Brian McKernan, Saint Anselm College Student, Class of 2004
Tonight's homework. The class project due at the end of the semester. The upcoming Urban Immersion weekend. This weekend's cross-country meet. These are just some of the thoughts that race through Brian McKernan's mind as he reaches the mid-point of his daily two-hour training run.

"I get a lot done when I am running," says McKernan, captain of the Saint Anselm cross country team and president of the college's track club. "I don't think about running at all. I contemplate and I think about the other things I have to do."

With the completion of each mile, he checks off another entry on the mental list that helps him keep his life in order. McKernan is passionate about running. A natural runner is how Saint Anselm psychology professor and cross country coach Paul Finn describes him: "his feet barely touch the ground."

"Running has become an integral part of my life," McKernan says. Growing up, soccer was his sport, but after being cut from his high school team, his father steered him toward cross country. "It was one of the best suggestions I have ever received," he says.

McKernan is anything but one-dimensional, and his focus, passion and dedication to running haven't precluded him from fully immersing himself in the rich offering of academic, athletic, recreational, and service opportunities available to Saint Anselm students. In fact, he says, running enables him to be more involved.

"Athletes generally have the best time management skills," says McKernan. "We have set times for practice, and we work around these obligations." This daily anchor provides a base around which to balance the other aspects of his life, which include studying (he is a criminal justice major and maintains the second highest GPA in the senior class), co-hosting with his roommate a weekly campus talk radio program on pro wrestling, and performing comedy with the Anselmian Abbey Players improv troupe.

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