Disappointment doesn't have a place in Gabriele Anderson's life.
When diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2009, followed by surgery and radiation treatments, she returned to run at the end of the University of Minnesota track season and placed second in the 2010 NCAA Division I championships at 1,500 meters.
After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in October 2010, followed by more surgery and radiation, she returned to run well on the track and on the roads as a professional in 2011.
Anderson, 26, a native of Perham, Minn., living in Minneapolis, is in the midst of her best racing streak and next will run along Superior Street in Sunday's sixth Minnesota Mile.
"Running has been a constant in my life and has given me the chance to dream big," Anderson said this week by phone. "I've trusted in God's plan for me. I didn't give up on the idea of a rainbow after the storm."
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After facing illness head on, there was another setback, June 29, at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. In the track semifinals of the women's 1,500, Anderson was disqualified after bumping another runner. Anderson's coach with Team USA Minnesota, Dennis Barker, appealed and Anderson was reinstated for the final, finishing fourth on July 1. The top three finishers advanced to the Summer Games in London.
Anderson took a week to regroup, spending time on lakes in Perham and Brainerd, Minn., with her family, including
fiancée Justin Grunewald (a Minnesota Duluth medical school graduate and runner).
She then got on a plane to Europe and in one week in July set three personal bests on the track -- 2 minutes, 2.83 seconds for 800 meters in Belgium, 4:04.84 for 1,500 meters in Italy and 8:43.52 for 3,000 meters in Monaco.
In August, back in the United States, she had two second-place finishes -- in the Falmouth (Mass.) Mile on the track in 4:27.94 (the world's third-best time at the distance in 2012) and in the Liberty Mile on the road in 4:36.3 in Pittsburgh.
"I would never bet against her," University of Minnesota women's distance coach Gary Wilson told the St. Paul Pioneer Press about Anderson in June. "She's got a heart bigger than the state of Minnesota.
"She was always a tough kid, but you saw a different aura about her once she had the cancer and survived it, and then of course the second cancer. I just think she lives every day like it's her best."
Barker told the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
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"She's a great runner, but I think the biggest thing with her is her tenacity. There are so many things she's looking forward to that she doesn't dwell on the negative things that have happened."
Anderson, the 2004 Minnesota Class A high school 800-meter champion, sees herself running seriously through the next four years, leading to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Her focused event will be 1,500 meters. She said she's 100 percent recovered from both cancers and meets twice a year with an endocrinologist and an eye-ears-and-nose doctor. She and Grunewald are to be married in October 2013.
Anderson, a Brooks-sponsored runner, has been to the Minnesota Mile twice before, placing fourth and fifth in the elite women's race, and will be favored Sunday.
"This has been a great journey and I've surpassed what I thought I was capable of. There were other times that I didn't reach my potential. Now I no longer place any limits on myself," said Anderson, who earned degrees in English and political science at Minnesota in 2008.
-- Craig Miller, 25, a former University of Wisconsin star, returns as defending men's elite champion. He won last year in 4:03.8. Former champion Christian Hesch, 33, of Hollywood, Calif., also is entered, along with Grunewald, 26, who ran in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in the men's marathon.
-- Heather Kampf, 25, of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., is among the elite women entrants. She won the 2012 USA Mile Road title May 17 in 4:36:9 in Minneapolis. Great Britain's Barbara Parker, 29, who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, also is entered.
