Her father was born in Sisak, Croatia, but emigrated to Germany at age 18, then moved to California and finally to Connecticut.

[5] Among several college athletic scholarship offers, she chose Columbia University and moved to New York in 2002 to study music theory.

[3] At the Columbia University, Stublić started training in earnest for the first time, and improved her 5000-meter results by two minutes in the first two years.

[2][6] Despite her athletic achievements, at that time Stublić's primary interest was art – music, poetry and drawing – and she still saw running as little more than a hobby.

[3] Stublić arrived in Croatia in January 2008,[8] staying at first in Sisak, then moving to Zagreb in order to train at the Dinamo-Zrinjevac athletic club.

[3] During summer training with the club on Rogla, she met Slavko Petrović, Croatian record holder over 10,000 meters, who was winding down his athletic career and beginning his work as a coach at the AC Zagreb Ulix.

[3][8] Petrović quickly noticed that Stublić's slight build and running efficiency made her naturally suited to competing over longer distances, rather than middle-distance events she had focused on.

[3] In particular, Stublić had already started to develop back problems, caused by the strain of running 3000 meters steeplechase, her favorite event.

Stublić came third at the NYC Half Marathon in March 2013 and her run of 69:18 minutes was another big improvement to her national record mark.