[1][3]: 1  The family moved to California when she was young, and she took up running seriously as a student at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, where she was coached by 1924 Olympian Otto Anderson.

[3]: 4  At the 1927 AAU championships, her first significant meet, she placed second in the long jump and ran on the winning 4 × 110 yard relay team; she false started in the 100 meters, which she had considered her best event.

[6]: 118, 149  In her early years Vrana copied Charley Paddock's jump finish in her races; she dropped the style later in her career.

[3]: 12  In June 1932 she ran the hurdles in 11.8 at a regional tryout meet in Pasadena; the time equaled Marjorie Clark's world record from the previous year.

[6]: 150 [7]: 77  Due to the cuts and abrasions she received in her fall she was given a tetanus shot, which made her ill; she was forced to withdraw from the semi-finals of her other event, the flat 100 meters.