From Aug. 6 through 11, Gigi Simmons ’26, Kristin Ruiz ’26, and I went to Runners Workshop Running Camp in Idyllwild, California.
Runners Workshop Running Camp is a summer camp for high school cross-country athletes. The campers workout twice daily to improve running skills for the upcoming season and give tons of resources and information on all things running.
Each group is assigned a cabin and a camp counselor. Campers are separated into cabin groups depending on whether they came with their entire team, a couple of team members, or by themselves. Each counselor is an experienced runner who either runs for their college or is a part of an official running club.
Despite being a running camp, it also functions like a typical summer camp where we got to meet new people and enjoy the outdoors.
This is how most of the days went at camp:
5:30 a.m. Rise and shine! My cabin mates and I would usually wake up around this time and start to quickly get ready to go on our morning run.
6:00 a.m. Ovi, the camp director, somehow got a hold of the speakers in all of the cabins and would pleasantly wake us up with a “GET UP IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP. IF YOU ARE NOT UP YOU ARE LATE.”
6:15 a.m. Dynamic Stretches. A great way to start the morning with 200 other teenage runners who just woke up. (Who doesn’t love a good morning stretch?)
6:45 a.m. Run run run! Runners were sorted into groups A, B, C or D. A being the fastest and D being on the slower side. Depending on the day, we would do a distance trail run, hill, or repeat workout. The trail had beautiful views of the mountains. (Think of the opening scene in, “The Sound of Music.”)
7:45 a.m. Campers would cool down from their run and have about 30 minutes to get ready for breakfast.
8:15 a.m. Pre-breakfast gathering. Counselors and Campers would meet in front of the dining hall before going in for breakfast. Counselors would give out cliff bars to whoever they thought gave their best effort on the run that day. (Gigi and Kristin both got Clif bars!)
8:30 a.m. BREAKFAST. I’m not kidding when I say the only thing keeping me going towards the end of our morning run was the thought of food.
9:30 a.m. Clinics. The campers would be separated into two groups and alternate clinics covering different topics like racing techniques, nutrition, race day prep, and goal setting.
11:00 a.m. Free Time. (aka nap time for most of us)
12:15 p.m. Lunch. During lunchtime, my group made a special concoction of a drink that will go down in history for being so good. (It was a Raspberry iced tea/pink Hi-C lemonade combo.)
1:00 p.m. More free time, woohoo! Free time was open for campers to do anything the camp offered and have a bit of fun besides running. (zipline, rock wall climbing, volleyball, gaga ball, team bonding, or even, you guessed it, another nap)
3:30 p.m. Active Clinic. This was our second workout of the day. The active clinic was a rotation of warmup drills, a mini hill workout, and pool jogging depending on the day.
5:30 p.m. DINNER. After another tiring workout, everyone was happy to know that it was time to eat.
6:30 p.m. Camp Competitions. Campers and counselors would get together in the meadow and do a series of silly games to win points. Points rank teams at the end of the week, and top three teams got ice cream. (Spoiler alert: we got fifth)
7:45 p.m. Theme Night! Around this time, the camp would have a fun theme that usually involved some fun activities (Themes: casino night, survivor night, talent show/lip sync battle, etc.)
10:15 p.m. Cabin talks. Each counselor would get their group in one room and talk either about the day or running-based discussions. Our counselor was cool enough to let us include slight bits of girl gossip here and there.
10:30 p.m. Lights out.
All to do it again the next day. This was my second and final year going to Runners workshop. Not only did I learn and grow so much, but I made some of the best memories.
By learning how to improve my running skills, be a better leader for my team, and creating my own pre-race mantras, I have changed my running game and mindset for the better.
I will never forget all the camp memories from choreographing a dance routine to, “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt for 90’s night, getting second place in camp Olympics, and making dumb TikToks in our cabin.
This camp has my whole heart. Hopefully, if my counselor application gets accepted, I may be able to see this camp from another perspective.
