Senior Spotlight: Running with Aditya Bhagavathi

Bouncing from the Midwest, to the East Coast, to California, plus running 60 miles per week, senior Aditya Bhagavathi is often on the go—and swiftly. He currently holds Caltech school records in the 8K (approximately five-mile) cross-country event and the 5000-meter (approximately three-mile) track event. Additionally, Bhagavathi was named to the Capital One Academic All-America Men's Track & Field/Cross Country Division III second team, an honor that no other Beaver athlete has ever received.

We recently sat down with Bhagavathi, a computer science major, to talk about balancing a running career with the academic marathon of being a Caltech undergraduate.

What was life like before Caltech?

My family was on the move a lot. I came to the U.S. when I was eight, having lived in India and Toronto before that. Then I spent five years in Michigan, three in Indiana, and my final year of high school in New Jersey, before moving out to California for Caltech.

I guess you could say I started out "on the streets," playing basketball in Michigan and just running to stay fit. I committed to running competitively in high school and I just never stopped.

How would you describe your Caltech experience?

Caltech has been a lot about discovering myself. For example, I discovered computer science during my freshman year. I really love math, and I realized that computer science is like a marriage of mathematics and tangible, real-world applications. Every time I meet someone new, every time I have a new research experience or internship, I feel like new directions are opened up.

I especially appreciate the professors, who not only are brilliant and teach well, but also emphasize the practical, global impact of what we learn. This really inspired me to go into industry, and I got internships at Google and Goldman Sachs. Each step along the way I picked up something new—about problem solving, about business, about industry.

How have you managed to balance the rigor of Caltech with athletics?

It hasn't been easy. There have been many times when I've felt overwhelmed . . . I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now, even! Having to graduate soon, and wanting to leave a good legacy with the team . . . it's a lot. There were times when I just went into machine-mode, working all the time, and I had to sacrifice a lot of other things in my life. Now, I'm trying to have more of a balance, making sure to leave time to hang out with my friends. The way I see it, Caltech is 30 percent about the education, and 70 percent about the people that I get to meet every day. These people—friends, teammates, coaches, professors—they keep me going.

Do you have a favorite moment or race?

My favorite moment was last year when we went to Oregon for the cross-country regionals race. But it wasn't during the race—it was actually the night before. We were all sitting in a motel room, it was chilly and snowing outside, mid-November, and there was this electric feel of Steve Prefontaine in the air—"Pre" was a distance-running idol, born and raised in Oregon, who held every American outdoor track record between 2,000 and 10,000 meters until he died in an accident in 1975.

So here we are, getting ready for the biggest, most important race of the season, and I knew I wasn't going to sleep. So we each went around and verbalized what this season meant to us, why we were going to go out the next day and try our hardest. The essence of what everybody said was this: we were each running not just for ourselves, but for each other. Every person who runs a little bit faster, or tries a little harder, or pushes himself a little farther, was doing it together with everyone else.

That kind of band-of-brothers mentality is really what I'm trying to instill in the team as captain this year.

What are your plans after Caltech?

Well, I know running will always be a part of my life. Professionally, my plans are in development right now. I'm hoping to work in management consulting—a field where companies hire you to solve a problem, and you cycle through cases working with people and traveling a lot. I've picked up a lot of problem-solving skills from my research, as well as leadership and interpersonal skills from internships and cross-country. I'm hoping to live in Chicago—I lived there for a couple of summers, and I just absolutely love that city. It's glamorous and exciting but not that expensive. And I imagine I'll be running quite a bit there.