INTRO THING: Chris Gaube is a sophomore cross country runner at Binghamton University. He’ll be offering a look inside the cross country team’s season and a Division I athlete’s life throughout the year.

The fall athletic season is now in full swing and it is a very exciting time for both myself and the rest of the men’s cross country program. We’ve landed the best recruiting class to date and have still returned the bulk of our top runners from last season. Preseason went surprisingly well, and the team looks stronger and more fit than ever.

This past weekend we held our home meet, the Binghamton Invitational, here on campus. For the second straight weekend, I was not allowed to compete because of injuries. The meet was fairly competitive and featured two big-time teams, Syracuse and Columbia. Columbia came through finishing 1-11 in their customary pack style. Syracuse brought their B squad, but still looked pretty strong. Although we know we are not yet at Syracuse or Columbia’s level, we still defended our home course respectfully and competitively. We used this meet as an opportunity to practice pack running and work on some of our weaknesses, being such a young team. Freshmen Gerald Mcdonald and Casey Quaglia really impressed me with their performances in their very first 8K.

As for me ‘ I’ve been pretty banged up for the last month or so. I’ve had to battle some tendinitis in my ankle, which kept me out of our first meet at Stony Brook, as well as a severe knee bruise that has kept me out of commission for the last week or so. I’ve been forced to cross train for the majority of the season to this point. Good news is that I did have a pretty successful summer of training and I am beginning to show signs of improvement. However, it does kill me to watch the team from the sidelines and know that I should be out there competing. It has been a blow for me, after all the strenuous work I put in over the last four months, to not be out there doing my thing and helping the team. A wise man (my dad) once told me, though, that ‘sometimes it takes a step back to move forward.’ So for now, I’m working hard, and trying to get my body healthy and ready for a full year of competition, and in due time I will be back, and that is what matters.