Hine Balances Cross Country With School

Zachary Hine, a junior chemical engineer describes his time at Cornell with three words, “running and school.”
After recently placing third at the Big Red Dual Meet against Army finishing with a time of 26:18.1 in the five-mile race, Hine explained the kind of effort he tries to put into both.
“I try to put hard work in both running and school,” he said. “I focus on both pretty hard. All I do is running and school, so I am able to put a lot of effort into both. I am pretty much the same person with school and running. ”
Hine knows that scheduling has been his key to balancing his engineering problem sets with practice.
“Luckily, I have a good schedule,” he said. “I usually have to plan out things in advance and work out on things I need to do. I can’t do all-nighters because I have to work ahead. Staying focus and planning out assignments helps me.”
Even after his success last year, he is still able to stay motivated.
“There’s always someone better than you,” he said. “I had a great season last year but there is always a higher place I can go — lower my times every season, trying to stay focused on accomplishing great things, focus on doing better and improving myself in every meet. I try not to force my fitness, but try to race as hard as I can. I have to prepare myself for the meets.”
Even with the tough practices in the unpredictable weather of Ithaca, Hine still practices every day with the same enjoyment as when he started.
“I really like running,” he said. “Cross country is fun. I get to hang out with the guys because all my friends are on cross country. A lot of work but a lot of fun.”
Hine enjoys running so much he still plans to compete after college.
“If everything goes right, I’d like to continue running,” he said. “With any luck, I would like to do maybe marathons. I still want to run, I still like running and competing. I just want to keep working.”