From The Track to The Trails with Addie Bracy

By her early 30s, Addie Bracy had already enjoyed a successful career as a track runner and was ready to retire. But now that she’s in her late 30s, she’s discovered an entirely second career as a trail runner. It was a change that she says happened almost by accident. What led Addie Bracy from the track to the trails?

A three-time USA Olympics Trials qualifier, she found herself thinking about retirement as she was training for the 10,000m in 2016 and found herself unable to hit the times she once did. “It had been about two years since I had run a PR and I was thinking my career was over and that was okay,” she says. “I was 32 and I’d had a respectable career and it was time to move on.”

That retirement lasted only a few weeks before a friend encouraged her to try running a mountain race, USA Mountain Running Championship. “To be honest, I didn’t really know anything about mountain running or trail running,” she recalls. “And I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds fun.’”

She ended up winning. It was the beginning of a second running career she never intended on having. Since then, she’s been USA Women’s Mountain Runner of the Year three times and has competed in some of the biggest trail races, including Leadville 100, Western States 100, and Run Rabbit Run.

A Different Kind of Challenge

What she’s found she loves about trail running is the different kind of challenge it offers compared to road running or track running. “I’m in my late 30s and I’m not as fast as I used to be, but you don’t need to be, especially when you’re running 100-milers,” she says. “There are other factors like nutrition and fueling and gear and aid station stops. That makes it feel more motivating and open-ended. There are more ways to improve that aren’t simply about running faster.”

Part of her work as a professional runner encompasses being a trainer and the author of Mental Training for Ultrarunning. In her book, she describes the importance of being every bit as tough mentally as you are physically when it comes to running. Just as you would train your glutes for a race with steep hills, she says, you need to train your mind to be able to deal with the discomfort. She describes this as distraction management, the ability to manage and control what you’re focusing on and thinking about so you can stick with a big challenge. Your legs are going to hurt at some point, she says, so finishing a race often means being able to distract yourself from that.

Executing Is Adapting

Whether she’s training for one of her own races or helping someone else train, Addie knows that even the best training plan won’t always end up being practical, so it’s important to stay flexible. “I see a lot of distress happen when the plan can’t be executed as written—maybe it’s better to recognize that’s not the point or the intention,” she says. “Maybe it’s better to say, ‘Here’s the framework, and here’s how I think it’s going to play out,’ but you’re willing to adapt and still accomplish. Executing is adapting and being able to pivot. Executing is responding to and engaging with how reality is unfolding.” She sums it up by emphasizing that sometimes people often think they’re being tough but what they’re really being is stubborn—and they’ll be able to follow through with accomplishing the goals they set if they’re willing to change their strategy. 

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Creating Community

Addie is big on the community aspect of running. It’s one of the reasons she established OutRun, an organization for connecting LGBTQIA+ runners within the broader running community. It’s also why she values the inclusivity of the sport, where she sees the same sense of accomplishment shared by all participants no matter what their finish time is.

Running, she notes, is a sport where you really learn to rely on (and bond with) the people around you. “Running is so inherently vulnerable,” she says. “You’re putting yourself on display and it’s very isolating. That can be very scary. And when you’re doing these really long ultras, you have to have support and ask for help and have crew, and I’ve been in some of my lowest points in front of people during these races. The vulnerability creates more opportunity for connection. I think that’s why runners get to know each other so quickly.” 

What’s Next for Addie?

On the heels of finishing her first road marathon in nearly a decade, Addie is headed to two ultras in the coming weeks. First, it’s the Chuckanut 50K in Washington, followed by the Gorge Waterfalls 100K in Oregon. And she’s not slowing down any time soon, at least not metaphorically speaking. She sees her longevity in the sport as one of her greatest accomplishments, and no matter what her speed is or what other challenges she finds herself up against, she remains enthusiastic about being able to keep on keeping on.

“That says a lot about the coaches I’ve had in the past and the people I’ve trained with. I still love it and I’ve gotten out of it unscathed and had good experiences,” she says. “I’ve also protected myself and shifted what I was doing competitively to keep the joy alive. For the most part, I’ve done a really good job of making the goal of being a lifelong runner my top goal and not really being able to sacrifice anything else for that.”