Harvard junior Dan Chenoweth took 42^nd at last year's NCAA Cross Country Championships. Chenoweth is looking for another solid summer of running leading up to this year's fall championship. Let's see how he does!

Can you sum up your 2008-2009 season?

(Laughs) I guess it was kind of a long season, obviously. They were a couple of different seasons. I felt like the fall was a really good step for me. Personally, for me and my team, things went really well for us I think. Also, I had a strong season my freshman year and I had that next step up...with some really good races. I had some tough races too. It was the first season where I felt comfortable in a college racing environment. Going into indoors, I had a tough winter and that reflected in indoors. I didn't quite get the times I was going for, but I had some good races and was able to perform well at some meets. It was sort of the same for outdoors. I was hoping to hit some times and those didn't always happen. I just raced through and and was able to be competitive at the conference level, which is always a goal for us.

What are your running plans for this summer? Just putting in a certain amount of mileage?

Nothing fancy. Just go out and run. I'll do a double when I have to. Our summer's been pretty ridiculous. It hasn't been over 80 in over a week. It's been great for running. I try to take advantage of that and go out and get some base mileage in.

And what kind of mileage is that?

I'm pretty moderate. I don't go too high. I've never been above 90-95. I'll just work up to that. Maybe be up there in a little bit. Just mid-range mile stuff.

Is that where your comfort zone is for running?

Yeah, for most of the season, right around there. I'm not too sure yet where my comfort zone is. I'm still trying to see how I can go without getting an injury. I felt great coming off that kind of range last year. For now that's what it's like.

Can you explain the team dynamic at Harvard a little bit? Any of you guys live together?

A bunch of us live together. The Harvard housing system is a little strange. You can really only assure that you can live with people in your own grade because you get assigned houses after your freshman year. I live with almost all the sophomore guys on the cross country team. From there, we're all living together. The cross country team is sort of all of our first social experiences in college. You come out for preseason your freshman year and don't really know anyone. Our team is like any other cross country team where we do everything together. It's also helped me to get to run with guys at my level or levels above mine. Chas Gillespie is a good example. He's our cross country captain. I raced against him in high school but didn't know him that well. In high school, I was at a smaller school. I didn't really have a lot of guys that could push me all the time like I do now. Coming out and running with Chas, I can run a workout with him. Our team is weird where we don't have one set running ideology. Coach definitely has his input, but someone like Chas will take it a little bit easy and is really careful of his recovery days and is very consistent. Whereas his other guys like to go out and crank all the time. It's interesting to see how all that works and see us come together at the end of the day. We race together and see our different styles succeed on the track.

What are your goals for this upcoming cross country season?

I haven't thought about specifics too much. It's too far out for things like that. My main goal is always to show up and feel like I'm in a better state than I was before. I also like to race smarter than I have before. I would like to think that that would place me higher than I was this year. Last year I was pretty close to All-American. I like to think that I could show up to nationals and get that spot that I missed last year. That's the main goal.

Are you doing any races this summer?

I don't have any races planned out. I'm not into road races in general. I do a couple every once in a while. As cross country and track runners—I'm sure you know—we don't get any down time. I like to be back here and be able to just run.

Does the huge break before cross country make it the season look forward to the most?

I always tell people that I'm glad I do both. I would say that I prefer to run cross country. The team can be a lot closer because we all run the same thing. Also, it does help that you haven't seen anyone in three months leading into cross country. Everyone is excited to be back in college. I'm glad we have the track season to counter it. You get other guys in there, pole vaulters and sprinters and stuff, and you don't have to race 8ks and 10ks all year long.

Being from Illinois, who are some runners that you look up to?

Jorge Torres is incredible with his consistency. He was able to go out and qualify for Footlockers four times in high school. He ran some great times and is still running great times now. I don't know how many years it's been. Going way back there are some great stories about Craig Virgin. You feel really connected to be able to race on the same state course as these guys who ran 8:40 for two miles in high school and trained for Olympic teams. I'd have to say Virgin for me. We have arguments on our cross country team over which state has the best high school running.

What's your major?

My major is sociology.

Your internship right now, does it relate to sociology?

Not really. (Laughs). I'm not really sure that it has to do with anything. It looked interesting. The graduate school of education runs seminars where everyone from teachers to college presidents come in. They take one or two-week courses. There's a division of the ed school that organizes it and makes sure everything goes fine. I work for those people. Sometimes I'm making copies of stuff, sometimes I'm talking to college presidents, trying to figure out what they need, and other times I'm dragging a wagon across Harvard Square. All sorts of stuff. Which was what I was looking for. If I couldn't get something that related to my major, I wanted something that changed every day...and that's how it's been. I'm excited to go home for a little while though.

Living with your sophomore teammates, what's it like? What do you do for fun?

A lot of times we get addicted to video games, like any other group of immature college guys. We take it to pretty ridiculous levels with that. That's a big thing. My roommate and I get into different things. We tried to make a movie freshman year. It was nothing too great.

What was it and where can we find it?

I'm not sure where that is. It was weird. It was about vampires and stuff. We're trying to figure out some new stuff. We'll see. We haven't been very prolific, but we talk a lot. Never get around to shooting anything.

So, a cheesy horror movie?

Yeah. Something like that. A cheesy horror short.

I'm not sure how your food is on campus, but if you could have on meal, prepared by anyone, what would you have and who would make it?

I definitely would not eat from the Harvard dining staff. Especially not the one in my dorm. I have really bland food tastes. I absolutely love Kraft macaroni and cheese. I've tried to make it a couple times this summer and it's been all right, but it's nothing like when my mom makes—which I know is not all that complicated. I'm sure anyone making that for me would be fine.

Toss some chunks of hot dogs in there or something?

If I could put something with it, I'd go with my mom's chicken pot pie. I do like that. If I could have those two things, then that would be good. As long as I didn't gorge myself. Then I'd feel really sick.

Any weird running superstitions?

In high school, I started only racing in black socks. It wasn't really a big thing, because I have plenty of them. It wasn't a big deal, but last year, I forgot to bring a pair and I raced in white socks and raced fine. It doesn't mean much, I guess...but I tried that.

Were you nervous on the starting line, thinking you were about to run horribly?

I was like, “oh, you can see my white socks over my spikes!” I was wearing black spikes as well. I thought I would look so stupid. I managed to push those thoughts from my head as we got to the line. There were a couple moments of uneasiness there.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

My roommate Ryan and I we do a lot of our running together in the winter. In Boston in the winter, it gets really cold. It was one of those days where we had a lot of ice and stuff and we couldn't run as much as we wanted to. We decided that we're going to be big guys and go outside and run for as long as we can. We have our football field domed off for the winter and we run in there. The business school is right next to our track facilities and it's usually plowed pretty nicely. We were going to run around that as well as we could until we had to go inside. It was probably in the negatives with the wind chill. We go on a couple loops. My roommate stops to tie his shoe in Boston in the middle of the city. I'm just waiting around, looking around. As he's ready to get up, I see something moving...which is weird because no one is outside. We look and there's a turkey chilling out in this little lawn near a parking lot. When we go and check it out, it's big...a big turkey. It's making some noises. I start making noises too, turkey noises. I think I made some pretty good ones. It's starting to answer us back and we get a little bored with it. It starts to go away as I make another noise and it turns around and fluffs up all it's feathers and starts coming after me. There's a copyright here: you cannot judge me for running away from a turkey until you've been chased by a turkey. Their teeth look so sharp...and this thing was huge. As I take off, it's just chasing me. My roommate's just laughing at me, he manages to go up the road and I just take off by him. The turkey is still coming, and all of a sudden he just stops laughing,and all I can see are these huge wings flapping out behind my roommate. We ran a couple hundred meters before it stopped chasing us. We think this has got to be the best story ever, like no one's ever topped this. We got attacked by a turkey in the middle of winter in Boston.

You were talking turkey; what do you think you said to it in turkey that pissed it off so badly? Did you tell him you were a Yankee fan?

Yeah, maybe I said something about the Yankees. I can't imagine what got it upset, it was in the middle of a place it had no business being. I was just like, “what are you doing here?” Maybe I mentioned something about Thanksgiving, I don't know.