Central Coast Running Camp

Photographer Todd Tokubo visited the Central Coast Running Camp in San Luis Obispo and spoke with camp director Brandon Lawrence.

Camp Director (and Cal Poly XC/T&F Assistant Coach) Brandon Lawrence took a bit of time to give us a deeper look into the inaugural Central Coast Running Camp in San Luis Obispo, CA. The 5 day session featured interactive sessions from guests including Craig Engels, CJ Albertson and Cal Poly coaches Ryan Vanhoy and Michelle Chewens.  Among the approximately 60 camp members who were at the Cal Poly campus, there were a lot of familiar faces at the camp from all the various California Sections.

As this is the first year of this camp, could you give us a bit of a background on the camp?

Yeah, this was year number 1 of what is hopefully many more! I used to work at Wake Forest and they do a phenomenal job with their high school running camp. I was lucky enough to work at that camp and learn from Kevin, Brandon and Ashley (the camp directors) about what it takes to run a high level camp where high schoolers can come get better at their sport in 5 days. The goal when I got to Cal Poly last summer was to start something similar to Wake’s camp here on the West Coast.

Where are your campers coming from? Mostly in CA?

We had the majority of campers come from CA and also had a few from Oregon, Idaho and Arizona. While we think CA will always be our main state, we’re really excited for the camp to grow and expand to more of the western states.

What are some of the things you're hoping the campers get out of this week?

When we first sat down to brainstorm this camp and how we’d do it, we came up with the theme of Train, Learn, Connect. It’s not realistic to make people more fit in the 5 days they’re here so we really focused on campers walking away with an idea of what college training is like, at least a couple lessons learned that they couldn’t get anywhere else, and to connect with like-minded athletes who they could make quick friends with.

What are some of the key highlights for you during this week?

Well, meeting so many high schoolers who are enthusiastic about the sport was awesome. Being able to bring all of the aspects of Cal Poly XC together and show those things off was fun too. Adding people like Craig Engels and CJ Albertson to the mix was also really cool. I think my favorite part was providing a platform for people who are doing awesome things in the sport in non-traditional ways like Aaron Potts, Ryan Cutter, among others. I love that we could expose high schoolers to some new ideas about how to contribute to the sport.

Talk a bit about having the camp on the campus of Cal Poly - SLO (Note: Todd is a Cal Poly alum, so this is a completely biased question)

SLO is the place to be at all times. Weather is phenomenal, and the trails are top tier. Not much else to say!

Learn more about the camp, click HERE

To view photo gallery of the visit, click HERE