Primal Roots of RecoveryPrimal Roots of Recovery
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Carl Adams shares how a drink driving arrest under his father’s window pushed him from heavy drinking and drugs into sobriety, ultramarathons and family life. He also talks about co-founding Primal Roots, a community fitness project that offers free outdoor training to people in recovery and those experiencing homelessness.
1:07:29•22 Jun 2020
Primal Roots, Ultra Runs and One Father’s Turning Point from the Pub to 215 Miles
Episode Overview
- Early life in a household split between pubs and strict religion left Carl confused about love, belonging and identity, feeding later addiction.
- A drink driving arrest directly beneath his alcoholic father’s window became the decisive wake-up call that he describes as a “baseball bat on the shoulder.”
- Running started as a practical way to get around after losing his licence, then grew into marathons and ultramarathons that he compares to “drinking in reverse.”
- Carl highlights how the ultrarunning community, humility on the trail and shared suffering helped him find a deeper spiritual connection and sustained sobriety.
- Through Primal Roots, he and co-founder Steve Demby create outdoor group fitness with free places for people in recovery or experiencing homelessness, mixing paid members and non-paying participants to build one inclusive tribe.
“Shame can’t survive the light, though. That’s the thing. I’ll tell that story now to anyone who wants to listen, because if I can save one life, then it’s worth it.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This conversation between coach Blu Robinson and English ultrarunner Carl Adams gives a raw, honest look at that question through one man’s story of pubs, pain and 215-mile races. Carl talks about growing up caught between two extremes: a father running pubs and betting shops, and a mother who became a Jehovah’s Witness.
As he puts it, he spent his childhood being “literally dragged between the kingdom hall and the pub”, never really sure what love or stability looked like. His first drunk at 13 felt like home, and that sense of ease turned into years of heavy drinking, drug use and running bars.
Things shift dramatically when Carl describes the night he was arrested for drink driving: “I was being arrested… underneath my father’s window.” Seeing his alcoholic dad’s flat above him, handcuffed in the car park, became the “baseball bat on the shoulder” he couldn’t ignore. His wife’s calm words – “everything is going to be all right” – pushed him towards change, even though it still took two more years before his final drink on 26 August 2018.
From there, the talk heads into how running became, in his words, “drinking in reverse”. Carl explains that alcohol gives a short-lived high followed by days of misery, while ultramarathons bring pain first and then weeks of mental clarity and peace. He shares marathon and ultra stories, including a brutal first attempt at the 215-mile Race Across Scotland that ended in a DNF, and then returning sober to finish it with his children waiting at the finish line.
Carl also introduces Primal Roots, the community fitness project he co-founded in Kent, offering outdoor group training with free places for people in recovery and those experiencing homelessness. His message is simple: pay attention to those “taps on the shoulder” and ask yourself if it’s time to turn your own mess into a message. What signal might you be ignoring right now?
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