Nease senior Mac Reynolds spent the first part of his adolescent life living in Indiana. The summer of his freshman year he moved down to Florida, but the Sunshine State wasn't the only knew thing in Mac's life. It was the first time he would ever run cross country.
"I played soccer since I was eight or nine up until I was 14 at the time I moved. Soccer was kind of how I transitioned into cross country. I remember my first race I had ever done. It was at Bishop Kenny, the Katie Caples Invitational. I had snagged the last spot on varsity from our time trial. I was this little skinny kid, five feet tall freshman, standing next to hundreds of runners. It was crazy.
Reynold's time of 19:57 wasn't mind blowing. He had no idea of how good it was or wasn't. All he cared about was that he finished the race. Since then Mac has been growing up as a runner both literally and figuratively.
"My sophomore year I was like 5-5. Junior year I was 5-8 or 5-9. Now I'm 5'11 almost six feet and maybe I'm still skinny just not as small. I've had a big growth spurt in high school. It really helps because I have probably one of the longest strides in the state I would say and I can cover much more distance. The only problem with that is having top end speed is hard. I never really developed that until my junior year."
Aside from improving his speed, Reynolds also learned to run more on his toes. He was such a bad heel striker he had to use the Newton running shoe to improve his form. He also learned to sprint by shortening his stride and taking off. These changes along with great coaching, extensive training, and a dedication to the sport have seen his time drop nearly four minutes since he was a freshman and is reminded of it everytime he steps on the Bishop Kenny course, the site of his first ever meet.
"I've run Katie Caples four times now and I've run that course six times since it is our district course. Every time I run there it brings back memories I guess in terms of how far I've come and how much hard work I've put in after so many years."
Leading those workouts is Coach Michael Rivera. Reynolds calls him one of the smartest coaches and says without his training he wouldn't be where he is at today. The senior has ran 50-60 miles the past two seasons and says his favorite workout are 400's.
"We do base during the summer a lot of it is thrown in with two tempo runs a week or we alternate between 20 and 40 tempo ever week. We sharpen up with a lot of speed 400's and 200's right before the season starts and we get into distance shape. Right now are in the 1k's and 1200's part of our training, but we do two workouts a week during race week. Tuesdays we do 1k's and 12's and on Wednesday tempo stuff. Then towards the end of the season we sharpen up with speed work. Coach Rivera just knows what he is doing and he has prepared us like no other."
He also credits his parents for their support and his teammates for pushing him to his full potential including the other two in the "big three" Cody Gibbons and Chris Roach. Those factors along with being a smarter runner in general have seen the senior put up some impressive times including a new personal best 15:39.42 at Bale-n-Trail.
"That has to be the highlight of my career so far. I broke the school record of 15:54 that had been standing for nine years now. I shattered it. It was something that has eluded me and made me envious since freshman year. It's definitely an honor to be the fastest guy to come through Nease. It is kind of mind blowing to think of this as an eighth grader coming into high school it would have never crossed my mind. It really sets up everything for the rest of the season. I'm so fired up and ready to rip some fast times and battle all the top guys in the state starting with pre-state and moving up on to state."
His goals are to compete for a championship and right up there at the top with the likes of Belen Jesuit senior Elliot Clemente and the rest of the 3A field. He says after that the plan is to go to Foot Locker and just see what happens. It's only fitting his senior quote by legendary runner Steve Prefontaine sums up his high school career both on the course and off.
"Success isn't how far you go, but the distance you've traveled from when you started."
Personal Bests
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1600 Meter Run4:29.31
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3200 Meter Run9:37.14
5000 Meter Run15:39.42
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