Get the Youth Runner Experience!

Begin your XC Season with confidence
Meet other athletes and make new friends. Gain running skills and tactics that you may not get on your school team. Learn from world-class coaches and experts. Get inspired and prepared for the upcoming season and beyond. Go home with enough fun and stories to keep you going for a while!
And, you’ll be running on some amazing trails in the Cascades!

 
 
 

2025 camps

Campers at Hayward Field during the 2022 World Championships

Eugene Day Camp
July 4-5th, 2025
Ages 11-18

This is a Day Camp during the Pre-Classioc. Run Pre’s Trail, visit Pre’s Rock, and get the Oregon experience. (not associated with the Olympic Trials or USATF)

Timothy Lake after the long run day.

2025 XC Camp
MT. HOOD, OREGON
August 4-8th Ages 11-14

This camp is for young athletes who want to become better runners, learn, and have a week full of fun and adventure!

Camp wraps up on the last day with a xc race.

Mt. Hood
August 7-11th

Coach Tyson

With us again this year is Legendary Coach Pat Tyson. Distance Coach at Gonzaga University. While he was at Mead High School in Spokane, the Harriers achieved an impressive 180-8 in one of the toughest dual-meet leagues in the nation. Reaching state competition for 18 consecutive years to win 12 state titles. During that time, the Harriers had a nine-year streak when they never lost a competition. Pat was also Steve Prefontaine's roommate at the University of Oregon and has plenty of stories to tell.

Learn

Being competitive involves learning from the best. That’s not just the coaches, it’s your fellow runners and competitors that can sometimes teach you the most. At the YR Camps, you can absorb years worth of experience just by being around each other.

The YR Team

Camp Director Nick Slenning and the staff keep things moving with trail runs, fun activities, discussions on all aspects of life as a young runner, and a week of memories.

When we refer to our team as world-class it’s because they really are. Bob Williams and Pat Tyson are both University of Oregon athletes and teammates of Steve Prefontaine. Matt Walsh has consulted around the globe and our core staff of college runners and coaches create a team that young athletes thrive on.

Guest Athletes

Last year Connor Burns joined us. He answered questions, had lunch, and played ping pong for the afternoon. Besides being a sub-4 miler he took down Galen Rupps 5000 meter national high school record. (20 days later Lex Young broke that record again) Other athletes that have dropped by include Nick Symmonds, Andy Wheating, Katie Mackey, Katelyn Tuohy, Jordan Hasay, Lexy Halladay, and Ella Donaghu.


Previous camp photos