So if you follow me on social media, you've seen me mention something called Big Bird Camp quite a bit. Bird camp is when members of the Oiselle Volee get together to reconnect through running. Usually there are several around the country during the summer. This year things got changed up and there was ONE and we all descended on a camp in Equinunk, PA for a long weekend to get to know members of the Volee from across the country. We also had the chance to interact with employees from the company headquarters in Seattle, Washington as well as Oiselle's Haute Volee (elite runners) and their pro runners: Lauren Fleshman, Kara Goucher and Allie Kieffer. There were also some great visitors that popped in for part of camp (Jenny from Salomon and their elite Ultra runner, Cat Bradley and a couple reps from Custom Performance.) But without further ado, here's what happened during my weekend at Big Bird Camp!
Arrival Day!
I arrived with one of my chapter leaders who drove us from central Maryland, which took about 4 hours. Upon arrival, we started seeing some familiar faces from our own chapter and I started nerding out because Rebecca, one of the frequent models featured on the Oiselle website pulled up right next to us! My friend gave her a hug and chatted with her a little bit meanwhile I felt like...
But I was definitely more reserved. Pretty sure I was more like this...
(Full disclosure, if we ever meet in person I'm very socially awkward.)
We then grabbed our first loads of luggage and headed over to check in, walking past Lauren Fleshman while wearing my favorite bird lion shirt that I got at the gear swap at last year's camp. (I nerded out again. I may or may not have jumped around behind her pointing at the shirt so a friend could see me but she didn't. Or I at least like to think she didn't.) At check in we said hello to Stephanie (who organized the whole thing) and Lesko (who is the head of corporate development) gave us our cabin assignments. My cabin was close to the pool and lake access, but also furthest away from the fun and called "The Rock Pigeons." So at least a couple times I had to make the "I got a rock" reference.
After dropping off our second load of luggage, my friend and I also checked out the drink and snack situation (all kinds of terra chips and La Croix, the latter of which was available all throughout camp!) and got to say hello to familiar faces from the previous year's camp. (And of course some ladies I had seen more recently!) We also got a view of the camp store with some interestingly placed black cloth covering up some parts of the racks. Naturally we started speculating what was underneath.
The slight disappointment in my cabin's name quickly faded when I got to see who I was bunking with and the swag bag! Each bed had a Bird Camp drawstring bag with a wooden medal with an extra piece with our Instagram handle and our name.
The swag bag included: Salomon Sense Ride trail shoes, a Miir water bottle, disco spandos leggings, Runway Goodr sunglasses (released to the public that day!), a moleskin notebook, a Picky Bar (recently updated and restocked), she-roes stickers, a drawstring bag, and three tubes of Nuun (one of each variety--immunity, electrolytes and vitamins.)
(I took the picture after the spandos leggings showed up! They weren't initially in the swag bag because of some shipping issues.)
My chapter (DC, MD and VA) then had a quick meeting and of course, a picture.
Once I got settled, it was time for a quick gathering at the flagpole to hear some announcements, meet people from the nest, and hear our camp song performed by Lauren Fleshman!
It was followed by dinner with our bunkmates and a goal setting exercise for what we wanted to accomplish at camp. During the goal setting we paired off and got to basically have an individual verbal stream of consciousness for 2 minutes about why we were there and what we wanted to accomplish. Once we were done talking and listening, we had to write it down in a word or phrase. I said I wanted to get some of my confidence back and rediscover my love of running. (A lot has gone on in the last year that's left me pretty depressed and feeling like "I have to" run rather than "I want to" run. It's led me to become distant with some of the running groups I've been involved with in the past, and I'm still working on getting the courage to get back out for group runs and even just racing again.) We also got to see the brand refresh, which was super exciting!
Essentially Sally's presentation of the brand refresh can be summarized in this blog post. We got to see the new logos and some of the new products in the pipeline, and we had a feeling some of it was underneath the black cloth we saw earlier in the day. At that point Sally told us that some of the clothing in the camp store had the new logo, but we could NOT post them on social media until after September 6th.
Afterwards I decided to call it a night and head back to the cabin. I got the chance to chat with my bunkmates and so excited to see familiar faces who were in the same chapter of the Volee but had never met at events. I was really excited for the next morning and wanted to get as good a night's sleep as I could!
Day One
The first full day of camp was amazing!! Breakfast with cold brew on tap, more announcements then we broke off into our groups. First up? A track workout with Lauren Fleshman and Kendra Chambers! It was pretty much amazing. It was a lot of guided warm ups (which really helped my sore glutes from a rough week at OrangeTheory) and then a couple quick track workouts. For one track workout Lauren stood at one side of the track, and Kendra stood at the opposite side. We essentially ran hard to one person, easy to the other for 5 laps. Then we did Ins and Outs where we basically ran hard for 30 seconds, recovered for 30 seconds six times. I couldn't believe it--I actually felt what a 7 minute mile pace feels like!
After track work, I swung back by my cabin to get my wallet to get to the camp store when it opened. And it was awesome. We got to see some of the products that we saw the night before, only in an additional color we had never seen before called marigold. I put my hands on a muscle tank with the new crest in marigold in my size and even though it wasn't a "usual" color for me, I decided to try it. I kept considering different items, but in that time a lot of it started to sell out. I stuck with the muscle tank and checked out also because it was time for yoga with Dr Melody Moore.
Yoga was a lot of fun. I go to classes once or twice a year to get a feel for different instructors. Melody was calming and super respectful of everybody's personal space. It was definitely relaxing and good to get to do some really deep stretching.
After lunch I had a little time to relax, so I spent some time lounging on the waterfront watching friends go down the waterslide. (It looked a little intense so I opted against sliding down.) Soon it was time to go to my next stop: Hearing Kara Goucher talk about her new book, Strong, and getting to meet her. (I preordered her book pretty much the minute it was announced, so I brought it along since she would also be signing books.)
It was a great talk about how the book came about and a little about her past history with running. She also answered some questions about her future in running. (She's not retired and we might see her running competitively again sooner rather than later!) To end the session, she signed everybody's books so I got to meet her!
Afterwards I finally took a shower since we had team pictures in our singlets.
After pictures, we had dinner. Then came the body image session with Dr Melody Moore (the same woman who taught the yoga class earlier in the day) who founded a nonprofit called the Embody Love Movement that runs workshops around the country trying to help people create a more positive body image. It was really eye opening to see the responses during the first activity where we had to walk into the circle if we agreed with a read statement. It really dragged up some things I hadn't thought about in a long time and at times I teared up. During some of the later activities, I couldn't hold back the tears. It was hard confronting my negative body image, but it was long overdue. Afterwards I felt emotionally drained and I was ready to decompress. I threw on my yeti (a Oiselle staple, and a must have for loungewear), walked outside by the lake and called my husband. Soon after I was ready to call it a night since I had another early morning.
Day Two
The day started with meeting at the flagpole because it was long run day for almost everybody. I had signed up for a trail running workshop with Cat Bradley who runs for Salomon and was getting ready to run UTMB the weekend after camp. (She flew back to the states JUST to spend a couple days teaching us about trail running!) I was also super excited to get to try out the trail shoes we got in our swag bag!
Even though I've run trails a few times now, I still learned a lot from Cat. (Like to run on the balls of your feet because it's less of an impact and safer if you land on some unstable or slick rocks.) Since breakfast was going to be later to accommodate people on their long runs, after the workshop and we did some quick drills Cat does to help strength train and keep her muscles loose. We still had time for breakfast, so we decided to go back out to try what we just learned. I paired up with a girl from Boston who was in training for her first marathon. By the time we started to get close to the lodge, the smell of bacon lured us inside. The potatoes kept us there. No idea what was in them. But a lot of us got seconds.
Afterwards I went to the Style your Flystyle workshop. I got some suggestions on how to style some of the new Oiselle gear that came out. One of the big takeaways I got (besides how to style a lux infinity scarf into a turban--the trick is to hold it so its looped around both hands, stretched out flat. Then twist one hand twice, put the two loops together and put it over your head), was that not every style is meant for every body. If something doesn't fit just right or can't be tailored to fit right, move on. Don't take it personally. There will be other clothes that will work better.
Then it was time for more food. After lunch, I took it easy. I hung out on the sand by the lake catching up with a few people I hadn't had a moment to just sit and relax with much. I think it was starting to sink that it was almost time to go home and we didn't want camp to end. It was such a nice afternoon, but with the reality of it already almost time to go home, I pulled myself away to start packing. And change into my spandos for the fashion show and dance party.
Before dinner, there was a happy hour with Sufferfest beer, wine and cheese and crackers. I must admit--the beer was pretty good but the cans were large enough that I was happy with one. Lots of pictures were taken of everyone in their disco spandos. I wore my galaxy spandos so I just enjoyed chatting with some ladies from my Volee chapter that live nearby but hadn't really gotten to know yet.
After our picnic dinner, it was time for one of my favorite events at camp: The Fashion Show! We got to see Oiselle clothing on our friends as they walked the "runway" down the aisle between benches. It was fantastic. Then afterwards was the other event we were all waiting for: The spandos dance party!!! (Sponsored by Goodr) This was probably one of my favorite moments of camp.
Yes, that's a banana. (It was from my volee chapter.) And Kara Goucher dancing on stage.
I danced with my chapter teammates and cabinmates and kept going outside to cool off. Suddenly people started playing tennis.
That would be Collier Lawrence serving.
I think this is right after Rebecca (lower right corner) chanted "MORE SPORTS! MORE SPORTS!"
It was weird but so cool watching elite runners suddenly go from a dance party to playing tennis. I alternated between being inside dancing away to cooling off outside. Around 11:00 pm I decided to call it a night. We had one more early morning before heading home. And because most of us were already back, we needed to take a group picture as a cabin.
Day Three
For the last morning it was pretty chill. After breakfast we had the option for one last run, but I ended up finishing up packing and spending some time at the waterfront relaxing. We had a couple more activities planned--a panel with the Haute Volee (Oiselle's team of elite runners) and a closing activity with Lauren Fleshman.
The questions were submitted in advance, but a lot of them had to do with coaching--like how to choose one (a few of the Haute Volee are coaches themselves) and what to do if you think it's time for a new one.
Afterwards Lauren Fleshman led a similar activity to the start where we paired up and listened to one another speak. I paired up with someone from my cabin and it was really awesome. After some reflection of our time at camp, it was time to have lunch, pack up and leave. I wasn't ready to go home yet and back to reality, so since almost all of us were in the cabin (one had left at some point on Saturday and another left earlier in the day) we had to take one more picture of the group of us. In front of our cabin's sign. (Which I totally tried to take, but my nail clippers were deep in my duffel bag at that point and my keys were NOT getting through the zip ties.)
And I had to take one last picture of all of our linens in the middle of the room. (The camp staff wanted us to do this.)
Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Bird Camp. I got to meet tons of new people from across the country, drink all the La Croix and cold brew I wanted, and learned a lot about myself and my sport. If you're interested in coming to Bird Camp in 2019, first you'll have to join the Oiselle Volee! Camp is an extra fee, but well worth it!
Hi there, I’m not sure you’ll see this, because your post is a few years old, but I’m looking into this, and I’m wondering how much camo was?
ReplyDeleteHi there! I saw your comment right away since I moderate the comments to keep the spam away. It was a few hundred dollars, but the rate changes each year. It's also worth mentioning that it's expensive, but covers room and board for basically 3 full days (dinner the first night, 3 meals on Saturday and Sunday, and breakfast and lunch on the last day, snacks throughout, and a couple happy hours) the swag, and all the people they bring in for different breakout sessions. It's probably also worth mentioning that they've already said there won't be a bird camp this year. They would've had to start planning and putting down deposits in early December and with Covid it's hard to know how things will be in August.
Delete