Adam Lee: Embracing the power of community trail running
In Episode 21 of the Running Tales Podcast, part of the Everyday Athlete Podcast Network, we spoke to podcast host and trail runner Adam Lee
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Adam Lee has been trail running for more than 10 years, most recently conquering the three day Moab Run the Rocks race in Utah.
Born in Ontario, Canada, Adam and wife Sheena now live in Alberta, where he has become fully immersed in the trail running community.
As well as launching his pithy - episodes generally last no longer than 15 minutes - Community Trail Running Podcast in 2021, Adam started hosting the Trail Running Film Festival screenings in 2023.
The festival started with a single show in Vancouver, with four more shows - all taking place in Alberta - added to the schedule in 2024. This year’s festival saw the addition of a further Alberta dates, as the event continues to grow.
Adam’s aim is to make it a celebration of the culture, diversity, and resilience of trail running, while both the podcast and film festival have community at their heart.
Always inspiring, the Community Trail Running Podcast features both elite and everyday athletes, aiming to combine fun and inclusivity to recreate the feel of the trails in audio form.
On the podcast, we spoke to Adam about:
His recent race experience at the awesome-sounding Moab Run the Rocks
Podcasting - and why his attention span means each episode is no longer than 15 minutes
How he became involved in the Community Trail Running Festival - and the brilliant films it showcases
Looking out for bears while on remote trails and the benefits of having a coach
His shocked reaction at the prospect of aid station Haggis!
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Key points:
Food choices at aid stations
When he’s not presenting his own podcast, Adam Lee can be found appearing as one half of ‘Food Fight Friday at the Aid Station’ on the Everyday Athlete Podcast Network.
Adam and co-host Jason Bahamundi entertain a wide variety of aid stations foods, from the sublime to the ridiculous, across each episode. The idea is to decide which offerings they will eat, carry or chuck as they reach a fictitious aid station.
After given him a thorny, British choice of treats featuring haggis, Spotted Dick, and fish and chips, Running Tales took the opportunity to ask Adam what his personal favourite aid stations snacks are.
Aside from the classic race diet of sweets and banana bread, he revealed a love of perogies and quesadillas.
“Anything with some cheese melted in there sounds pretty darn delicious,” he said.
“I had a guest on my podcast many episodes ago now - Sarah Lavender Smith - and she told me about a race she did in Italy where they had pasta and wine at each aid station, which would be really hard to run through but sounds pretty awesome.”
What’s your favourite aid station snack - and what’s the strangest thing you’ve had thrust into sweaty running hand? Let me know in the comments below.
What do you do when ultra running training finishes? Start a podcast of course
The Community Trail Running podcast started because Adam had too much time on his hands - and has become “too much fun to stop”.
Now three-and-a-half years old, the podcast was born in 2021 after he completed the Squamish 50/50, a brutal trail run in British Columbia, Canada which sees competitors take on 50-mile and 50km races on back-to-back days.
Suddenly finding he had a lot of time to fill where training runs had once been, Adam turned to podcasting.
Talking about the make-up of Community Trail Running, he said: “I'm not an expert. That's not who I am. That's not how I try to frame myself.
“I try to have people on who are experts and they can frame themselves as that and we can dive into their knowledge.”
He said he found the podcasting process “super fun” from the very start, with episodes kept to “15 to 20 minutes long because that's my attention span”.
“The more you do it, the more fun you have, and the more people kind of come out of the woodwork,” he added.
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Haha funny to see my Italy aid station memory make it in here. Yeah, that was pretty awesome getting penne pomodoro, wine, roast pork, bruschetta and more on that run, though I almost puked. The strangest or worst thing I’ve had at an aid station was here in Colorado in the middle of the night, around mile 75, of Run Rabbit Run 100. An aid station in the remote woods had set up a pizza oven, which was amazing. I really wanted plain cheese pizza to settle my upset stomach. They only had one pizza available so I took a slice and shoved it in my mouth. It had been covered in red chili flakes, and I strongly dislike spicy food! My mouth was on fire, and I couldn’t eat any of it.
Kudos to Adam for his podcast & film fest.