For junior Dan Taylor, running is an outlet for self-expression.

“Some people paint, while others play an instrument,” Taylor said. “My artistic outlet is running.

“Now it’s a personal drive. I can’t even explain it. I don’t do it for acceptance anymore.”

Acceptance is the reason he began to run in the first place. As a seventh-grader in Fort Dodge, Taylor said he was gangly and awkward.

He was trying to find himself.

“I was a dork when it all came down to it. A typical middle school student just trying to find my niche,” he said.

He decided to give running a try.

“My track coach asked, ‘Who wants to do the 800-[meter run]?’ I raised my hand, I thought, ‘I’ll do it’.

“Everyone wanted to do high jump or the 200. No one else wanted to do the distance races.”

After his first race, Taylor said he was somewhat discouraged at how he did.

“I got my butt kicked severely,” he said.

But he enjoyed it. Running was fun. By the time he was a junior at Fort Dodge High School, he was placing very high at cross country meets. That’s when he knew if he trained hard, he could have a future running.

“Between cross country and track my senior year, I started getting recruited,” Taylor said.

Iowa State was one of the first schools to recruit him. Taylor nearly went to the University of Northern Iowa after visits to Iowa, Missouri and a few other schools.

But his meeting with ISU men’s head coach Corey Ihmels assured him that he wanted to attend the same college that his parents had attended.

“His philosophy was great,” Taylor said of Ihmels. “We hit it off [right away]. He wanted to make the team really good.”

Another reason Taylor chose ISU was the academics.

“The plant science program, the athletics, and the fact that I had friends and both parents [go here] were all reasons. And it’s nice to be close to home,” he said. “You just can’t go wrong at Iowa State. There are so many positives.”

This past summer, Taylor worked for Pioneer in Des Moines doing plant research.

“We looked at the cell wall of corn and the different ways of modifying it,” he said.

For this season, his main priority is to be an asset to the team. He still has the option of taking a redshirt season and may do so.

“I have until late September,” he said. “If I run, I’m just going to go out there and give it everything. I just want to be good for them because they’re doing the same for me.”

Taylor said the team is out running seven days a week all year.

“We run about 90 to 100 miles per week,” Taylor said. “I’m usually up by 6:30, and then I go for a run.”

His hard work on the course may have influenced at least two people. Taylor said he has a younger brother and sister running cross country and distance for Fort Dodge High School.

“Who’s to say they would have taken it up if I didn’t do it?” he said.

Now matter how well he does individually, Taylor said he knows there is always someone better than him. That fact is what drives him to keep working. He knows that his teammates have the same attitude.

“You train for yourself, but you also train for your teammates,” he said.

That attitude — that cross country is a team sport in every sense — has many advantages.

“Cross country is the only co-ed sport,” Taylor pointed out. “That’s another benefit to the sport.”

Taylor, in fact, is dating a member of the women’s cross country team.

This leads to another reason why more college men should try doing what he loves so much:

“Going for a run is a great way to pick up girls,” he said.