An Inside Look At Olympian & 4:17 Miler Heather MacLean's Life: How She Builds Belief & Confidence To Do The Impossible

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Olympic middle-distance star and Massachusetts native Heather MacLean makes her debut on the show, ready to break down her latest success on the track.

Heather, a Tokyo 2021 Olympic runner, started 2025 with a bang–winning the mile race at the Indoor Grand Prix in Boston in February, smashing a 4:23.32 while setting a meet record.

Later that month, Heather ran at the Last Chance National Qualifier at BU, running a dazzling 4:17.01 mile, a new record for her. This makes her the fourth-fastest women indoor mile runner ever.

Heather followed all of that up with a 1500m appearance at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, where she finished seventh with a time of 4:04.45.

Heather’s resume is sparkling to say the least: she came in third in the 2020 Trials to earn her spot in the 1,500m in Tokyo; she was a 2022 US Indoor 1,500m champion and 1,500m World Finalist; and has PRs of 3:58.3 in the outdoor 1,500m and 1:58.7 in the 800m.

Heather, who is now a member of the New Balance Boston team run by coach Mark Coogan, grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts and ran for the University of Massachusetts. She holds the 800m, 1,000m, 1,500m women’s records at the school, and became the first woman from UMass to earn NCAA D-1 All-American honors in cross country in 2017.

In today’s conversation, Heather walks me through her recent successful indoor season, how her self-awareness and self-belief have propelled her forward, what she wants to accomplish in the years to come, inside her training, and much more.

I've looked up to Heather for years, so it was a pleasure to have the chance to speak with her and learn from her! Take the time to listen.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	positive affirmations all the way. And that's not to say I don't allow like any negative thoughts to come my way because negative thoughts definitely like come my way pretty often.
0:09.5	But I combat it with kind of just like more positive affirmation and not in the way that's like, oh, I'm so much better than everybody else.
0:17.6	And I'm going to crush this person more like I'm prepared. I'm ready.
0:21.5	I'm confident. Like I'm strong. I'm as ready as I'll ever be. That kind of stuff.
0:27.3	That was Heather McLean today on the Running Effect podcast. And Heather has actually been a dream
0:31.7	guest of mine since I saw her make the Olympic team back in 2021. She's got one of the best stories
0:37.2	in the sport, in my opinion.
0:39.5	And she has been on a tear this year. She made the World Indoor Championship team.
0:44.3	She ran 417 in the mile, which was the second fastest time ever run indoors by an American
0:49.4	woman. And she's just really good at this thing called running, running laps around a thing called a track.
0:56.0	And Heather is very, very good, very fast at it and has a unique story.
0:59.4	She ran for University of Massachusetts where she holds the school records in the 800, 1K, and 1,500, but didn't have a contract coming out of school.
1:08.6	And I love that part of this conversation where she documents that belief she had to have in herself coming out of college to make this dream
1:15.8	of becoming a professional runner come true. Thorntily enjoyed this one. We have some fun,
1:20.5	light subjects, but then we also get deep at points. It's one of my favorite rhythms of a conversation
1:26.0	where it's fun and light, but also deep and insightful.
1:29.1	And that is Heather in a nutshell.
1:31.1	I hope you guys enjoy this one.
1:32.2	If you do, share it with a friend, a family member, teammate, someone who you think would find value and benefit from it.
1:37.5	Hit the follow and subscribe button so you never miss another episode and give us a five-store review.
1:41.8	It's a little cheering on top. Without further ado,
1:48.5	enjoy this conversation with Olympian and the one and only Heather McLean.
	...

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