Joining such a class provides you with a group coach at least for the period of the class and may help you to locate and identify other coaches, who later can work with you on a more personalized basis. Dozens of summer running camps are scattered around the country, many of them on college campuses. Roy Benson, chairman of the RRCA coaching committee, and a private coach in Atlanta, operates summer camps for runners in North Carolina and Vermont. Benson recruits top coaches to appear at these camps to dispense advice and offer training plans to willing runners. Most other camps also have well-qualified staffs.
Many college coaches offer camps on their campuses.
Camps are good places not only to get coaching assistance for brief periods of time, but also to make contact with long-term coaches. Additional guides are carried in the March and April issues of The Harrier, a publication edited by Marc Bloom and aimed at cross-country runners. The New York Athletic Club and the Illinois Athletic Club, founded in the late 19th century, began in this manner. So did the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the Boston Marathon, although the BAA no longer has a paying membership or club house. With the arrival of the aerobic revolution, these clubs and newly-created health clubs in many cities broadened their programs to serve a more active clientele.