Last Call

Last Call: The Inaugural Fort Casey Running Camp Starts July 27 — Here's Who You're Running For

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Fort Casey Running Camp isn't just another week on the calendar. It's held on the same Whidbey Island ground where five-time World Cross Country Champion Doris Brown Heritage helped start a running camp decades ago — arguably the longest-running running camp location in America. That original camp ran for decades until the property changed hands in 2024. Last year, Youth Runner reserved the site and rebuilt it from the ground up, with several coaches from the camp's earlier era back on staff. This July is the very first Fort Casey Running Camp under the new name.

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Doris's résumé speaks for itself: five straight International Cross Country Championship titles (1967–1971), the first sub-five-minute indoor mile by a woman, world records in the 3,000m and two mile, two Olympic teams, and four decades coaching Seattle Pacific University to national prominence. She's in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, and is the subject of the acclaimed 2024 documentary Last Lap. She did all of it during an era when women's distance running barely had a place to stand — and then she built one, on these same Fort Casey bluffs.

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Campers feel that history every year. The week closes with the Doris Heritage Camp Classic, a race run in her honor on the same trails, before athletes head home ready for cross country season.

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Camp runs July 27–31, 2026, and spots are almost gone. This is your last chance to register for the week — cabin lodging, all meals, expert coaching, a trip to Port Townsend, and a race named for a legend.

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👉 Register now before it fills up.