Shortly after turning pro at the end of 2011, Neely Spence suffered a stress fracture in her foot, which cost her 12 weeks of training and a chance to run in the Olympic trials 5,000m. But she wasn’t idle while she was recovering.

In June, Spence, 22, moved to Lake Orion, Mich., to train with the Hansons (her first time living away from home). She returned to racing with a second-place finish at the USA 5K championships in 15:33 and a third at the US women’s 10K championships in 32:50. When Running Times spoke to Spence, her schedule for the rest of the year included the Ekiden relay in Japan, where her team took third, and a track 10,000m in Australia, which she won in 32:16. The real highlight of 2012 is still to come: her New Year’s Eve wedding to fellow runner and Shippensburg alum, Dillon Gracey.

Spence, who has a 5,000m PR of 15:27, won 8 Division II national titles at Shippensburg, where she was coached by her dad, Steve Spence, a 1992 Olympian and bronze medalist in the marathon at the 1991 world championships.