Lauren Spiezia Runs NYC Marathon Topless for Breast Cancer Awareness

The Lowdown

“I’m running topless because I no longer want to hide my scars.” That’s how Lauren Spiezia put it before the TCS New York City Marathon, and on Nov. 1 she did it: 26.2 miles through all five boroughs with her mastectomy and reconstruction scars uncovered, finishing in 4:54:04 for Fred’s Team and Memorial Sloan Kettering (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health; Newsweek).

Key Takeaways

Spiezia, a New Jersey mom, was diagnosed with breast cancer at 31 and carries the BRCA2 mutation (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health; Daily Express US).
Her treatment included 16 rounds of chemo, eight rounds of immunotherapy, a mastectomy and reconstruction, she wrote on Instagram (Daily Express US).
She wore a QR code on her back linking to a free Tyrer-Cuzick breast cancer risk assessment from Besound (Newsweek).
Before the race she wrote that Team Laklak had raised $45,000 for Memorial Sloan Kettering; the team page now shows $50,532 (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health; Fred’s Team (Team Laklak page)).
She says the point is advocacy: getting women to know their risk and speak up when doctors brush them off (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health; Newsweek).

Why She Ran This Way

In a first-person essay for Women’s Health, Spiezia wrote that she found a lump in 2023, months after leaving her job in wealth management to raise her son. Her OB-GYN told her she was too young for a mammogram, and an ultrasound came back benign. A third doctor, a breast surgeon, sent her for a mammogram, biopsy and MRI. Those tests found cancer in both breasts: a stage 2 triple-negative tumor and a stage 1 ER/PR-positive one. “She saved my life,” Spiezia wrote of the surgeon (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health).

She was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Running a half marathon after her mastectomy became a goal that got her through treatment, and then she set her sights on 26.2 (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health). She ran with Fred’s Team, MSK’s charity program, and started a subteam, Team Laklak, named after the beauty brand she co-founded during treatment (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health; Fred’s Team (Team Laklak page)).

On race morning she posted: “26.2 miles. Topless. Scars and all… I’m running for the women and men in the treatment chair who need a reminder of their resilience… And I’m running for me, because my scars are not something to hide. They’re the evidence that I fought and lived” (Daily Express US). Her race photos are on her Instagram, @laurenvictoriaspi ↗.

She told Newsweek the course felt like “the right stage” because it ran past the hospital where she was treated. “There were many people who were shocked when I ran past, but an even greater amount were supportive, emotional, and saw a piece of themselves in this run,” she said. “I was told I was too young for a mammogram, but I want every woman to know her own risk” (Newsweek).

The Pit Take

In our opinion, the people calling this “inappropriate” are making her point for her. A woman who was told she was too young for a mammogram ran 26.2 miles with a risk-assessment QR code on her back, and raised money for the hospital that treated her. That’s not a stunt; that’s a public service announcement with a finisher’s medal. We hope it gets someone to make the appointment. More from race day in our NYC Marathon 2026 celebrity runners guide, Darby Allin’s finish, and the NYC Marathon tag. More in Viral.

The Background

Spiezia isn’t the first to do this at a major marathon. In 2024, breast cancer survivor Louise Butcher ran the London Marathon showing her mastectomy and flat-closure scars. Spiezia, who reconstructed with implants, wrote that she shouldn’t be seen as more “taboo or sexualized” for it: “Louise and I faced the same disease” (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health). About one in eight U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime (Lauren Spiezia in Women’s Health).

Our image shows runners near Mile 24 of the 2026 TCS New York City Marathon. It is not a photo of Spiezia.