Emily Mackay

Emily Mackay joins me on the podcast after a huge moment in her career, winning her first national title in the 3000 meters at the USATF Indoor Championships. Emily is no stranger to the world stage. She competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics and is also a World Indoor bronze medalist, but capturing her first national title was a really special milestone. In this episode we talk all about that race, what it felt like to finally get that win, and what the moment meant after years of competing at such a high level.

Emily is sponsored by New Balance and currently trains with Union Athletics Club under coach Pete Julian. Last summer she made the move from Team New Balance Boston to Union Athletics Club, and we talk about that transition, what training has looked like in this new environment, and how the change has helped her continue to grow as an athlete.

We also talk about what’s next as Emily prepares to compete at the World Indoor Championships in the 3000 meters in Poland. It’s always fun catching up with Emily. This is actually her fourth time on the podcast, and it’s been incredible to follow her journey over the years and see the progression in her career.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Emily Mackay.

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Chris Chavez and Preet Majithia break down a chaotic weekend in American track and field headlined by a lead vehicle disaster at the USATF Half Marathon Championships and a slate of big results at the USATF Indoor Championships.

Discussed:

– The 2026 USATF Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta were thrown into chaos when a lead vehicle guided the top women off course in the final mile with Jess McClain holding a big lead at the time. Molly Born, who stayed on course, won in 69:43. McClain, Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat all filed appeals immediately after.

– USATF’s jury of appeals acknowledged the course was inadequately marked but said it had “no recourse within the rulebook” to alter the results, which was a ruling that drew widespread backlash. Atlanta Track Club CEO Rich Kenah took full responsibility.

–  Because the race served as the selection event for the 2026 World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, the wrong turn didn’t just cost the leaders prize money but also potentially cost them spots on Team USA. The selection situation is a tangled mess with no clean fix under current rules.

– Cole Hocker won the men’s 3,000m in a blanket finish in 7:39.25. Young missed the World Indoor team by .01 to Yared Nuguse after drifting off the rail in the home straight.

– Emily Mackay won the women’s 3,000m in a five-second personal best of 8:30.01, outkicking Elle St. Pierre in the final stretch for her first US title.

– Hocker and Yared Nuguse then faded to 5th and 4th in Sunday’s 1500m, won by former UW teammates Nathan Green and Luke Houser.

– 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus went 5-for-5 as a professional, winning the men’s 800m in 1:46.68 with a tactically sharp performance.

– Nikki Hiltz extended their US title streak to eight, winning the women’s 1500m in 4:11.34.

– Jordan Anthony won the men’s 60m in 6.45, beating Trayvon Bromell and Noah Lyles.

Plus: Tokyo Marathon recap, the Louis Hinchcliffe NCAA return and the Iowa State/Seth Clevenger doping investigation.

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Hosts: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ + Preet Majithia | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@preet_athletics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Olympic middle-distance star Emily Mackay joins us today, fresh off a blazing new 3,000m personal best set in February in Boston. 

Emily, who currently runs for Team New Balance Boston, is coming off a tremendous 2024 season where she represented Team USA in the Paris Olympics. She qualified for the 1,500m after coming in second during the trials with a time of 3:55–which puts her third all-time for American women in the distance. 

Prior to the Olympics, Emily was a bronze medalist in the 1,500m at the 2024 World Indoor Championships; she also took home bronze in the 1,500m at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile. 

Emily graduated from Binghamton University as a five-time NCAA Division 1 All-American. She was a multi-discipline specialist, showing strength and versatility by placing a school-best 14th overall at the 2020 NCAA XC Championships, in addition to coming in seventh overall at the 5k in the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Track Championships.

She received her undergraduate in Psychology and went on to acquire her MBA in 2022. Emily is a very balanced and impressive person on many levels. Her current 800m PR is 1:57 and her PR in the 3,000m is 8:35 (which she ran at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix). 

In today’s conversation, Emily takes me through her recent success in sport, the journey to get to that point, how she has progressed over the years, her Olympic experience, her dreams for the future, training with the best in the US, and many other subjects relating to running, life, and well, coffee. 

Tap into the Emily Mackay Special.  

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Carrie recaps her exciting weekend at the 2024 NYRR NB Fifth Avenue Mile! Fresh off the Paris Olympic Games, she dives into all the action, from a press conference with Josh Kerr, Emma Coburn, and Emily Mackay to calling the race alongside fellow Olympians and broadcasters. Carrie breaks down the thrilling women’s race, where Karissa Schweizer tied the course record in a stunning finish, and the men’s race, where Josh Kerr shattered a decades-old record with a dominant performance. Tune in for winner interviews and all the race highlights in this high-energy episode!

In this episode, I’m so excited to have Emily Mackay as my guest! Emily recently competed in the Paris Olympics, representing Team USA in the 1500 meters. It was such a thrill to watch her make the team—what a stacked field! Emily had to run an incredible 3:55 to secure her spot on the Olympic ... more »

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The U.S. Olympic Trials are back and better than ever in the second half of the 8-day program, with incredible drama, upsets, and underdog stories across the board.

The race of the day (and perhaps the week?) was the women’s steeplechase, where a fast early pace and a topsy-turvy final lap ended with a whole slew of personal bests and rewriting of the record books. Tokyo Olympian Val Constien ended up on top thanks to a phenomenal final 400m, running 9:03.22 to PR by 11 seconds and land at #3 on the U.S. all-time list. Constien had ACL surgery last year and after a long road back is better than ever.

We got our first peeks at the 400m hurdles crew, and the main takeaway from the first round is that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Rai Benjamin are looking like world beaters out for an easy jog. McLaughlin-Levrone in particular shut it down entirely over the final two laps and still ran 53.07, the third-fastest performance in the world this year behind her own season’s best and Femke Bol’s world lead.

Speaking of first looks, Erriyon Knighton doesn’t seem to have missed a step as he ran his first 200m in four months, cruising through the first round with a 20.15 just behind Noah Lyles’s 20.10 in an earlier heat. And a stacked final is set for the 5000m, where reigning U.S. champ Abdi Nur takes on two of the three members of Team USA in the 10,000m, the 1500m Trials champ, and two NCAA champs.

The middle-distance rounds will continue to get more and more cutthroat, with the women’s 1500m featuring Elle St. Pierre, Heather MacLean, Cory McGee, Emily MacKay, Elise Cranny, Nikki Hiltz, Sinclaire Johnson, and more heading to the semis and Olympians Bryce Hoppel and Clayton Murphy looking ready to once again do battle in the 800m.

"I feel the most confident I’ve ever been."

Emily Mackay is having a heck of a year on the run! The Team New Balance Boston athlete earned a bronze medal at World Indoor Championships in the 1500m earlier this year, and has kicked off her outdoor season with strong performances including a personal best at the Prefontaine Classic, where she ran 3:59.76. In this conversation, Emily reflects back on her early running days, and shares why she dreamed of going pro with the NB Boston team (including teammates Elle Purrier St. Pierre and Heather MacLean) and coach Mark Coogan. She talks about the confidence it took to make that major move with 400m to go at World Indoor Championships, and about why that race was both a confidence-booster and a big learning experience. And, with the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials looming, Emily — who is absolutely one to watch in the 1500 — talks about the pressure to perform in an Olympic year.

FOLLOW EMILY @emily_mac7

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What you’ll get on this episode:

• What Emily’s watching right now (3:00)
• What a day in the life of a professional middle-distance runner is like (6:10)
• All about Emily’s 1500m personal best at the Prefontaine Classic (10:30)
• The confidence it took to make a major move at World Indoor Championships with 400m to go (15:00)
• Was that a breakthrough race for Emily? (18:40)
• The pressure to perform in an Olympic year (27:30)
• What it’s like when your teammates are your competitors on race day, and how Emily ended up on Team NB Boston (31:10)
• How — and why — Emily became a runner (39:35)
• What training looks like right now, with the Trials on the horizon (42:05)
• What will it take to make the U.S. women’s 1500m Olympic team? (46:25)

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"I am a little bit less experienced than some of these other runners that I'm going up against. And I was like, 'That's what's going to make me a better runner' is getting experience with both tactics and championship racing because it is different than just going out and time trialing...

And I think that this indoors, especially at the World Championship, just proving to myself that I can hold my own in a tactical championship race gave me that extra bit of confidence I need going into this year. I feel like I finally proved to myself that I. I am good at tactical racing. Before I thought, 'Oh, maybe I'm just a fast runner, but I can't run a good tactical race.'

And that's something that I was a little bit self-conscious about last year. Like, 'Oh! People think that I can't put it together when it really matters.' It's not really about what other people think but I just wanted to prove to myself that I can run a good race when it matters. And now that I've done that, I feel super confident."

Emily Mackay is a professional runner for Team New Balance Boston and just earned a bronze medal in the 1500 meters at the 2024 World Indoor Championships. We already had World Indoor silver medalist Nikki Hiltz on the show. We published an episode of Office Hours with Mark Coogan last week. Now, we get to hear from the Binghampton star turned global medalist.

Emily has personal bests of 2:00 for the 800m and 3:59 for 1500m. Glasgow was their first time representing the United States at a global championship and they made the most of it. Emily made a BIG move with 400 meters left in the race to push the pace from the front and although it was aggressive and she tied up toward the end – it was all worth it when she hung on for bronze.

Hear all about that race but also how she’s managed to develop so well since turning pro in 2022. She’s got an amazing personality and I loved her passion for her team.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest: Emily Mackay | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@emily_mac7 on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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👟 NEW BALANCE has officially launched the long-anticipated FuelCell SC Elite v4, including upgrades that focus on the details that are vital for athletes to perform to their best this year. The shoe was designed to excel in both innovative technology and all-around comfort that lasts through 26.2 miles. Check it out here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.newbalance.com/pd/fuelcell-supercomp-elite-v4/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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"When Elle races in a championship, I always say, ‘You want to be in the race with 400m to go for a shot at making the team or winning. Just give yourself a shot.’ Because you can’t control what other people are doing and you don’t know how the chips are going to fall. I was really confident she was going to be there with 400m to go. I was just watching her closely. I watched her chop her steps a couple of times and was thinking, ‘Gosh. She’s just chomping at the bit.’ I didn’t know she was going to beat (Gudaf) Tsegay because she’s run 14:00. But, (Elle’s) an animal."

This is an episode of Office Hours with Kyle Merber and Mac Fleet kicking back and chatting with coach Mark Coogan of Team New Balance Boston. We had a chance to just catch up with him at The TRACK at New Balance on our recent visit to Boston for New Balance Nationals and the NCAA Indoor Championships.

At this year’s World Indoor Championships, he was trackside to watch Elle St. Pierre win gold in the 3000m and Emily Mackay take bronze in the 1500m. He takes pride in the fact that he’s been able to help develop their talent coming out of the America East conference. He discusses what he looks for in athletes, how he carefully approaches their training intensity and how his philosophy has changed or not really with all of these modern advances.

Host: Kyle Merber | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@kylemerber on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Host: Mac Fleet | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@macfleet on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest: Mark Coogan | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@mark_coogan on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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👟 NEW BALANCE has officially launched the long-anticipated FuelCell SC Elite v4, including upgrades that focus on the details that are vital for athletes to perform to their best this year. The shoe was designed to excel in both innovative technology and all-around comfort that lasts through 26.2 miles. Check it out here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.newbalance.com/pd/fuelcell-supercomp-elite-v4/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

🍊 OLIPOP is a prebiotic soda with only 2-5g of sugar that is good for your gut health. – and it's delicious. Use code CITIUS25 for 25% off non-subscription orders. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more at https://DrinkOlipop.com (click the link or use our promotional code for the discount)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

🩴 VELOUS RECOVERY FOOTWEAR  is the active recovery footwear brand that is designed to help you Restore, Revive and Reenergize before and after you train. They are launching two new styles to their recovery mix for Spring ‘24. The Active Slide and Active Flip collection. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Enjoy a 20% discount by entering the code: CITIUSMAG20 at checkout at VelousFootwear.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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