Beast Coast trail talk, rough edges intact.
Cultra Trail Running follows Northeast trail and ultra culture from inside the pack, with Art Byram and the Cultra crew mixing race talk, teasing, and practical course chatter. Episodes can feel like a parking-lot conversation after a long run: funny, uneven, specific, and deeply local.
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Cultra Trail Running is a Beast Coast trail and ultrarunning show with mud on its shoes and very little interest in sounding tidy. It is built around conversation. Art Byram appears as the host in many episodes, often joined by Cultra crew members, guests, race directors, finishers, volunteers, and the occasional presence who turns a planned topic sideways. The format can be an interview, a race recap, a live recording, or a group hang that keeps finding its way back to running. It likes specifics. Traprock means Penwood State Forest, the Blue Blaze series, Connecticut Forest and Parks Association, finishers, volunteers, and the people who make the event happen. Anchor Down means Bristol, Rhode Island, a 24-hour format, bike-path wind, and old memories of long runs through Providence and beyond. Umstead becomes a chance to talk about race streaks, low bib numbers, Boston, Manchester, and the emotional logic of repeating the same event for decades. Black Canyon opens onto televised trail running, UTMB-style finish areas, Olympic comparison, and the question of whether spectacle changes the feel of the sport. The show also spends plenty of time on the ordinary absurdities around training: winter roads, minimum daily mileage, rehab exercises, fingerboards, nicknames, and the private bargaining that makes hard routines tolerable. It is quick, messy, and social. A serious point may arrive by way of a joke, then get revised mid-sentence. Guests are not treated like distant experts so much as people already standing near the start line. That gives the show a strong community texture. It can be blunt and adult, with jokes that are dry, teasing, and sometimes coarse. Still, the center of gravity is affectionate. Cultra cares about trail organizations, race volunteers, local scenes, and the weird loyalty that keeps runners returning to rocks, roots, cold, hills, and bad decisions. It suits listeners who already understand why a 50K, 100K, 100-miler, or 24-hour race can be both ridiculous and meaningful. It is not a polished training manual. It is a clubhouse recording with enough course knowledge to make the chaos useful.
Made for: For trail runners and ultrarunners who like race stories, local scene talk, practical course detail, and banter that sounds like it came from a muddy post-race table.
What sets it apart: Cultra stands apart by treating Northeast trail running as a living social world, not just a sport to analyze. The show’s loose crew dynamic lets race details, volunteer culture, injuries, weather, jokes, and local lore all share the same lane.
Our weekly podcast shares the unique perspective of the North East, Beast Coast Ultra running scene: raw, impulsive, and irreverent. The Cultra Trail Running Podcast is a place where we can get together and discuss all the fun stuff that happens on the trails that most normal people don't care about. Join the Cult! or maybe you already have without realizing it... resistance is futile.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Art Byram and the Cultra crew capture endurance racing through candid race stories, practical reflection and the community surrounding the trails.
Cultra Trail Running turns endurance racing into a loose conversation among Art Byram, the Cultra crew and runners with fresh miles in their legs.
Art Byram's race after-party makes room for camera trouble and a Magic 8-Ball; your friends understand.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A live race-day conversation that links Blue Blaze competition with the runners, organizers, and volunteers around it.
Recorded live at the Trap Rock 50k in Bloomfield, Connecticut, this episode ties the opening race of the 12-race Blue Blaze series to the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association's work protecting and maintaining more than 825 miles of Blue Blaze trails.
A relaxed trail-running episode about snow, repeat races, and knowing when to chase a new challenge.
Weather whiplash gives the episode a clear spine, as Art Byram and Culture Crew member Fred Morolo move from bitter cold, snow, and ice into a wider talk about repeat races and the reasons runners keep returning to familiar events.
A loose Cultra roundtable weighs televised trail-race spectacle against the smaller events that keep the sport personal.
Episode 349 treats Black Canyon 100K as more than a race recap, using it to ask what happens when trail racing starts to look like a full-on spectacle. Ellie Pell joins Art Byrman, Fred Marolo, and Anna G.
A raw Cultra hangout where a skier distraction gives way to Bristol miles and Anchor Down endurance.
Episode 348 finds Cultra Trail Running in its familiar raw mode, following a loose trail of conversation that begins with Fred Marolo watching a Norwegian cross-country skier and opens into long-distance running.
Fred Marolo's winter road miles lead into a candid debate about when running stops helping.
Winter has Fred Marolo logging three to three and a half miles on neighborhood roads, and that routine gives him and Art Byram a clean way into a larger question: what does running add to a life, and where can it start taking something back?
A loose Koltra hangout turns camera trouble and a Magic 8-Ball prediction into trail-running comedy.
Episode 294 treats the Koltra Trail Running Podcast like a trailhead hangout: loose, funny, and happy to wander. The host and two crew members move from one runner's pull toward the 100-mile distance to the more local appeal of CUT112, with Vermont measured against the simple…
A candid solo trail-running episode about quality miles, strength work, pacing, and the mindset that can turn a race into a verdict.
Becky Burke's first solo CULTRA episode turns trail-running advice into something more personal: a candid reckoning with the habits she knows matter and the ones she has not always managed to keep.
Trail running, told from inside race week.
Host Art Byram and guests Jackie Smith and Celeste Fongating-Tong recap the 2024 Cut 112, a 112-mile Connecticut ultra-traverse.
Becky Burke hosts the first solo episode of Cultra Trail Running Podcast, recapping listener-submitted superlatives like the overpacker and former weekend warrior.
Rob and Art discuss upcoming trips, Patreon updates, and recent trail running events, including a race by Steep Endurance.
Live coverage of the Traprock 50k race, featuring interviews with race organizers and top finishers.
Cultra Trail Running Episode 351 centers on winter training, treadmill survival, and Fred Morolo’s long history with the Umstead 100 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Culture Trail Running Podcast hosts a discussion with Olympian Ellie Pell about her experience at the Black Canyon 100K, comparing it to a failed ski jump.
The hosts discuss a cross-country skier's impressive performance in a race, including his pace and strategy.
Art Byram and Fred Marolo spend much of Cultra Trail Running 346 on winter running, shoulder recovery, and the practical problems of snow in Glastonbury, Connecticut.
Becky Burke hosts her first solo episode of the Kultra Trail Running Podcast, introducing herself and the show's focus on Northeast trail running.
The Kultra Trail Running Podcast crew introduces themselves and sets up a casual, explicit conversation about trail running, promising a better episode than the previous drunken one.
Jenna Gould, Lenny's mom, joins the Culture of Trail Running podcast to discuss the Barkley Fall Classic and share fun moments.
The hosts of Culture Trail Running introduce a special episode about running socks with guests from Jogology, discussing the sock industry and trail running culture.