Week of September 11th-15th, 2007
Mac Fleet (University City, San Diego)


John Oshiro Photo - More from Woodbridge
Mac Fleet near the end of his Jr Class Record 14:17
Sweeps Race win at Woodbridge

An athlete who is gaining a real history at the Woodbridge Invitational, with his march through the grade records as a soph and this year as a junior, is University City of San Diego’s Mac Fleet. The tall San Diegan had this as his first 2007 competition, and he did it in fine style, sitting back a tad off the early pace, then moving over the final mile to an impressive 14:17 win that took down the eleventh grade class record of 14:25 set by the host school’s Michael Hadden. Mac had taken Hadden’s soph record of 14:55 down to 14:47 the year previous, so the talented San Diegan had a nice 30 second improvement in a year’s time, during which he finished second in the State Meet 1600 in June at 4:08.09, the top tenth grade time in the nation.

We caught up with Mac after his run at Woodbridge, and he spent a bit of time talking with us.

You can see his race video at the attached link (broadband needed) and he is the tall one in dark blue during the early running, sitting back a tad off the tall, white clad early pacesetter, Scott Blair of Trabuco Hills.

Mac, why don’t you talk us through the race a little bit.
MF - I really didn’t want to go out over my head, so I took it pretty easy, relative to Woodbridge, I took it pretty easy around the track (ed - first half mile) and through the first mile, kind of. Scott Blair took it out around the track, and that kind of worried me, because I have not raced yet, and this is my first race and I was a little worried about how my lungs and legs were going to feel coming through at 4:40 (mile), which is exactly what I wanted to come through at. So that was really nice. I kind of fell back a little into a second group and we were about 15-20 feet back from Scott and somebody else. We gradually caught back up to them at about a mile and a half, and I was feeling pretty good right there. My lungs were good, my legs were good, my stomach was cramped up a little bit. My plan was, yesterday I was talking to my Coach, if I could I was going to tug it on the bike path, and I let Scott Blair do that today. I kind of came up to him and it was a two man race at that point. And he was not really pulling, and so, I’ll take a kicker’s race any day. We came up off the bike path and I started pulling it right from there. He stuck probably five to ten feet behind me for a little bit until we made the second to last turn coming along the road, and I really started turning it on there. I was listening to the fans and hearing how far back they were cheering for Scott from and I could tell I was pulling away. I made that last turn and that was such an awesome feeling.

Describe your feelings as you made that final turn down the stretch (ed - his celebration down the stretch hopefully you can view from the race video)
MF - It is undescribable, you cannot describe that, this is my biggest win yet. This tops second at state probably for the mile (1600).

So the night atmosphere at Woodbridge is something special, huh?
MF - There is nothing like it. There is nothing like this. This is the most fun race all year. The environment, these people, I mean there are thousands of people here to watch all these runners, it’s awesome.

How did training go over the summer and fall so far?
MF - It has been really good. Actually this last week has been really bad, my legs have been really tired and cramping up, but the week before that I had a really good week. I ran a 56 minute ten miler and two days before that a 46 minute eight miler, and that was really reassuring for coming up here. I ran close to 700 miles over the summer, keeping the high 50's normally (miles
per week), and I went over 60 a couple of times.

Do you have any goals for later in the Fall?
MF - State Championship is probably number one. Right behind that would be to make the National Team (Foot Locker Nationals). Big goals for me.

This time of year compared to last year, how do you feel, a lot stronger?
MF - A lot stronger, and a lot more experienced. Last year I gained so much experience. Coming here last year was kind of my breaking out in breaking the sophomore class record, and I won the the two previous weeks beating Austin Jett and Eric Avila (San Diego area stars). That was a little unexpected. That kind of carried through, I had a few injuries, and I broke my foot, my metatarsal. And then state meet and the whole track season. I picked up so much experience, cranking out 4:16's and second at state,

So you are feeling great
MF - Yeah, I’m feeling great and so much more confident.

Congratulations a super performance
MF - Thanks

Video of the interview (broadband needed)
No, Mac is not "albino man" - just the strong night lighting

Doug Speck
DyeStatCal.com

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