Former Thompson Valley runner Rebecca Schmitt has her sights set on the 2028 Olympics, and she’s already taken the first steps toward running in Los Angeles at one of the sport’s biggest stages.
Schmitt, who attended Heritage Christian in Fort Collins but ran for Thompson Valley because her school didn’t have track or cross country teams, recently qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials by finishing the California International Marathon in Sacramento in a sixth-place time of 2 hours, 28.46 minutes.
Her journey, which she hopes ends in Los Angeles in a couple of years, began more than a decade ago in Northern Colorado.
After graduating from high school, Schmitt went to Colorado State and briefly ran for the Rams before taking a break to focus on other things in her life.
“I was struggling at the time with balancing work, school, mental health, being a student-athlete, and just really needed to take a break from running,” she said. “I hobby jogged for a few years after that and wasn’t running competitively, and decided to come back to it.”
When she began to feel like she was getting older, before her 30th birthday, she decided that if she didn’t get back to running competitively then, she likely never would. She was also inspired by other women at her workplace, specifically one who was running at an elite level.
“Seeing that a lot of female marathoners can run really well into their 30s was really inspiring to me,” she said.
She began running half marathons, knowing she wasn’t going to be as fast as she was in high school and early college, she said. Eventually, half marathons turned into marathons. With each one, her time dropped and her excitement about her future in the sport grew.
“Over the next few years, through coaching and training, I tried my first marathon,” she said. “I was able to cut down my time significantly and really improve. Then I started thinking, ‘Wow, I think I could go for the Olympic trials qualifier,’ and that’s what I pursued.”
Her first marathon was the Mesa Marathon in Phoenix in February of 2023. She set a goal to run under 3 hours and 30 minutes, and she ran 17 minutes faster than that goal, calling it a fun, surreal experience.
She was able to qualify for the Boston Marathon and ran that race in 2024, which was another memorable experience.
“My goal in that race was to break three hours,” she said of the famed Boston race. “I was able to run a 2:55 on a pretty hot day. It was a really amazing experience, the energy in Boston. My family members were actually there the year of the bombing and ran the Boston Marathon.
“So, it is amazing how much the city has really rallied around the marathon and come together. It was an amazing experience to crest Heartbreak Hill and be on pace. It’s really painful to climb that hill, and it was amazing to crest the hill and just — the crowd was wild. The energy was amazing.”
It was after the Boston Marathon that she really began contemplating an opportunity to run toward the Olympics. She also had coaches who told her she should try it.
Schmitt continued training for the qualifying race in Sacramento in December. She really wanted to break 2:30 for the first time — which she did by finishing in 2:28, her best-ever marathon time.
The Olympic trials aren’t until early 2028, so Schmitt will have to continue training and stay in shape. She plans on running some half marathons and shorter distances to help her prepare.
At the same time, she works as a full-time engineer at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so she still juggles running and other aspects of her life just as she did in her early college days.
“I kind of look back on my time as a college student and how I was really struggling with that juggle,” she said. “The tension is still here, really. I don’t do it perfectly. I still have a lot of areas to work on, but that tension of balancing work and running is still there. It’s still something that I have to do on a daily basis, because it does take a lot of time.”
As she now begins to prepare, and wait, for the trials, she said she feels grateful for the people that she has had in her life who have supported and mentored her. That includes her former coach at Thompson Valley, Matt Norton, as well as her parents, who have been with her at every race since she was a middle schooler, she said.
