Hey, I'm Brandon Smith and I'm a junior distance runner at Rutgers University. I ran for three years at Colonia High School under Stephen Gleitzman and Sandor Csapo. When I first started running in my sophomore year I was mediocre at best. I ran 23:27 in my first race and nearly quit the team after running 24:47 at Holmdel Park. Fortunately my coaches, teammates, and family picked me up when I was down and I ended up making the varsity team by the end of the year and ran 20:35 at the state sectional meet and Holmdel again. I still sucked.

For some crazy reason that I still don't understand to this day I decided to run everyday that winter, something that usually wasn't done at CHS. I ended up becoming the top runner for our team that spring, something I held on to for the rest of my high school career. I graduated with PR's of 4:42, 9:50, and 16:27 for the 1600, 3200, and 5000. When it came time to decide where to go to college I was only actively recruited by a handful of schools. Oberlin College, Rutgers, and Monmouth University were the only schools that made any type of commitment to me. Initially I had committed to Oberlin College. A few days before I was to send in my deposit however, my mother's health took a nose dive and I decided it would be wise to stay closer to home. Her health eventually improved and I eventually ended up at Rutgers. Looking back on it, I regret not having my initial decision be Rutgers. I belong on the banks. there's no place I'd rather be.

My freshman year under Coach Mulqueen was a learning period, I had no idea how to really train and I spent most of the year struggling to regain the fitness I once had. I learned two things that year, the first being that the steeplechase was not my event and the second being that no matter how bad it gets you never stop fighting. That was an important lesson fall. I ended up being severely anemic and having a pretty bad case of pneumonia but once again the people around me picked me up when I was down and I came back and ended up running 15:35 indoor and 32:55 outdoor. This year went really well, I ended up running 15:04 for 5000.

I'm expecting big things from myself and my teammates this coming fall where I'm hoping we can transfer that RUTF attitude from the track to the trails. When I'm not running I'm hanging out with my now retired RUTF roommates or working on my Behavioral Neuroscience Psychology degree. I hope to go to medical school one day and then go on to do work in psychiatry or neurology.