Grace Nolan, Oakland Runner and Medical Student, Passes Away Before the Detroit Marathon

Grace Nolan, a second-year medical student at Oakland University and the 2025 Horizon League 10,000m champion, has died. Her name sat near the top of the women’s elite list for the Detroit Free Press Marathon on Sunday, Oct. 18, and the race announced her death on Tuesday. Organizers have not said when or how she died, and no cause has been made public.

Detroit was where Nolan ran her first marathon, in 2025, and she had signed up to race it again. “I had the most fun I have ever had in a race that returning to this race wasn’t even a question!” she said in comments for her elite athlete profile ahead of this year’s race. The 2025 race was run in wind and rain, weather she remembered as “absolutely awful,” and she had come into it as a “stressed and severely sleep deprived first-semester medical student” still working out how to prepare for the distance. She finished fourth anyway, the Detroit Free Press reported, and organizers list her marathon best at 2:50:51.

Before the roads, Nolan raced the track and the cross-country course for Oakland while finishing a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science and a Master of Public Health, then moved on to the university’s William Beaumont School of Medicine. Her 34:17 at the April 2025 Horizon League championships won her the 10,000m title and took more than 30 seconds off the meet record, according to race organizers and the medical school. That spring she also ran a personal best for fourth place over 10,000m at the Penn Relays. Her half-marathon best is 1:17:46.

In December 2024 the Horizon League gave her its cross-country Sportsmanship Award, citing her as a team captain who mentored a big freshman class and made a point of congratulating rivals as well as teammates after races. Race organizers say she made the all-league first team in cross-country three times.

Nolan grew up in Clarkston, Michigan, where she was part of a state-title team in high school and earned All-American honors. On a regular day while she was getting ready for her first marathon, she ran eight to 10 miles before class, the medical school said.

The Horizon League put her forward as one of its two nominees for the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Outside of school and training she gave her time to Girls on the Run, the Michigan Senior Olympics and Lighthouse of Oakland County, and organizers say she drew blood as a volunteer at local free clinics. When the nomination was announced, she said she was “honored that my hard work paid off…not only as an athlete but as a leader, as a student and a community member.”

The race went ahead on Sunday in sunshine. Allison Sherman of Lake Orion, Michigan, won the women’s marathon in 2:43:29, and Andy Bowman of Ferndale took his third straight men’s title in 2:12:11, CBS Detroit reported. Organizers are sharing their tribute to Nolan under the tag #ForGrace.

A celebration of life is planned for Saturday, Oct. 31, at Oakland University, according to her obituary.