We went out to watch the Wildwood Running Girls Camp run a fartlek run on Lake Vernonia in the Oregon Coast Range. Wildwood Running is headed by Robyn McGillis, girl’s head cross country coach at Central Catholic, and Marie Davis Markham, an assistant coach at Lincoln High School. We spoke to Coach McGillis about the camp:
What is Wildwood Running Girls Camp?
This is our third camp here in Vernonia, Oregon. We started three years ago with about twenty campers. Year two we were at thirty campers and this year we are at sixty campers. The campers come mostly from Oregon and Washington, but we also have a handful of girls from Boulder, San Diego and a couple from the Midwest. We tell the girls that there are a lot of camps they can choose from. We are a running camp, but the focus is on the content we deliver which is centered on the Wildwood Mission that is to empower young females with knowledge, information, education, and reflection time around topics related to being female in the sport. We have talking sessions around puberty, periods, nutrition, body image, confidence – intermingled with the running piece during the weeklong camp.
What is the time frame of the camp?
We started Monday, June 26 and it is a five-day camp, so they arrived yesterday, mid-day around ten or eleven in the morning. We go through to Friday. We have a couple of guest speakers. We have Heidi Strickler who is a dietician. We are going to Zoom her in. We have Sarah Schwald, who is a mom of one of our campers and former runner at Arkansas and a coach at the Beaverton Youth TC. She is going to talk about honoring your journey in running and what her journey has been like as both a high school to collegian to now a parent of a high-level runner in the community.
What activities are the campers doing during the week?
On site we have swimming pool and a large slip and slide and that is the highlight of the camp. We have a camp Olympics so each day we have a team activity which can be anything from decorating their tent signs to a puzzle competition where each group is given a puzzle and they are timed on how fast they can put it together. We do a dodge ball tournament. We go swimming. We go to different trail locations around Vernonia. We have education time where we read articles and then discuss them in small groups. We do a bonfire with s’mores one night which is pretty fun.
Is this a camping experience?
They are in more like a yurt. It is a pretty sturdy canvas tent with wooden bunk beds and mattresses. It is kind of glamping. There is a cafeteria on site that does all the food for us. The staff at the camp hosts many camps throughout the year. We are one of many camps, so they have it dialed in. We feel really supported and able to focus on the content we are delivering and places we are going verses cooking meals.
The campers took the bus to get here?
We did take the bus. We are located on a logging road which makes it more challenging to run around the perimeter of the camp. There are not a lot of trails close to the camp, but with two or three miles of the camp there are a lot of options. There is the Vernonia Lake, Crown Zellerbach Trail which runs for miles and then we are going to Vernonia High School on Thursday, and we will do drills, band work and some speed sessions.
We are really excited to be here and bring all these girls together. We just feel like this is a special opportunity for young women to be part of something cool. They are both learning and honoring their journey. They are running and connecting with girls from across the country.
Click for the photo gallery of the run at Lake Vernonia HERE
If your team is interested in having West Coast XC come to your summer practice, click HERE
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