Two weeks before school starts, members of the girls cross country team take a week from their summer vacation to travel to Camp Varsity, a co-ed running camp. This year the team took ten girls to improve their running techniques.  Camp Varsity is located on a 125 acre farm next to Garr Mountain in Madison, VA.  It has nine cabins, a dining hall, and a pavilion. Each school was placed in a cabin or cabins, based on the number of runners that came. This year, there were about one hundred and forty campers and around forty counselors.  Some of these counselors included previous cross country runners from HHS. The Harrisonburg cross country team was placed in the smallest cabin with sixteen bunks and five counselors.  For all meals the camp would split up into twelve groups of about a dozen people. Several times in the week campers would dress up to a certain theme that the counselors decided.  For example, one table decided to wear outdated wedding dresses for their theme.  To further camp bonding, all runners were also split up into five teams that competed against each other in various events.

“Camp Varsity is a fun experience that involves team bonding. I think other people on the team should go because it helps your running technique and its a really nice change from Harrisonburg.  My favorite part of camp was the dance we had on Friday, it was like a smaller version of homecoming,” sophomore Larkin O’Hara said.

“All of the activities we did at camp were really fun and you get to make a lot of new friends. I think other people should go because it’s a really good experience and you get to learn a lot about who you are as a runner.  The camp dance is definitely the best part of camp,” freshman Morgan Heckman said.

Daily Schedules:

Monday-Thursday
6:30am – Wake Up
7:00 – Morning Run
8:30 – Breakfast / Cabin Time
10:00 – Morning Games
11:00 – Store Break / Waterfront
12:45 – Lunch / Rest
2:30 – Guest Speaker
3:30 – Afternoon Run
4:30 – Store Break / Waterfront
6:00 – Dinner
7:00 – Entire Camp Evening Activity
8:00 – Showers
9:00 – Evening Store / Free Time
10:30 – Lights Out

Friday
6:00am – Wake Up
7:30 – 3000m Team Cross Country Race
8:45 – Breakfast
10:30 – Olympic Games
11:45 – Store Break
12:45 – Lunch
3:30 – Afternoon Olympic Games
5:00 – Great Camp Relay
6:00 – Cookout on Waterfront
8:00 – Camp Dance
11:30 – Lights Out