NORTHBRIDGE – As a seven-year-old boy, Marcus Reilly felt, firsthand, the electricity of the London Olympic stadium in 2012.

“When you go into the stadium, there’s literally 100,000 people watching track and field,” said the current Northbridge High School sophomore and nationally ranked runner. His trip to the 2012 Olympics was as a spectator and a cheerleader for his mother, Steph Reilly, who was a member of the Irish National Olympic team at the time.

“I just think the group energy of running is inspiring,” Marcus said as he reflected back on the experience. “Obviously, when I was seven, I didn’t think right away I wanted to be a runner. I just kind of looked at it and said, ‘wow, this is kind of cool!’

“It wasn’t until a few years later where I actually started taking running more seriously,” he said. “But just seeing all the people there and all the elite athletes, you know, it’s just really cool to see. It just shows how many people like the sport.”

From that memorable moment, Marcus witnessed his mom compete in that Olympics for her home country in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase, finishing ninth in the second heat with a time of 9:44.77. He was also there to see her compete at the European Track and Field championships in Helsinki, Finland leading up to the Olympic Games.

Marcus hopes to follow in his mother’s footsteps, but knows it’s not going to be easy. “I think there’s a little pressure, I mean, I think all year there’s pressure on me to follow her,” he said. Marcus may not be an Olympian yet, but he can be considered an elite runner. He is ranked number one in the country as the top high school sophomore runner and rated in the top 20 overall, according to milesplit.com, the nation’s premiere track and field site.

Despite the pressure, Marcus said his mother has been a positive role model.

“I think it’s only been a help for me, because when my mom went to the Olympics in 2012, I remember being there and seeing all these great athletes running, it inspired me,” he said. “She’s been running ever since and we go down to the track almost every week, so I just think being at the track all the time, it helps me gain knowledge for the sport.”

Marcus is coached by both his parents. His dad, Paul, was a track and field athlete for Providence College. “It’s only helped me to have my parents coach me and the good thing about my parents being my coaches is they live with me,” he said. “With other coaches, they don’t know if maybe you’re feeling pain one day and the coaches don’t know that because they don’t live with you … My parents can keep an eye on me all the time and make sure I’m doing the right things to help my body recover and to just get faster overall.”

Steph Reilly said her and her husband probably are more nervous about their son’s running than Marcus. “His father and I both get nervous watching him compete. It’s awful. When you compete yourself, you get nervous, but it’s nowhere near when you’re a parent and you watch your kids compete. You’re nervous when you have skin in the game, but when you’re a parent of an athlete, it’s double. At least when you are competing as an athlete, you have control, but when you are a parent or a coach, you have zero control.”

She said it’s important to give Marcus room to grow as a competitor. “We don’t micromanage and we don’t hover,” said Steph. “We want Marcus, once he goes to a meet, not to rely on us at that point. We’ve done the coaching during the coaching days. On race days, he needs to handle it himself by doing his warmups and knowing when to check in. All of that stuff is important for him to be able to handle independently. And that just empowers him once he’s out on the track and he feels confident. You got to give him that room to grow, because you can’t help him run on that track. You can’t help him race.”

This is the first season Marcus will be running for Northbridge High School. As a result of COVID last season, Marcus ran as an unattached cross-country runner. He competed in several USA Track and Field sanctioned meets as a freshman. He is coming off a superb indoor/outdoor freshman track season where he won the national freshman mile at the outdoor national meet in Oregon. He also broke the Massachusetts state freshman 800m outdoor record and the national indoor freshman records in the 1000m, and the 1500m. He also clocked a stellar 15:36 5k cross country time.

“I would expect Marcus to be ranked among the top runners at the All State meet on November 20th,” said Steph.

The pressure in being a top ranked runner only motivates Marcus more to keep working hard to be better. “I was number one in the mile during spring track season, so I’m kind of use to the pressure now,” he said. “But, obviously, as a young kid, I’m still a sophomore and pressure can be a negative thing. I just try to deal with it and to just not really put pressure on myself.”

Marcus’ numbers are exceptional. He finished seventh in the USATF-NE Youth XC Invitational last November with a time of 15:36.00. This was his only sub-16-minute 5K of the season, however, he was limited to only three meets last season. He continued to impress during the indoor season and became the fastest freshman in many events. He broke four minutes in the 1500m and broke 2:30 in the 1K with a time of 2:29.99. His best 800m is 1:52.64 good enough to be 28th ranked in the country and the fastest for a freshman last season.

Marcus is a humble kid. He does not expect to just show up to meets and win. He cited Uxbridge High School standout runner, Aidan Ross, to be one of his biggest competitors this season. Ross, as a sophomore last year, finished first in the Mass. Division 2 championships with a record time of 4:21.63 in that meet, a race where he was the only underclassmen. He followed this performance up with a second-place finish in the Mass. State championships with a time of 4:18.39.

 “He’s a good runner,” Marcus said, who relishes the challenge. “We’ll probably face him in a dual meet at some point because they’re the next town over, but he’s excellent. Over the years, I’ve faced a lot of good runners at the national level and in Massachusetts. It’s been hard trying to stay on top in Massachusetts. It’s great to live in this state where there’s so many strong people … It’s definitely one of the stronger states in the country.”

His first goal is to simply make the state championship meet. “Overall, I’m just trying to make it to the state meet. After that, then I can think about placing as high as I can in the state meet,” he said. “I haven’t run in the state meet yet in high school, because of COVID last year. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that so hopefully running in the state meet and trying to place as high as I can, you know, even if I win, they’d be great. But states will be a new thing. I haven’t experienced it yet and I’d like to experience it.”

Marcus classified himself as more of a shorter distance runner and is using the cross-country training to create a strong fitness base for his body. “I’m more like a miler. I’m a track runner. So, I’m trying to build a strong base during cross-country and to put in some good miles to get fitter.” He hopes to maintain a solid regiment of 40 to 45 miles of running per week. “I think it’s just about consistency … So, if I just log in those mid 40s miles per week and just do it for a few weeks, then I’ll see a lot of improvement.” 

When asked the question, what does he think about during his long training runs, Marcus smiled and said, “I just think about … hmm … that’s a good question. I just think about … I don’t even know what I’m thinking about. I just run.”

Marcus smiled again and took another stab at answering the question. “It’s hard to say, you know, there’s a lot of different things in my head. Yeah, sometimes it’s a song and sometimes it’s nothing. I guess sometimes I just think about finishing it and getting it done. Getting it done and getting some water or getting a smoothie after. That’s a good thing to think about.”