Justin Grunewald

About

Justin Grunewald is an American ultrarunner and internal medicine physician whose competitive trail career has been shaped by one of the sport's most extraordinary stories of love, loss, and resilience. Born November 15, 1985, he practises medicine at hospitals in Minneapolis and Boulder, Colorado. He co-founded the Brave Like Gabe Foundation in 2017 with his then-wife Gabriele Grunewald — an elite professional middle-distance runner who had battled adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare and incurable cancer, across four separate diagnoses since 2009. Gabriele died in June 2019. In her memory, Justin channelled grief into competitive ultrarunning with characteristic resolve, winning The North Face Wisconsin 50 Mile (6:02:44) in his first 50-mile start, and subsequently competing at the Grindstone 100k by UTMB (3rd overall, 9:12:46) and the CCC by UTMB in Chamonix. Now married to elite ultrarunner and coach Amanda Basham — together raising two young children — he continues to chair the Brave Like Gabe Foundation while competing as a HOKA and rabbit apparel athlete, embodying the spirit of brave and purposeful movement that his late wife personified.

Notable Wins

• — The North Face Wisconsin 50M winner (6:02:44)
• — Grindstone 100k 3rd (9:12:46)

Race History