Rebecca Wied has always been fast. As a kid, her afternoons consisted of practices and games, bouncing from soccer to basketball to softball. Track coaches tried to convince her to join their team, but she’d always turn them down. “I didn’t want to play a sport if I wasn’t chasing a ball,” she said.
Today, she’s chasing finish lines instead. Wied has completed three Ironmans, 13 marathons, and recently ran a 3:03 at the Boston Marathon. But her running story is about far more than fast personal records.
Wied was diagnosed with anorexia when she was just 13 years old after being hospitalized during eighth grade. At the time, she didn’t fully understand what was happening, but she now recognizes that food had become a coping mechanism while navigating an unstable home life.
Over the next several years, recovery came with setbacks. She returned to treatment more than once, with her most serious relapse occurring during her junior year of college in 2019. Her condition became so severe that she required hospitalization, a feeding tube, and eventually spent nearly a year in treatment in Utah.
Looking back, Wied says, “That whole experience changed the trajectory of my life.”
Ironically, running had already entered her life before that stay in treatment, but not in a healthy way. She admits she had begun using it as another outlet for her eating disorder. During treatment, exercise wasn’t allowed, forcing her to redefine her relationship with movement.
“When I got back into running, it became the biggest blessing in my life,” Wied said. “It helped me cope with anxiety and everything else life throws at me.”
When Wied returned to college in 2021, she gave herself a goal of finishing a marathon before graduation. She accomplished that at the Silo District Marathon in April 2022. Soon after, she joined the Bay Area Club Triathlon Team and discovered a new passion.
She entered her first half Ironman with very little training, just to see if she could do it. She had so much fun that she immediately signed up for Ironman Texas in The Woodlands. Since then, she’s completed three full Ironmans while earning her master’s degree in exercise physiology.
“I’ve really fallen in love with training,” she said. “I’m blessed with an able body to do what I really want to do.”
That appreciation carried her all the way to Boston 2026 after qualifying at the Houston Marathon.
Guided by a coach based in Dallas, Wied’s training included swimming, strength training, track workouts, and long runs that peaked at 24 miles. She had her sights set on becoming a sub-three-hour marathoner.
Boston presented a different kind of challenge.
“The hills just really got me,” Wied said. “I cramped up and the last eight miles became a grind. There were multiple times I thought I was going to have to walk it in.”
Instead, she kept moving and ended up still running an impressive 3:03.
Even though the race didn’t unfold exactly as planned, crossing Boylston Street remains one of the most meaningful moments of her running career.
“There aren’t enough words to describe Boston,” she said. “It’s one day where marathoners are the most important people in the world. Everybody there has earned their place. The whole city shows up for you, and I don’t think anything will ever compare to that first experience.”
Through every challenge, Wied credits one person for never leaving her side.
“My mom has been there since the beginning,” she said. “Everything she’s given up and the way she’s always supported me through treatment. I owe a lot to her.”
Now, Wied’s journey is far from over. She’s preparing for her first 50-mile trail race in Colorado before chasing her biggest goal yet: breaking three hours at the Indianapolis Marathon this November. She also plans to return to Ironman racing, saying she’s “not done with Ironmans yet.”
Wied says she feels blessed to have an able body that allows her to train, compete, and push herself toward new goals. After everything she’s overcome, every race is more than a competition. It’s a celebration of recovery and a reminder to never take that opportunity for granted.
