Flourishing Is On The Other Side Of Enjoyment: How UNC's Makayla Paige Rediscovered Her Love For The Sport & Won Her First NCAA Title & Set A 3-Second School Record In The Process!

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rising middle-distance sensation and newly-crowned NCAA Indoor Champion Makayla Paige joins the show today to discuss her incredible journey, the 2025 season, and what’s next on her horizon.

The senior University of North Carolina star won the 800m Indoor NCAA title in Virginia with a time of 2:00.39 in March, her new PR in the distance.

It’s been a memorable start to the New Year for Makayla, as she shattered UNC’s women’s 800m record by three seconds with a 2:00.57 at the BU John Thomas Terrier Classic in January.

Makayla has displayed uncanny range since her high school days, competing in events from the 200m all the way up to the 1,000m. This breadth and strength has helped propel her to the stage she’s on now.

The Tewksbury, Massachusetts native was named 2019 high school Gatorade Player of the Year for Girls Track & Field in Massachusetts. While focusing on sprints, middle distance and hurdles during her high school days, she ran PRs of 26.21 in the 200m, 56.01 in the 400m, 1:29.71 in the 600m and 2:06.27 in the 800m.

Makayla, who signed an NIL deal with On in the fall of 2024, has additional collegiate PRs of 52.70 in the 400m, 2:47.35 in the 1,000m and 4:38.51 in the mile.

In today's conversation, Makalya walks me through winning her first NCAA title, what it means to her, her ambitions for the future and the UNC program, why keeping the sport light and fun is so important and how she does that, and so much more!

This conversation was thoroughly enjoyable, and I hope you appreciate it as much as I did having it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In eighth grade, I ran like 216 for the first time.
0:04.0	She like was so excited and I was like, why are you in tears?
0:08.0	I just ran a race, it doesn't matter.
0:11.0	But for it to now be the NCAA championship, it was a nice reflection moment of like
0:19.0	how much I had done to get there and what my teammates have
0:22.4	done for me to get there. My family and coaches have done to help me get there.
0:26.6	Yeah, just a big moment of gratitude.
0:30.1	That was Michaela Page today on the Running Effect podcast.
0:33.8	I'm thrilled to welcome Michaela on because she recently won the 2025 NCAA indoor track
0:40.6	and field championships 800 meter title on the woman's side. And she did so in remarkable fashion,
0:46.3	taking the lead early and never looking back. And yeah, it was a gutsy performance. It was so
0:50.9	cool to see it pay off. Recently had Coach Milt on the podcast. I hope you guys
0:54.8	enjoyed and listened to that one. And we talked about Michaela's performance a little bit there,
0:59.3	but it was cool to hear about it today's conversation from her perspective, her journey to get
1:04.3	to this point, her upbringing with her parents being successful athletes, but how they never
1:08.2	forced it upon her, how she's learned and discovered to love and
1:12.0	enjoy the sport. Some of my favorite moments of this episode were like Kayla describing how she keeps
1:16.5	the sport fun, wearing silly bands on her wrist and all those different sort of things. I thought
1:21.7	was utterly amazing and it's always enjoyable to hear about those unique aspects of an individual
1:27.2	when you see them win a big race,
1:28.7	but then you hear about what actually makes them that runner, that person. And I feel like we did a great
1:33.4	job of displaying who Michaela pages in today's conversation. She's an NCAA champion. She's a school
	...

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