With a career of elite level mountain bike racing behind her, Lee continues to test herself by riding longer and further than she ever has before. Only these days, she knows herself and her motivations for doing so much better.
She tells the story of an epic multi-day, ultra-endurance mountain bike race through some of Scotland’s most wild and remote terrain. The Highland Trail 550 Race provides an interesting narrative to explore the ways people behave differently under stressful conditions and ultimately asks the question “is there a different way to succeed?”.
Lee Craigie is 38 years old and lives in the Highlands of Scotland. She competed for 10 years as an elite level mountain bike racer, representing GB in the World Championships and Scotland in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Lee is also a trained child and adolescent psychotherapist, who uses outdoor adventurous activities therapeutically to help socially excluded young people feel better about themselves.
In 2015, tired of the way the media and cycling industry portrays athletic women, Lee co-founded The Adventure Syndicate; a collective of women who do extraordinary things by bike and who aim to inspire, encourage and enable more women and girls to challenge themselves on what they think they might be capable of. Through The Adventure Syndicate, Lee now writes, delivers talks, makes films, runs training courses and, most importantly, continues to undertake her own ultra endurance self-supported bike adventures in an effort to remain curious, engaged and humble.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx