< Previous page
Next page >

This season, she has practiced less often with her Southeast teammates and will run only in select high school events, maintaining a national race schedule that is designed to help her peak in the critical summer months.

Mayo enjoys the spotlight and glows after she wins. She flashes an electric smile.

"She has that look of a champion," said Jim Spier, director of the Nike Outdoor Nationals, who lives in Chapel Hill.

Mayo is fashion-conscious and chooses sleek-fitting outfits that give her a professional look. She prefers soft colors, especially her favorite pink. Away from the track, she dresses down in jeans or up in a skirt.

During indoor meets, she wears contacts; at outdoor events, gold-colored prescription sunglasses. Those often match her gold-colored spikes.

Sometimes Mayo's personality is as bright as her shoes. One moment she is engaging and the next silly.

At a recent workout, Hayes wanted Mayo to pull her knees higher as she ran.

"Lift more," he instructed.

"I declare war?" Mayo replied, twisting his words.

"I'm going to hit you with a rock," Hayes said.

"No, you're not," she said.

Yet Mayo is an introvert who confides mainly in her family and warms slowly to strangers. It is a natural instinct considering she is the oldest of 23 nieces and nephews and has nine doting aunts and uncles.

She looks for every opportunity to spend time with friends at basketball games and parties, although her track schedule precludes much down time. On free weekends, she works part time as a sales clerk at Triangle Town Center.

Liz Peartree Gary, an assistant coach at Southeast Raleigh, coached Mayo at North Garner Middle School. She talks about her pupil's innate competitiveness and stony presence at meets. But she knows a softer Mayo, one who baby-sits and asks for hugs at practice.

"That's the side people don't know," said Gary, who has used Mayo as a baby-sitter.

Gary said it is hard for outsiders, sometimes even teammates, to separate Mayo the athlete from Mayo the person.

At the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A indoor championships this month, she mingled with Southeast teammates, yet during warm-up before the 55-meter dash, she high-stepped in silence. She captured a second consecutive title and tied her own state record (6.87 seconds).

Later, after Southeast Raleigh captured both the boys' and girls' state titles, she celebrated with the team, posed for a group picture and passed the state trophy to friends.

Still, Mayo says she must turn inward to concentrate on every phase of a race because so many people are watching.

"Last year, they weren't really looking at me," she said. "Now they really are. They're looking like, 'She better run good.' "

Nevertheless, she said, "I approach it as I'm here to run in my lane. ... I don't worry what anyone else says."

When outside voices intrude, she can rely on her family. She lives in North Raleigh with her mother, who manages the family's adult-care business. Mayo is close to her dad, Daryle McNair, a bus driver who lives in Garner.

Mayo, who has a 3.7 grade-point average, plans to attend Texas A&M University next fall. She'll study to become a doctor and will train with Pat Henry and Vince Anderson, veteran coaches with former Olympians on their resumes.

With a strong outdoor season, she might be tempted to turn professional, a possibility that draws even more attention.

"Everybody's talking about her," said Clayton High's star hurdler, Johnny Dutch. "When her race comes up, they want to see her. Even long- distance runners talk about her."

< Previous page
Next page >