Marcus Reilly grew up in a running family.
His parents, Paul and Stephanie, were raised in Ireland before enrolling at Providence College, where they starred in distance events in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They continued racing after graduating, moved to Massachusetts and got into coaching at the college level.
Still, after Marcus was born in November 2005, the Reillys vowed they would not push him into running. They preferred he pursue other sports and then he could run competitively later on if he so desired.
As fate would have it, that's what happened. Marcus played on travel soccer and basketball teams before quitting those sports late in middle school to focus exclusively on running.
Marcus was a natural, winning the junior high mile at New Balance Nationals Indoor and then the junior high 800m at New Balance Nationals Outdoor as a se...
