Trail Snacks- Special edition

My god I'm a YouTuber

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”- Gandhi

I started Trail Snacks this year after I was frustrated by the lack interest in the creator side of ultra trail running.

Call it the business, call it the creative side, call it what you want, but how athletes and brands step up in the content creation space is a big part of ultra trail running whether the old purists want to admit it or not.

I wanted to shine a light on those folks who were really stepping up and creating content that was inspiring or thought provoking or educational.

It’s now September 2024, and Trail Snacks has 28 issues. I’m pretty stoked with that. It’s not the weekly blast that I had planned and foreseen but I can’t control  the content that’s out there and I only want to share the highlight reel, not a news flash.

One unexpected side effect of creating Trail Snacks was that I spent more time on YouTube. Initially I let the algorithm guide me, for better or worse.

What I quickly realized is that YouTube served me three types of ultra trail content.

1. Elite athlete by sponsor race reports

2. Old white men from the middle to back of the pack race reports and how to’s

3. Influencer style “train with me for my first ultramarathon” posts by very very pretty people in very little clothing

What I didn’t see was anyone like me. And I’m a middle aged white woman, I’m everywhere.

Where was the 40 year old female runner, with a regular job, trying to do her best at this “crazy” sport.

And maybe they are there, I’m just not getting delivered them.

I should start a channel I thought.

Then my “here for the womens race” T-shirt arrived in the post, a shirt raising money for the Women’s trail fund which has been put together to tell women’s stories on the trail. (Get yours here:)

Now I felt like a hypocrite.

Then on just a random day, someone said to me, you always have a go pro, you should start a YouTube? It was said in jest, but it was the last nail in the coffin.

So today, I posted my first YouTube video over on my channel, MelMacRuns.

It’s not great. I have no idea what I’m doing, and I’m definitely not an influencer, but maybe I can inspire another middle aged lady to get out on the trails.

I made it entirely on my phone and we do not need to discuss how long this actually took. Safe to say I have a lot more respect for influencers than I had a week ago!

So jump over, like, subscribe and all that jazz.

And since I’m tapering (and then recovering), hopefully I’ll have some actual quality trail snacks for you next week.