Georgetown's Levi Miller was 35^th at last year's NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships behind teammate Andrew Bumbalough, in 11^th place. Miller and the Hoyas have their eyes set on the Big East title then a podium spot at the national championships.

Did you get your long run in today?

We had that meet at JMU (James Madison University) yesterday. This weekend we stayed out at Shenandoah National Park in a little mountain lodge and did a long run on the Appalachian Trail. We had a good one this morning. It was pretty chilly up in the mountains, but this year we planned it a little better. The last few years we kind of made a guess on how far the distance was. We've had some pretty long long runs the past couple of years. We took it pretty conservative this year and it took us about 90 minutes...with some people adding on. Last year, people were coming in around two hours, 15 minutes. It was really cool. A nice place.

Can you talk about your training? What's a typical week like right now?

Right now I'm running between 75-80 miles a week. This section of training is pretty close to late summer, I guess, with hills once a week. I'm doing some tempo runs right now, but nothing really race paced. We're still keeping our mileage up pretty good for the group. It's taken me a while where I can consistently run 80 a week. This summer I got up close to 90. The training, for me, has been really consistent this summer and so far this fall. I'm very pleased with it.

You didn't run your “big guns” yesterday, but how is your team shaping up?

We did take 10^th last year, which I guess looking back means it's good that we were tenth and pretty disappointed with that. In past years I think we could have gotten pretty excited about placing in the top-10. Coming back we return our top five and some of the younger guys are rounding out well. We raced our younger guys yesterday, none of our “big guns” raced. Mark Dennin won at JMU and looked really good. He got the course record and beat my time from last year by about 20 seconds. He could be a big addition to round out our scoring. Andrew Bumbalough is coming back. He's going to be out front. Sandy Roberts redshirted last year and is running really well. Mike Krisch is a guy who's run around 28:50. Ayalew Taye is in great shape and I feel like I'm going to be able to improve on my finish from last year. Everyone here on the team is really excited. We were 10^th last year and we thought with that squad we could have been in the fifth or sixth area on a good day. Now we're looking to do better. We think we could crack the podium if we have a good day.

What are your individual goals?

I was 35^th last year and I was really happy with that, that was a really big step for me. Now I feel like I understand how to race longer cross country distances. Coming through 5k last year, I was probably in the 70s or something like that. It was a real negative split kind of race. This year, I feel like I can put myself out there a little bit more and really try to improve. I'm looking to improve on my finish. Top-25 would be great. I'm trying be consistent and stay healthy throughout the whole fall.

Has staying healthy been a problem for you?

For the past few years I've had my ups and downs with some injuries. Last year in particular, right after cross country, I had some issues with my SI joint in my back. I had some overcompensation which lead to some knee stuff. That took me out for a huge chunk of winter. In the long run, that hurt my spring pretty bad. I really race well off of consistent, consistent training. I don't need to be doing ridiculous amounts of mileage or crazy workouts. I just really respond well to being consistent. That's the goal for me and the team for this fall. Maybe train at 90% of what we're capable of, but just stay healthy and good things will come.

How did you spend your summer?

Since things didn't go all that well in track, I didn't really end up racing really late. I had an opportunity to roadtrip out to the Colorado area and do some running. It was early on, so I did a lot of backpacking and hiking and mountain biking. I'm really into outdoor sports. It was a good time to get out there and hike around and see the West. I planned on going up through Wyoming and Montana, but my engine ceased in my car and I had to sell it for parts and buy a plane ticket back to Maine. That was an experience. Other than that, I was back in Maine. I live in Belfast, which is pretty close to Arcadia National Park. I spent some time up there training and it's a great place in the summer time with great weather. I was based out of Maine for most of the summer, just training and spending most of the time with my family. I also trained with Will Ahern, who ran for Texas last year. He left and is taking a semester off. It was a real good summer up there.

I'll have some Maine questions for you after, but what kind of car died on you and what happened?

It was a 1995 Saab 9000. I had it since my sophomore year of high school. I was creeping up on 200,000 miles and the engine just ceased up and supposedly some indicator lights weren't working and I may have had some oil leaks going on...paired with a lot of other stuff. It was sad to leave that car at the junkyard out in Colorado and leave with $200 in my pocket. I was very pleased with it. Everyone on the team had their own jokes about the doors that wouldn't open or windows that wouldn't go down, lights were sporadic. It was my first car, so I had an attachment to it.

Now you wait until you go pro and get a Ferrari like Usain Bolt?

We'll see about a Ferrari, but right now I'm driving a pretty sweet 2008 Vespa scooter. I'm still riding in style...just not with a roof over my head.

It's going to get cold pretty soon. What are you going to do then?

I've got some good flannel, some running tights and a good wool hat.

True New England style!

Yeah. Winter down here is nothing like it is in Maine. I can handle it.

You spend your fall seasons down in Washington, D.C. Don't you miss those New England autumn runs through the woods?

I miss that so much. Especially because I'm home for a bit in the summer. I get a chunk of that perfect, clean, crisp air with an ocean breeze. I miss the fall there a lot. This year has been sweet down here. We haven't been hit by any really bad humidity. Usually for the first month we have to do all of our runs at like 6:30 a.m. We've been able to practice the afternoon and it's been really nice. No complaints this year.

I think he's got a year on you, but did you have and wild, epic battles with Ben True back in high school?

(Laughs) Yeah...actually, I got runner-up to Ben True seven times. He was a year older than me, so I was pretty happy when he headed off. He's such a talented runner that there is no shame in that for me. I knew how good he was. We did have some good races together, but I was happy when he headed off to Dartmouth and I was able to grab a handful of state championships for myself. I had to make up for it, tripling up in the state meet so I could get my chunk.

If you could have one meal, prepared by anyone, what would you have and who would make it?

Wow. That's a good question! I'm from Maine and pretty partial to some seafood, but there's a small restaurant in Maine that makes the best lobster ravioli with a cream sauce over it. It's Thomaston Cafe (http://www.thomastoncafe.com/menu.htm) and that's probably my favorite dish. I'd have to go with that.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

I said that I was into hiking and backpacking and so are a few guys on my team. Andrew Bumbalough, Mike Krisch and I were up in British Columbia in the Canadian Rockies. We were doing some hiking up there with some friends and we were in town for dinner. We were getting into the flow of training. It was around dusk and we were eating with our friend's relative and the aunt was telling me that if I was going to go for a run that night, that I had to bring bear spray because the bears were all over the place there and the mountain lions were out. She was talking about the black bears, not really concerned with the grizzlies. I've seen black bears in my day and thought, “they're not that big, I'm not really worried about it.” I was going on a 12-mile run and didn't want to carry a big bear canister, a huge can of pepper spray. I tell her not to worry about it and head out for a run with Bumbi. We got about six to eight miles together and I go off and do my own thing, adding on. We go through these trails through the woods and I'm getting a little nervous. I see a lot of animals moving around and feel like it's a good idea to head back towards town. I'm coming back down these switchbacks and I'm looking around, enjoying nature, bouncing along and I come around the last switchback and see this enormous, biggest mother black bear I've ever seen in my life and she's standing in the middle of the trail and there's nowhere I can go. She's probably only 25 feet in front of me. I'm going through all the episodes of Man Vs. Wild I've seen and I have all these preconceptions of what I'm supposed to do. I stop my run and stand there. The bear just stares at me as I'm making myself look big and talking to her. She's just staring at me. We make eye contact and just stand there for about 20 seconds. I was pretty convinced that because she didn't run off that she was going to tear me to shreds. I continue my run and I get on the run another minute before I see these mountain bikers and they say, “have you seen any bears?!” and I say, “yeah, I just saw a mother black bear and was pretty freaked out by it!” They said that I was lucky, because I was north of her on the trail and her cubs just came along. I was really lucky that I wasn't 30 seconds faster on my run, because I would have been in between the mother and her cubs and would have gotten...filleted.