Julie Burhans Hoffman ’82
In the midst of training for her fifth marathon, Julie Burhans Hoffman ’82 and her 16-year-old daughter were hit head-on by a drunk driver in broad daylight. It was St. Patrick’s Day 2009.
“It was quite terrifying,” she recalls. “It took 45 minutes to get my daughter out of the car and then airlift her to Children’s Hospital, while I was taken to another hospital. We credit seatbelts, airbags, and the Audi car we were driving with the amazing outcome.”
Over the next two months Hoffman’s knee and ankle required surgery. “I had been training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and suddenly was very worried I would never run again,” she says. “So much of our social life rev
olves around running.”
Through therapy and determination, she returned to running at the end of July and ran three marathons in five months. She qualified in February 2010, and realized her dream of running the Boston Marathon in April 2011 with her husband, Jack, with whom she coaches the Oconomowoc, Wis., YMCA running team.
“Those who knew me well will remember that we maintained a long-distance relationship through my four years at Cornell. He attended UW-Madison,” she said. They have three children: Adam, 24; Alex, 21; and Lauren, 18 and fully recovered from the accident.
