Cultra Trail Running

The Cultra Crew is headed north, and Josh is just days away from toeing the line at the legendary Vermont 100. This week is all about race week preparation as the gang dives into crew logistics, pacing strategy, nutrition plans, and the organized chaos that goes into surviving 100 miles. Anna G, Fred, josh and AFB break down everything from aid station bag organization and hydration bottle swaps t...

Amber Constant, a White Mountains ultrarunner attempting one of the biggest endurance challenges ever undertaken in New England: breaking the all-time annual vertical gain world record joins Cultra Crew this week. Amber shares how a devastating injury nearly ended her running career, the long road back to the mountains, and why she's spending nearly every day climbing thousands of vertical feet in...

This week on Cultra, we sit down with Jillian Ellefson and Cherie Bilbie to talk about the unofficial women's movement that took shape around the Connecticut Ultra Traverse 112 (CUT112). What started with a simple Facebook post quickly grew into a community of 26 women and 16 supporters, all committed to helping each other tackle one of the toughest adventures on the Beast Coast. Anna G takes the...

AFB, Anna-G, Josh and Phred welcome back ultrarunner, hospice nurse, and Vermont mountain crusher Lila Gaudrault back to the Cultra Trail Running Podcast to break down her experience at the legendary Cocodona 250. Lila takes us deep into the Arizona suffering machine, explaining how she showed up to a 250-mile race with a surprisingly loose game plan, then spent the better part of the first half b...

357: Take 2 Trail at The Spring Fling 10 Hour What if we could leave less of a trace, and save some $ at the same time? Jess Parker is the Ultra cool founder of Take 2 Trail, and she has found a way for us all to easily buy and sell used gear.   This lowers the cost of entry for trail runners, and helps keep landfills and our closets from getting cluttered with the shoes, packs, and doo-dads that...

AFB, Anna, and Phred sit down with bestselling author  Martin Dugard to talk about his new book The Long Run: Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit, Greta Waitz, and the Decade That Made the Marathon Cool.   The conversation explores the 1970s running boom, the influence of legends like Steve Prefontaine , Frank Shorter , Joan Benoit Samuelson , and Grete Waitz , and how modern marathon sc...

Cultra OG Stacey Clark joins AFB for a road trip to Boston to meet up with Episode 280's Jim Kean and The Boston Bulldogs! We record live from the sidelines at mile 22 of The Boston Marathon.   But this is not a simple Rah-Rah sideline hot take. We hear how lives are being changed thru combining the principles of a recovery program and running based on the principles of self-leadersip, transparenc...

This episode was recorded live at the Traprock 50K in Bloomfield Connecticut home of Penwood State Forest. This race is the first in the 12 race blue blaze series where runners will compete for the overall series prize. This is indirect support of Connecticut Forest & Parks Association, the group that is responsible for protecting and maintaining the over 825 miles of blue blaze trails in the stat...

AFB, Anna, and Phred welcome back ultrarunner, musician, and all-around adventurer Liz Derstine. Liz last appeared on Episode 112 talking about her Appalachian Trail FKT, and this time the conversation is about her PCT FKT attempt and her new film Ridgeline.   We drift into the strange and wonderful overlap between running, hiking, and music.   The group talks about balancing creative life with en...

Anna,   Fred, Josh, and AFB sit down with Amy Rusiecki, the longtime race director of the legendary Vermont 100 Endurance Run. Amy shares the behind-the-scenes realities of directing one of the oldest 100-mile races in the country and how she ended up becoming one of the most respected organizers in the sport. If you love a great story, you've stumbled into a whole pasture of them, like opening th...

Art and Phred dive into treadmill survival strategies, including Phred's classic 1:05 reset method, the magic of a 15% incline, and the universal truth that starting too fast indoors is a bad life choice. Art is eyeing a March 15 return to running, sharing some winter miles at Lincoln Woods and the awkward reality of snowshoeing. The conversation rolls into the chaos of the Umstead 100—a brutally...

This week the Cultra Crew AFB and Anna G. talk with Josh Sprague — founder of Orange Mud — about building gear, starting businesses, and adventure racing. Josh grew up on a Kansas farm selling rubber band guns and raising 4-H pigs before working at Walmart and Goodyear. In 2012 he started Orange Mud after getting frustrated with hydration packs that didn't work for runners. By 2014 he quit corpora...

  Ellie Pell joins AFB, Phred, and Anna G talkin desert DNFs, frozen suffering, Barkley chaos, Olympic trivia, and women's running research, all in classic Cultra style. Ellie's Black Canyon DNF Ellie breaks down her early exit at the Black Canyon 100K after a mile-4 muscle cramp shut things down. Contributing factors: hydration, pacing, and warm-up. Or was it just the body doing what it do? Froze...

Cold. Wind. Frozen stream crossings. Dumb ass decision making, or genius? AFB recaps the Real King of Pain in Glastonbury, CT where thigh-deep icy water turned solid led to DQs (sorry Alex, Besic, and Bill), and winter racing felt more like a survival course. Josh and Shan hit Belltown AS, Mark Kelly (in shorts) and fast Tony D braved the road freeze, and Anna G tackled Frozen Snot, and Evil Becky...

Martin Janoschek drops in to talk AMC life, from winter leadership courses to stewarding ski trails at Cardigan Lodge. The crew dives into backcountry ski setups (tele, AT, splitboard), ski-leash lessons learned the hard way, and why lodges feel extra magical when it's stupid cold outside. Anna and Josh recap deep-freeze winter hikes in New Hampshire, sharing hard-earned lessons on pacing, layerin...

Art and Phred talk winter survival mode: dodgy road conditions, shoulder rehab, fitness dips, and why flexible training beats heroic stupidity this time of year. We also review a Canadian Trail Running (Fishing) Magazine article about How to Be a Lifelong Runner. And take a quick yard sale dive into Skimo, just before we thank our Patreons. We finish with a dope Suno generated 112 song. Art's snow...

The Cultra Crew welcomes New Hampshire–based author and risk management executive  Ty Gagne for a wide-ranging conversation on mountain rescues, decision-making, and human behavior in the backcountry. How can we have fun, and live to tell about it? Why This Episode Matters Whether you're an ultrarunner, hiker, or weekend adventurer, this episode digs into the uncomfortable but essential truths abo...

Phred recaps finishing the Across the Years Ultra in Arizona, logging another 100-mile effort and marking his 19th consecutive year with a 100-mile finish . The crew swaps ultra lore, legendary runner sightings, and stories from the deep end of endurance running. Plus we shout out our Cultra Fam. Then we go from hot to cold. The conversation shifts into winter running survival mode , covering trac...

This solo episode is equal parts major announcement , status update , and classic Cultra over-share . AFB checks in on where the show has been, announces a big geographic expansion for Cultra TRP, lays out full details for the 2026 #CUT112 / #CUT50 , and closes with a personal update on a long-overdue shoulder replacement. Intro music by  Nick Byram Become a Cultra Crew Patreon Supporter   basic l...

Ian Golden from The Trails Collective, Finger Lakes Running Co., Red Newt Racing joins Evil Becky Burke to talk about the challenges of coaching runners of all ages and abilities.  Get your official  Cultra Clothes and other Cultra TRP PodSwag  at our store! Outro music by  Nick Byram Become a Cultra Crew Patreon Supporter   basic licker.  If you lick us, we will most likely lick you right back Cu...

Author Jared Beasley can tell a great story! Including his encounters with  Lazarus Lake , where he earned access to cover the Barkley and Backyard World Championship . Jared shares what he learned: Laz isn't testing fitness—he's testing willpower . Jared's new book The Endurance Artist: Lazarus Lake, the Barkley & a Race with No End covers all this and more. The Beauty of Breaking Down Whether dr...

AFB and Phred cover highlights from the  Cat's Tail Marathon , NotchView Invitational , SRT   and Barclay Fall Classic , and Shan Riggs's run across Connecticut (114 of 169 towns done!). AFB shares a knee-busting White Mountains hiking story , his adventures at the Glastonbury Senior Center gym , where he scores a gift basket, and a Woodstock RV trip featuring The Black Crowes. Phred recalls a cro...

Andrew Drummond is the heartbeat of the White Mountain trail running community -ultrarunner, ski mountaineer, and race director who set the FKT on the Direttissima, summiting all 48 NH 4,000-footers in under five days. We dive into his adventures in ultramarathons, backcountry skiing, and community building in Jackson, NH, including the White Mountain 100, Bubba's Backyard Ultra, and guiding Scott...

AFB and Evil Becky are back with a full plate of races, mountain lore, and more than a few tangents. If you like your trail chatter served awkwardly with Swedish Fish, this one's for you. Shan Riggs is at it again!! Race Recaps: We dive into the Cross Connecticut Run for Mental Health Awareness and Macedonia Trailways in Kent, breaking down the 50K, 25K, and 12K finishers like we were there (spoil...

Phast Phred, Evil Becky, and AFB host Dick Vincent—the man who's been directing the Escarpment Trail Run in the Catskills for 48 years straight. That makes him the longest-serving trail race director in North America. Laddie Lawrence can have the road scene locked down with Westport's summer series, but when it comes to gnarly trails, Escarpment is Dick's kingdom. He's also a guy who kept a 34-yea...