Jill Hadwen to Run Boston Marathon in Memory of Fiance Joe Puciloski After Plane Crash

Jill Hadwen, a systems engineer at Medtronic, is set to run the Boston Marathon on April 20 as a member of the Mass General Boston Marathon team. 2 miles. She is running in memory of her fiance, Joe Puciloski, who died in June after a plane crash.

On June 15, Puciloski proposed to Hadwen on a beach in North Truro. Four days later, on June 19, Puciloski, aged 28, was a passenger in a single-engine plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Beverly Regional Airport. The pilot died in the crash, and Puciloski was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he died a few days later while en route to a camping trip in the Adirondacks with friends.

Hadwen and Puciloski met during their sophomore year in 2017 on a school-sponsored ski trip to Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine while attending Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. They began dating in their senior year and remained together until his death. Puciloski worked as a software engineer for Disney Streaming Services.

Hadwen started consistent running over the summer and began official marathon training in December.

She described the decision to run as a way to express gratitude for the compassion shown by Massachusetts General Hospital staff during Puciloski's final days. Hadwen also noted that running helps her regain a sense of rhythm and control in her life following the loss.

Both Hadwen and Puciloski were members of Hinge Fitness, a gym in Melrose founded in 2019 by Sarah Guedez, which focuses on strength training for individuals of all ages and abilities.

Puciloski had recently begun coaching at the gym. Following his death, the gym held a memorial class in his honor, and his personal record for the power clean lift—165 pounds—remains on the whiteboard. Guedez stated that Puciloski pushed hard in his workouts and that the gym misses him.