Stowe Running Camp

Picture: Jess Minty addresses the crew.

The dew was still hanging in the air as campers climbed out of their bunk beds and made their way onto the the Round Hearth lawn. This would be the first morning run of the week. They rubbed tired eyes and adjusted to the chilly air while walking to the trail system known as Weissner Woods. Campers’ agility and awareness were tested by the frequent roots and mud puddles that dotted the trails. They were greeted back at camp by the smell of warm pancakes and scrambled eggs.

Another Stowe Running Camp adventure began mid morning when campers boarded the bus to travel to the Stowe Motel fields. Under the watchful eye of assistant director Kevin Greene, campers performed strides across the field. Kevin’s experience as a collegiate runner and college coach himself allowed him to provide helpful recommendations to students seeking to improve their form. Assistant director, Leah Miller, led students in yoga exercises centered around breathing and focus. Upon the conclusion of the stride analysis activity, students headed back to camp for their second Stowe Talk.

Tuesday’s Stowe Talk was given by a Stowe Running Camp favorite, Jess Minty. As a collegiate and professional runner, Jess Minty offered insight to campers on tempo runs. Campers may have been nervous for the upcoming Tempo Tuesday, but after a morning of yoga and listening to the advice of a professional runner, most were at ease. Jess Minty also offered her experience as a female athlete to the women of the camp. While Jess discussed everything from nutrition to self confidence, the male counselors discussed similar topics with the male counselors.

After a morning and afternoon filled with informative activities, campers turned to fun and games for the rest of the afternoon. The Stowe Down activities continued with a air hockey and pool tournament. Campers also had the opportunity to go on another run in the afternoon. This time many chose a slightly easier terrain, the Stowe bike path.

The arrival of dinner at 6:30, once again drew all the campers together into the central dining room at the Round Hearth. Meals at the Round Hearth are signified by the ringing of a loud bell. Upon hearing the bell, campers all filed into line, eagerly awaiting the scrumptious food that cook Sue had prepared for the evening. Monday’s meal was pulled pork, greek salad, corn, a hearty vegetarian chili, and of course, chocolate cake for dessert.

After dinner, campers got the best of both worlds with an informal counselor seminar and further Stowe Down activities. Counselor Rachel Maue and camp director Fran Cusick gathered students in the lounge room to discuss race strategy and how to approach different types of courses and race distances. Campers bonded with each other by discussing and comparing stories on some of the courses they considered most challenging. Among Massachusetts kids, Gardner and Northfield were agreed to be the hardest courses, while Vermont kids advocated for the Thetford course. Connecticutians tried to compare the measly hill at Wickham park to the more challenging courses in the North. At least campers agreed on the flattest race course: the track.

The Stowe Down activities for the night consisted of a lively game of Family Feud. Campers were forced to brainstorm answers for everything from the least common things to wear in the summer to the number of pants men own to items that would be found in a wrestler’s locker room. At the end of the night two teams emerged as the top runners. The Kardashians and Hannah Montana qualified for the final round. However, campers would have to wait until the next day to see the results of the finale. Campers headed up to bed to get some rest before Tempo Tuesday arrived.

August is the eighth month of the year. However for Stowe Running Camp attendees, it marks the twelfth month of the year, the twelfth month since the end of the last Stowe Running Camp. On Sunday August 6th campers began to trickle in for Stowe Running Camp 2017. Smiles were abundant and many quickly made friends playing volleyball, kan jam, and the legendary Round Hearth hook game. After introductory speeches, 47 campers boarded the bus and traveled over the mountains to the Von Trapp Family Trails. With elements of the sound of music ringing in the air, campers embarked on their first run. Exploring trails with names from Owls Howl to Skater’s Waltz to Chuck’s Corkscrew, campers leaped over roots and ran around mud puddles to get in their daily run.

Upon arrival back at the Round Hearth, campers were greeted with a hearty meal of spaghetti and chicken parm. Although, as we all know, the most important element of dinner was the chocolate chip cookies for desert.

After dinner, the camp welcomed Olympian Ruben Sanca. Ruben Sanca, a marathoner, is a frequent visitor at Stowe Running Camp and campers are always excited to hear his stories, view his pictures of the olympic village, and grill him about what was his hardest workout. His admirable work ethic and friendly personality always makes him one of the camp’s favorite speakers.

As the sun continued to wane, the 2017 Stowe Down competition began inside the Round Hearth. The Stowe Down is a fun competition consisting of 8 different groups who compete in a variety of events throughout the week. Campers have the opportunity to exercise a variety of talents ranging from air hockey to bonk to a clothing relay.
The first night’s activities started with the basics: picking a team name. After last year’s theme of the Olympics, this year was based on tv shows. Each team picked a tv show and designed a poster to represent their show. However, this was not the only way teams were supposed to express themselves. The night’s activities also consisted of short skits.

After picking their show, each team came up with a short skit to perform for the camp. Counselors then guessed the show each skit was supposed to represent. The team names ranged from Scooby-Doo to SNL to Grey’s Anatomy and even Dora the Explorer. The skits were straight out hilarious. Grey’s Anatomy’s skit featured a struggling runner who ended up in the ER after static stretching before a marathon *GASP*. (All runners at Stowe learn very quickly that static stretching is never a good idea before you run.) Although all posters featured artistic talent and all skits were definitely worthy of an Emmy nomination, Grey’s Anatomy emerged as the winner of the skit contest and Team Dora the Explorer took the gold in the poster contest.

Although campers went to bed with less than a day of camp under their belt, all were excited and eager for the adventures that Monday would bring.

Hello again campers, parents, potential campers, and other curious readers. This is Camp Director Fran Cusick, once again writing a blog post on my favorite topic: why you should attend Stowe Running Camp. If you’re a high school student, you’re probably in the process of catching your breath after what was surely an arduous ten months of exams, bus rides, races, school lunches, and all the amazing and horrendous things that go into being a high school student. It’s likely you’re looking forward to giving your brain some time off, sleeping in till 11 here and there, and watching a lot of Netflix while eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

In the midst of all that, I do want to ask you (if you’re a parent reading this; ask your son or daughter) to attend Stowe. Why, you may ask? Well, I outlined much of this in my previous blog post. But I wanted to jump onto a different road for this one. There are so many running camps out there right now, that I would imagine the decision of which one to choose is a difficult one. There are giant running camps out there with 500 plus kids. There are smaller ones with just 10-20 kids. There are camps for the most elite athletes in the country and there are camps specifically designed for beginning runners. Each and every one of these camps is run by passionate people who care about what they are doing and sincerely want the athletes they serve to get better. It would be cynical for me to suggest otherwise.

What I can tell you with certainty is that the people who work at Stowe Running Camp have a passion for both running and the camp itself. To me and to many of my colleagues, it is more than a means to an end: it is an end to itself, a wonderful place where you are free to pursue your passion, to a large extent unencumbered by the outside world. Read through some of the testimonials or talk to the people who have been at Stowe or worked at Stowe and they will tell you the same thing: it’s a special place and a special camp. Almost all of our current counselors are former campers. They continue to come back because they love the camp and what it stands for. I’m not sitting here telling you that every kid who attends will have a transformative experience. But I am telling you, as sincerely and honestly as I can, that the people who work here, myself included, believe that such a transformative experience is possible and actively work to make it happen. I’ve seen it on many occasions.

Quite frankly, we are not a camp that is out to make a lot of money. We aren’t sponsored by a giant shoe company or trying to sell you a product or teach you the “secrets” to running. If you want that, you should look elsewhere. If you want a camp where you can grow your passion for the sport with others, then Stowe Running Camp is the right place for you.

Thanks for reading, as always please contact me with any questions about the camp via email at fcusick13@gmail.com.

-Coach Cusick

Picture: Our staff wants you to come to Stowe this summer to eat ice cream and run!

 

Hello Folks,

This is camp director Fran Cusick, I am writing today to talk to you about Stowe Running Camp 2017. It seems like just yesterday we were finishing up our scavenger hunt at the Trapp family lodge and getting ready for the long (or short) drive home. Now, the summer is upon us and we are only a couple short months  away from my favorite week of the year. I wanted to tell you why I think you (and your team) should attend this year.

When I was in high school, one of my teammates attended a running camp…and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what one would do at a running camp. I pictured hours of running interspersed with a few meals and maybe an awkward high school dance at the end. I couldn’t imagine why a person would want to spend a week of their summer vacation at running camp. Suffice to say, as a running camp director who has now seen how empowering, educational, and fun a camp experience can be, I have come a long way from my ignorant stance as a high school kid.

This story leads to a question that I have been reflecting on as I prepare for Stowe Running Camp 2017 is: what is the point of a running camp? It’s one that I think will be answered differently by different people. Some may view it as a way to get in shape for the upcoming cross country season, some view it as a week long vacation and time to hang out with their friends, some view it as a time to do intense training.

What is so great to me about Stowe Running Camp is that we can accommodate all of these philosophies and more. At camp in 2016, we had some of the best runners in New England and all of the Northeast, kids who are now going on to become scholarship level athletes at the Division I level. We also have kids who have not run all summer. And that to me is what is great about running in a nutshell. In the Boston Marathon, you have world record holders and Olympic gold medalists lining up with average, everyday runners. And while no one at Stowe is an Olympic Medalist (although we do count 2008/2012 Olympian Andrew Wheating as an alum of the camp and one of our favorite guest speakers is Olympian Ruben Sanca) the same principles apply. Whether you are a 4:15 miler looking to improve your 5k time or a 7:30 miler who is just looking to get in shape, this camp can accommodate you.

In that way, Stowe Running Camp reflects an actual cross country team. There are kids of all different skill levels and coming from different perspectives, all uniting together for a common reason: because we love the sport.

I hope you’ll consider making Stowe a part of your summer. Please visit our website here for registration information. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at fcusick13@gmail.com.

Happy trails!

-Coach Cusick

Hi Folks,

This is camp director Fran Cusick, I apologize for the delay in getting a blog up! Amazingly, the week has come and went, and it was a fantastic week. This year, the vast majority of our campers were brand new to the camp, yet from the way everyone clicked almost immediately it was like you all were long lost best friends. Some of the highlights included Olympian Ruben Sanca spending most of the week hanging out with the campers, a great tempo run on the Quiet Path in Stowe, and the scavenger hunt we did on the last day at the Trapp Family Lodge.

A couple of announcements regarding the end of camp/next year’s camp:

-If you did not get your shoes, they should be coming in by the middle of this week! There was a bit of a delay, but they were shipped out today.

-If you enjoyed Stowe Running Camp and would like to write a review/testimonial, please email it to stowe.running.camp@gmail.com! Based on the evaluations, it seems like people had a great time, so feel free to talk about it!

-Also, if you have any great pictures from this year, send them to the same email address! (stowe.running.camp@gmail.com). Who knows, you may even find your way onto the brochure!

-If you are interested in being a CIT (counselor in training) next year, please email me sometime in the winter!

-If you enjoyed the experience, make sure you come back next year and bring your friends! The more, the merrier.

Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone who helped make this week so special.

We had three excellent guest speakers this year, all of whom travelled quite a distance to impart their wisdom on the campers. Coach Jason Saretsky of Harvard University, Jess Minty of Battle Road Track Club, and Ruben Sanca of Whirlaway/Brooks, thank you so much for your time! In addition, our co-director Dan Flynn was unable to spend a lot of time in Stowe as he is transitioning to a new job, but he spent Saturday and Sunday at the Round Hearth and gave a fantastic speech. (we’re all winners!)

We had a ton of CITs this year, nine to be exact, and somehow all of you were extremely helpful and willing to do pretty much anything that was asked of you, from moving the tables, to creating epic slideshows scored to Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” to helping out with the creation of the scavenger hunt, you guys were fantastic. Yes, even our honorary CIT, Jake Grigsby was pretty helpful! The CIT’s were:

Emily Sessa, Tewksbury Memorial HS, MA

Emily Paquette, Notre Dame Academy, Tyngsboro MA

Lilly Wells, Mohawk Regional HS MA

Elisabeth Olson, Worcester State College MA

Rachel Maue, Ridgefield HS, CT

Tristan Shelgren, St. John’s Prep Danvers MA

Abhinav Pal, New Canaan HS, CT

Mike St George, New Canaan HS, CT

Jake Grigsby, New Canaan HS, CT (honorary)

The counselors, as usual, did a great job keeping everyone both safe and entertained. It says a lot about the culture of the camp that the majority of our counselors actually attended Stowe Running Camp and have made it a part of their yearly routine. So much of the success of the camp is dependent on having counselors who know what they’re doing and can create a fun atmosphere, and you guys did not disappoint. Our counselors this year were:

Leah Miller (Sarge), Lesley University Assistant Coach (formerly Brown)

Kourtney Bonsey, Regis College Head Coach

Kevin Greene, Regis College Assistant Coach

Rachel Campbell (Savanah College of Art and Design)

Peyton McGovern (Richmond University)

Eva Fandozzi (Boston University)

Spencer Lyman (Franklin and Marshall College)

Palmer Wymann (Marist College)

Joe Niski (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Also, a big thank you to our athletic trainer, Caitlin Ryan, who did a fantastic job all week. It was so nice to have a trainer who actually understands running the way Caitlin does.

Finally, big thanks to the staff of the Round Hearth! We appreciate your flexibility and willingness to put up with the voracious appetites and general oddness of runners.

I do hope to post more pictures and videos in the coming week, so keep an eye out for that on Facebook and Instagram. Otherwise, see you all next summer!

-Director Fran Cusick

 

The day began with a pleasant jaunt through the trails at Weissner Woods located up the hill from the Round Hearth. We were all more the wiser with our trail running experience. The campers got some breakfast, then set off to gain experience in another area: speed development. Regis College assistant coach Kevin Greene led the campers through a series of drills and a 30 meter fly session where the runners worked on developing their top end speed. A quick core and plank series was also led by Leah Miller.

After food refreshments, we headed to Foster’s Swimming Hole to cool off and enjoy swimming and each other’s company. The Olympic Games continued with our first event: the water balloon toss. Team Nepal splashed their way to a gold medal victory. The next event was a full team event: the clothing relay. Each team had a series of articles of clothing that they had to put on, run across a field, and then take off and pass to their teammate. The United States thoroughly dominated the event, but the comedic highlight was seeing 13 year old Makayla attempt to run across a field in size 14 shoes.

Camp Director Fran Cusick gave a speech discussing how and why to do a tempo run. Campers learned the art of running “comfortably hard” and how critical it is to a runner’s training plan to prepare for the next day’s workout. Later in the evening, counselors hosted an optional seminar on the options of running collegiality.

This was a great day as campers began to get over their first day awkwardness and the seeds of emerging friendships were sown.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Campers arrived excited and nervous for the week ahead, only to be greeted by the warm and welcoming faces of their fellow campers and staff. The first day of camp was kicked off with an introductory meeting followed by a run at the Trapp Family Lodge. Campers split into groups to explore the lodge’s vast trail network, running among pastures with cows, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and streams.

Upon arrival back at the Round Hearth, campers were greeted by co-director Dan Flynn and his new assistant, highly-qualified and experienced 5-year-old son, Luke. Dan delivered an inspiring speech about resilience and fortitude in running.

In light of Dan’s encouragement, campers prepared to take on a challenge of their own! Dinner was followed by the commencement of Stowe Running Camp’s very own Olympic Games. After splitting up into groups of 6, teams created their own flags to represent their chosen country. Combining creative talents, new friends worked together to draw a unique design. It was a fun night of team building followed by some socialization at the Round Hearth.

Then it was off to bed for the campers!

Recent Wilmington High School graduate Elisabeth Olson has been going to Stowe for the past two years and offered up a heartfelt depiction of her time at camp. Read it below:

What makes Stowe Running Camp enjoyable, and the reason why I continue to return, is the instant community that is built as soon as you walk through the doors of the Round Hearth. The genuine smiles and the kind hearts you are greeted with on the first day, and every morning after, all share the same passion: running. No matter your skill level, you are taken in and made welcome by the directors, counselors, and

campers because at the end of the day, we all have some relationship to running, and that’s all that really matters.

On a more personal note, being surrounded by dedicated runners and learning about the aspects of training and running really inspired me to set goals for myself, ultimately sparking my love for the sport. It was the following cross country season when I started to stray from “just going through the motions.” I actually became someone who put their heart into every race, striving to be better. Stowe Running Camp gave me the confidence to become serious in my running, showing me that running is much more than just a sport. It helped bring a purpose and a sense of community to running, even outside the realms of camp. After my week in Stowe I looked forward to keeping in touch with runners from other schools, some I would see at meets later in the season.

I love Stowe Running Camp because it brings together two of my most favorite things: the mountains of Vermont and the sport of running. This summer will be my third year at camp and I already cannot wait to begin packing!

 

Hi everyone, hope you all are enjoying your summer vacations! Not sure if you watched but the Olympic Trials have been going on this week and there have been some highly dramatic moments. In particular, the women’s 800 meter final was a devastating one, as Alysia Montano fell and Brenda Martinez was tripped, costing both of them a chance to get to Rio. Overall though it’s been pretty inspiring to watch!

Speaking of inspiration, I wanted to put out a reminder that there is still time to sign up for Stowe Running Camp! We still have spots open and would love to add a few more runners to the mix over the next few weeks. I’ve been involved in Stowe Running Camp for the past five years and last year we had our highest numbers that I’ve seen. We don’t quite have those numbers again this year, but if you are reading this and attending; please talk to your friends! Read through previous blogs about why attending Stowe is awesome and please ask me if you have any questions. It is a wonderful week that I look forward to every year and the more people we can bring into the mix the better.

I’ll post a few more blogs as we get closer to August 7th. Happy running!

-Coach Cusick

 

 

To the uninformed, the idea of running camp is baffling. “Why would you go to a running camp?” the naysayers will exclaim, “What do you do all day, run?” While I never got a chance to go to running camp in high school, spending the past five summers as a part of the Stowe Running Camp community has cemented the importance of going to camp. And one of the things that I keep coming back to is this: it gives you a chance to grow your passion as a runner.

If you’re the type of person who would even consider going to running camp, clearly there is something about running that you like. Going to a place like Stowe gives you a chance to explore what exactly that passion is. I I make no claims that you’re going to come here and walk away as a better runner. Running is about gradual progression; no one run, day, or week makes the difference but rather it is the cumulative effect of months of this kind of work combining to make you a better runner.

What we can promise you at Stowe is a group of people who care. Not everyone will care about running in the exact same way that you do, but all are there for a specific reason. And being in a place like that, with an entire army of people who share a similar mind set, is empowering. Whether you’re the best runner on an apathetic team or a middle of the pack runner who is doing everything they can to get better at the sport or even someone who has only run for a few months but has found that it allows them to express themselves, you’re going to find a connection at Stowe. It might be a counselor, one of our guest speakers, or a peer, but I promise you, you’ll find some connection and that connection will help clarify and focus your own passion for the sport.

So ultimately, while I can’t promise that your week at Stowe will improve your 5k by 2 minutes, I can promise that it will provide you with an opportunity to grow your love of the sport. And ultimately, that’s what it’s all about. Go sign up today!