Craigie Lee
Climbing
Skiing
Tai Chi
Hill Running
Music
Wood Working
Mountain Biking (especially)
2013 British Mountain Bike Champion
Member of Team GB (Before giving up xc racing and enjoying self-supported adventuring instead.)
Highland Trail 550 in under 4 days
Tour Divide
Colorado Trail
Silk Road Mountain Bike Race
40
Storyteller and bringer together of people in wild places. Also the Active Nation Commissioner for the Scottish Government.
Born in Glasgow to a sporting family, I studied outdoor education and later child and adolescent psychotherapy before turning full time mountain bike racer. I became the British Mountain Bike Champion in 2013, member of Team GB at World and European Championships and represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
But the secret to my sporting success lay in my love of exploring big mountains by bike. I’m fascinated by the places we can all take ourselves emotionally by pushing our perceived limits in wild places, so I now ride long distances self-supported by bike all over the world.
I am passionate about fair representation in the outdoors and established The Adventure Syndicate, in an effort to offer an alternative female role model. The Adventure Syndicate post their stories online and arrange gatherings of people (usually of women and girls) so that we all might feel grow to feel capable of more than we think we are.
I’ve made an award winning film on racing the Tour Divide and have my own radio programme for BBC Scotland, Lifecycle, which explores themes that affect us all but that I process on my bike. I am also the Active Nation Commissioner for Scotland 2 days a week, inspiring, encouraging and enabling others to consider the emotional and physical benefits to be gained from being everyday active.
I live in the Highlands of Scotland, in my van or on my bike.
What makes you 1 of 7 billion?
Nothing. We are all unique. That’s the point of the world and worth reminding ourselves every single day.
Where does your motivation come from?
What barriers have you identified in life that have kept you from following your passions?
In my early adult life I fell into the trap that society lays for us all. The one that tells you you must have stuff and a career and a partner and always have your time occupied constructively in order to be successful. Then I began to question what success looked like and these barriers just fell away. I’m always assessing if what’s stopping me are real barriers and what are imagined ones. It’s easy with things like money or material possessions but with people it’s harder. I have to work hard to balance the solitary, nomadic part of me with my need to be around loved ones and part of a community. Luckily those closest to me have learned to hold me lightly. I would never want to limit someone I loved and the people who love me appreciate and reciprocate this sentiment.
You’ve travelled all over the world, has it effected, changed or taught you anything about your own passions or that of others?
Life can sometimes feel so complicated and stressful. The simplicity of traveling self-supported by bike dissolves the smoke and smashes the mirrors of the deceptions we live by that we keep thinking make us happy. Money, status, possessions, it’s all a charade. Having very little and appreciating what I have is when I feel the most content. That said, hold on too tightly to anything and you’ll squeeze the life out of it. Traveling by bike helps me achieve this state. It’s my passion. But what if I relied on it and nothing else to find my happy place? It could become a demon if I let it. The happiest people I’ve met on my travels are the ones who can remain open to others and change.
Can you share your favorite inspirational quote to help motivate others?
What Passion(s) are you following in 2019/2020?
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