Sandia LabNews

Running toward your goals


For one Sandia engineer, it’s about being better than you were yesterday

COLD RUN — Rebecca Schmitt runs laps around Hardin field before work, not letting the low 20 degree temperatures that morning bother her too much. (Photo by Craig Fritz)
COLD RUN — Rebecca Schmitt runs laps around Hardin field before work, not letting the low 20 degree temperatures that morning bother her too much. (Photo by Craig Fritz)

Most of us have something, buried in the back of our minds, something we’ve set out to do but never finished, or something we wanted to do but never started. An unfinished dream that periodically comes to the surface, reminds us that they’re still there, waiting to cross the threshold from dream to reality.

For Sandia electronics engineer Rebecca Schmitt, that something was about running.

Rebecca grew up running. During summer breaks in elementary school, Rebecca and her siblings had a choice to ride bikes alongside their mom on her morning run or run one of her laps. Rebecca chose the latter.

“It was just fun and instilled a love of running early on,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca continued running through middle school, was state champion for the 3,200 meters in high school and would attend Colorado State University on a cross country scholarship. But not long after starting school, Rebecca would have to put her life as a competitive runner on the back burner.

“It was my first time living on my own and I was struggling to adapt to the changes, juggling schoolwork while also managing the demands of being a college athlete,” Rebecca said. “It was just too much.”

Reprioritizing goals

FROM LOOP TO LAB — Electronics engineer Rebecca Schmitt, right, and Simon Yang perform a destructive physical analysis of a capacitor in a lab at Sandia. (Photo by Craig Fritz)
FROM LOOP TO LAB — Electronics engineer Rebecca Schmitt, right, and Simon Yang perform a destructive physical analysis of a capacitor in a lab at Sandia. (Photo by Craig Fritz)

Rebecca decided to put her running goals aside and focus on her academic goals. She would go on to earn two Bachelor of Science degrees, one from Colorado State University and another from the University of New Mexico. In 2020, while working at Sandia, she earned her master’s degree, also from University of New Mexico, in chemical engineering.

“I was so focused on school and my career that slowly, over time, I had slipped into some unhealthy habits,” Rebecca said. “I was eating fast food almost every day, I had gained weight and just wasn’t feeling my best.”

Rebecca was about to turn 30 and decided it was time for a change, and so a little more than 10 years after she ran her last race, she signed up to run the Duke City Half Marathon.

“I still had these unfinished dreams with running, but I felt like maybe that part of my life was over. I thought I was too old and too busy to run competitively,” Rebecca said. “And then I met Sofie.”

Meet Sofie

Sofie Schunk is a fellow runner and Sandia engineer. In 2023, Sofie, who has Type 1 diabetes, qualified for the Olympic trials after running a marathon in 2 hours, 36 minutes and 22 seconds.

Rebecca first saw Sofie’s name in 2022 after seeing her time in the DOE mile. Sofie had won the DOE Mile’s Fastest Woman title in 2020 and 2021 and shaved three seconds off her own record in 2022, running a 5:11 mile.

“I was so inspired by Sofie,” Rebecca said. “Here she was, this incredible runner who was also working at the Labs, and it helped me see that, ‘hey maybe I can do that too.’”

Rebecca had just finished running the Duke City half and was about to sign up for her first full marathon when she sent Sofie an email to congratulate her on her DOE mile time and connect, both as a fellow runner and engineer.

The two hit it off and a couple months later Sofie was coaching Rebecca ahead of the Mesa Marathon. She would finish the Mesa race in 3:13:19, 17 minutes faster than her initial goal. For context, that’s an average pace of 7 minutes and 22 seconds per mile. The following year Rebecca ran the Boston Marathon in 2:55:59 and placed within the top 100 women.

“I was ecstatic. Seeing my improvement between the two races was so rewarding, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I could go faster,” Rebecca said.

Spoiler alert: She could.

Rebecca continued to work with Sofie, who put together a training schedule to help build her mileage per week as she trained for the California International Marathon.

“Sofie built this entire schedule including long runs, easy runs, cross training and strength training,” Rebecca said. “Before Boston I was averaging about 40 miles per week and in the months leading up to California I was averaging around 70 miles per week.”

Better than yesterday

On Dec. 8, Rebecca ate her signature prerace fuel, a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats, laced up her Nike racing shoes and went faster.

Rebecca would shave another twenty minutes off her time, running a 2:35:08, two minutes under the 2024 Olympic trial qualification standard. And in case you don’t want to do the math, that means Rebecca ran an average pace of 5:55 per mile.

The next trial window opens sometime before the 2028 Olympics and that’s where Rebecca has her sights set now: not necessarily to make it to the Olympics but to compete with the best of the best on their way there.

“Just making it to the trials and being at the starting line with some of the best runners in the country, that alone would be a dream come true,” Rebecca said. “But ultimately, my goal is to be better than I was yesterday, last week, last month.”

For Rebecca those little improvements along the way have been key as she works toward making her own dream a reality.

“There are so many reasons we can talk ourselves out of working toward those little dreams we have in the back of our mind, be it life circumstances or we think we’re too old, not smart enough, not good enough. Maybe you’ve submitted a research proposal that’s already been rejected twice, so you don’t want to submit one again this year. Maybe you want to go back to school but think you’re too old. Maybe you want to get healthier but think you’re too busy. Maybe you want to do a triathlon.

“Whatever the goal is, why not take a step today toward reaching that goal?” Rebecca said. “And maybe you’ll fail along the way. That’s OK too, because if taking those baby steps toward reaching your goals makes you a little bit better than you were yesterday, it’s worth it.” 

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