We visited Camp Renegade on Friday on its final day of camp. The camp met each day at the storefront of Renegade Running in Oakland, CA for the week of July 24-28. The camp was free to high school athletes and the running store through provided breakfast, lunch, snacks, transportation, Nike running shoes, camp t-shirt and backpack for free.
Each day athletes went to a different locations in the Bay Area for a run. The days included learning sessions on mental health, nutrition, injury prevention and goal setting. Professional runner Nell Rojas, the first American woman finisher in the 2022 Boston Marathon in a time of 2:25:57, met with the athletes on Wednesday for a track workout at a nearby school in Oakland.
As the athletes entered the running store for the final day of camp, store owner Victor Diaz explained that this was the first year of the camp with over fifty high school athletes sign up for the camp. Thanks to the free camp fee, Renegade Running helps make the sport more inclusive.
Athletes wrote down their shoe size for their gift and picked up snacks for the day. Victor explained to the athletes that they would have burritos for lunch after their workout at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Victor asked if athletes had ever been to Golden Gate Park and about half of the hands went up.
Led by multiple adult counselors, the bus arrived at Polo Grounds at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. After a warm up and counselor led exercises, athletes were selected on relay teams. A 1200 meter gravel track surrounded the polo grounds and each athlete ran one loop. Once they completed a loop, they slapped hands with a teammate.
We saw lots of smiles on this final running event and enjoyed our visit to this amazing camp!
Here is a link to the Renegade Running Store
Here is a link to photos of the run at Golden Gate Park
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