer that interrupted her athletic goals emerged in 2009 and would return over the next decade in various forms.

The first of her operations, for a tumor in her neck, damaged a facial nerve that permanently changed her smile. Even though she said it made her cringe to look in the mirror, she smiled often, especially at starting lines.