Cross Country runner Caputo spends the week at running camp

Jacqueline Caputo is a senior at Aurora High School and runs cross country. Caputo is an avid runner and has a personal record of twenty two minutes and seventeen seconds for a three mile race. Caputo attended running camp this past summer in Cortland, Ohio.

“The name of the running camp is Northeast Ohio running camp also known as NEO. The camp was from Sunday to Friday a total of 6 days,” said Caputo.

Caputo was informed about NEO running camp from a fellow AHS cross country runner. A few girls from the team decided to all go together and learn new strategies for running races.

Caputo said, “Abby Stechler who is one of my teammates asked me to go with her and I thought it would be a good idea so I decided to go. I thought it would give me some good feedback and improve my senior year cross country season.”

A day at running camp consisted of hard workouts and learning running strategies with frequent free time to unwind and have fun.

“We would wake up and do a run at 7:30 The distance varied each day sometimes shorter sometimes longer. Then we would eat breakfast and play volleyball and eat lunch. Next, we would have a clinic on running shoes or nutrition. Then we would have some down time. Around 3:30 we would go on our second run of the day. Which would be about 3 miles each time. Next, we would have more down time before dinner and then more free time where we would play cards. Around 8:00 we would have speakers come talk to us about their running lives and careers. Then we went to bed,” said Caputo.

The running workouts were strenuous and tiresome. Running is more than a physical sport it takes mental strength to push through the pain.

Caputo said, “One workout we did was a hill tempo run. Which consisted of running fast up the hill and getting recovery on the down hill. We did 9 sets of this hill 3 miles in total. Each day we ran an average of 9-10 miles a day.”

Caputo learned many new valuable tips on how to perform better and run faster.

“I learned about how to fix and improve my running form. Also, I learned new race strategies such as ‘when you're feeling tired put in a surge’. Overall, how to race and compete better,” said Caputo.

NEO running camp is highly organized and has numerous coaches and staff members helping run the camp. There was around three hundred plus runners at the camp.

Caputo said, “Ted Rupe was in charge. He was the 1972 state Cross Country Champion. There were cross county coaches from all over Ohio. There were also counselors that all had successful high school and college running careers.”