Profile: Reuben Feinman

(1/18/11) When you first hear about Reuben Feinman, you might hear that he is a talented athlete or an outstanding student. When people get to know him better, they often find it hard to describe him in such simple terms. As a student at Loudonville Elementary school, he excelled academically, especially as an award winning math student. It is also where he first showed an interest in track and field. By his freshman year of high school, he was setting Shaker grade records in the long jump for both the indoor and outdoor season. He was also honored that year with the award for Outstanding Freshman Field Event during the Indoor season and received a Rising Star award for Outdoor. During his sophomore season, he began to stand out as a sprinter and during his junior year he was recognized with the award as the Outstanding Junior for both Indoor and Outdoor Track. He is a member of the 4X200M and 4X400M indoor track relay teams that set Shaker school records. Recently, he was a member of the 4X800M relay team that had the third fastest time in the history of Section 2. [Update: He is also a member of the Distance Medley Relat that set a new school record in the Yale Invitational on January 21, 2011]

Reuben's interests extend far beyond track and academics. He has a wide range of talents including music and a sense of adventure that he has enjoyed while traveling with his family over the last several years. He is a role model for many of the younger athletes and well-liked and respected by his teammates. He is highly regarded by all his coaches and has continued his steady improvement to the top tier of Section 2 runners. He has helped Shaker to earn three Section 2 team titles in track over the last couple years. Reuben was recently accepted under Early Decision at an Ivy League school where he plans to compete as a runner for the next four years. Shakerrunning.com recently interviewed Reuben Feinman to learn more about him and his plans for the future.

Shakerrunning.com Interview with Reuben Feinman: 1/18/11

Shakerrunning (SR): When and how did you first get involved in running?
Reuben Feinman (RF): I starting long jumping back during those elementary school track meets in 5th and 6th grade, then in the hall competition meets at the junior high in 7th and 8th. I played tennis, so I couldn’t do outdoor track, but one day early in 8th grade Tim Derocher told me about indoor track so I figured I’d try it out that year. Starting 9th grade I’ve done both indoor and outdoor every year up until now.

SR: You also played JV Tennis and JV Football? How would you compare these experiences with track?
RF: When I played tennis, I was really into it. Choosing between track and tennis was one of the hardest decisions I ever made. Football was never quite as serious for me—I always treated it as more of a transitional sport between seasons.

SR: You hold the Shaker Freshman Long Jump Record for both Indoor and Outdoor. At last year's Track banquet, Coach Hayes talked about your early success as a long jumper. Now that there are three teammates who have gone over 20' already this season, do you expect to return to jumping or will you focus instead on events like the 400M and 800M?
RF: I would have loved to continue jumping, but the main issue was that it caused a lot of joint pain and injuries for me, and considering my ability in the area it didn’t seem logical for me to keep going. Now I can focus my entire week’s training on running.

SR: You are a member of the Indoor Track school record relay team for the 4x400M Relay and the 4x200M Relay. This year you have already shown great ability in the 800m as a member of the 4X800M Relay and the DMR, which last month came close to breaking the school record. In addition, your 600m time at Cornell was only a couple seconds off Matt Conti's school record from last year. What do you consider your favorite event and why? Do you have any specific goals for the rest of the year?
RF: My favorite event would have to be the 600m dash, because this year it is where I’m needed the most and a good 600 runner is able to perform well in a variety of different distances (usually anywhere from 200-800m). My goal is to remain at the top of Section 2 in the 600m while contributing to the team’s DMR, 4x4, and 4x8 relays as needed in the season.

SR: Starting in elementary school, you were winning awards for math and more recently you were recognized for the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award. Can you talk about your approach to the challenge of balancing your time between strong academic achievement and outstanding athletic success?
RF: The key to succeed is to have good time management and the ability to focus on the task at hand, no matter what it is. When you’re in the classroom, you’re focusing on school and school alone. At track practice, you’re not thinking about homework or any other social/emotional distractions; the workout alone should be on your mind. The ability to devote certain segments of your time to different things is key to succeed.

SR: What are your favorite indoor and outdoor tracks and why?
RF: My favorite indoor track is definitely the Armory, for a few reasons: the warm-up area is heated, there’s always a big crowd watching your race, and you always seem to run a new best there. For outdoor, my favorite track would have to be Johnstown, because it’s a great running atmosphere and I always seem to put out a good time.

SR: How do you prepare before a meet?
RF: I always try to get a good night sleep in the 2 nights before a meet. I eat good carb meals both nights, keeping it a little lighter the night before. On meet day, I try to let go of any distractions that might be on my mind and focus on the races I will be running. I eat light and I stay hydrated the whole day.

SR: What has been the highlight of your running career up to this point?
RF: The highlight of my career was the time I ran a 4x200m relay at the Marine Corps Classic in 10th grade. Previously my best time in the 2 had been a 25 mid, and on this day I split 23.8 in the relay. It was the first time that I was recognized as a sprinter, and I went on to be a member of the school record 4x200m relay that same season.

SR: What advice would you give to a young runner who is just starting to run on a school team?
RF: The most important quality that any runner can have is self-motivation. Coaches and teammates will only be around for a fraction of your life as an athlete; choices like diet, off-day training, stretching, and injury treatment are going to be left to you. Make the right decisions because YOU want to get better, not because anybody else wants you to.

SR: In which sport outside of track do you most enjoy participating?
RF: Tennis would probably be my next favorite sport to participate in. I’ve played since a very young age and still do every once in a while with friends or family members.

SR: How do you like to spend your time when not involved in running?
RF: When not running, my favorite things to do are to travel, spend time with friends and family members, and listen to and create music. I also love watching the show Man vs. Food—I find competitive eating very entertaining (although I would never do it).

SR: Your brother is one year ahead of you in school and graduated from Shaker last year. Over the years, did you find yourself competing with him in sports? Has he given you any advice about how to prepare for your first year of college?
RF: I competed with Nick in sports a lot back when we were younger, but after that we both starting doing different sports so our competition cooled down a bit. Up until I became a sprinter in track, we had always argued over who could run faster, but I’m pretty sure that’s settled now. The main advice he’s given from college is to start reading a lot right now, because once you get to college they overload you with pages and pages of reading.

SR: You were recently accepted through Early Decision to Brown University. Why did you choose Brown?
RF: I was initially interested in Brown because of its open curriculum. After spending a week there this past summer while taking a class I felt that the area and lifestyle were good fits for me, as well as the excellent applied math program that I heard about. Not to mention, the track coach was interested in me and the idea of having assistance in admission to an Ivy League school was pretty appealing.

SR: What are your plans to continue with competitive running after high school?
RF: I plan to run four years of Division 1 track at Brown after leaving Shaker this year. Although I was recruited as a 200 & 400 runner, I have a feeling that after this year they will most likely be moving me up in distance to run mostly anywhere from 400-800 meters.

SR: What careers are you considering for the future?
RF: I am really not yet sure what career I will get into for the future. I plan to study applied math at Brown, which will give me a taste of a few different areas like engineering, computer science and finance. Hopefully, I will be able to come to a decision by the end of my four years there.

SR: You are also a member of a band, and enjoy producing Hip-Hop music? How did you first become interested in this?
RF: I first became interested in this when my dad got me an iMac back around 7th grade and I started messing around with Garageband, making beats with live instruments and computer sounds. Then in 10th grade I met a few kids who were interested in recording vocals over my music, so we started making songs together and have been doing the same ever since.

SR: What is your favorite movie or TV show?
RF: I have too many favorite movies to list, but my favorite TV shows are Man vs. Food and Balls of Steel. I explained the first earlier, and the second is more widely known by its segments on Youtube called Neg’s Urban Sports, where a British comedian makes up funny sports that he plays in public with random city people, video taping their reactions.

SR: If you could have dinner with one famous person, who would it be and why?
RF: I would definitely take Zach Galifianakis to dinner, just because he is absolutely hilarious. He’s been my favorite actor for the past year or so and I would love to meet him and see what he’s like in person.

SR: What is something about yourself that most people would be surprised to learn?
RF: Most people probably don’t know much about my hobbies outside of track—I love to go deep-sea fishing and extreme skiing. I’ve skied some of the steepest slopes in the country out west in Utah and Colorado and I have an 8’ sailfish mounted on my wall in my room, caught in Mazatlan, Mexico when I was 10 years old.

SR: Any other comments you would like to share?
RF: Thanks to everybody that has supported me this far in my track career. The coaching at Shaker has been great and I can’t say how much I’ve appreciated everyone’s help. I hope the team will have the same success in the next few years as it has in the ones that I’ve been here.