Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

by Scott Jurek

To my parents, who first taught me to dig deep, and to all those who taught me to dig deeper

Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction. —WILLIAM JAMES

The best way out is always through. —ROBERT FROST

Running is what I do. Running is what I love. Running is—to a large extent—who I am.

And an ultrarunner’s mind is what matters more than anything.

As an ultrarunner buddy and physician once said, “Not all pain is significant.”

As a child, I ran in the woods and around my house for fun. As a teen, I ran to get my body in better shape. Later, I ran to find peace.

If I wasn’t a runner, who was I?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. —LAO-TZU

People are always asking me the same question. Why, when I could stay in shape with a 25-minute jog, do I train for 5 hours at a time?

running had turned into something other than training. It had turned into a kind of meditation, a place where I could let my mind—usually occupied with school, thoughts of the future, or concerns about my mom—float free.

Next time you’re running, count the times your right foot strikes the ground in 20 seconds. Multiply by three and you’ll have your stride rate per minute. (One stride equals two steps, so your steps per minute will be twice your stride rate.) Now comes the good part: Speed up until you’re running at 85 to 90 strides per minute. The most common mistake runners make is overstriding:

Short, light, quick steps will minimize impact force and keep you running longer, safer. It also will make you a more efficient runner. Studies have shown that nearly all elite runners competing at distances between 3,000 meters and marathon distances are running at 85 to 90-plus stride rates.)

Either 90 or 180 BPM songs will do the trick.

I wasn’t aware that too much protein stresses the kidneys (an organ long-distance runners worry about in the best of times, due to our careful attention to water consumption, retention, and elimination) and can leach calcium from the bones.

I had grown up eating bread my grandmother baked and fish my dad had caught. Meat and dairy were other matters. I didn’t want to consume either—because of stress to my kidneys, possible loss of calcium, increased chances of prostate cancer, stroke, and heart disease, not to mention the chemicals and hormones injected into the country’s food supply and the environmental degradation caused by cattle farms—but

As long as I ate a varied whole-foods diet with adequate caloric intake, I would get enough complete protein. Even the conservative American Dietetic Association, the largest organization of dietary professionals in the world, has stated in no uncertain terms: “Appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.” Those last two words were music to an almost-vegetarian ultrarunner’s ears.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. —MAHATMA GANDHI

Meanwhile, I ran farther. I ran faster. The periods of soreness and fatigue that resulted were shorter and less severe. I was convinced it was the result of the plants I was eating and the meat I was not eating.

my brown rice before ski race meets

Eating while running is a critical skill for any ultramarathoner.

The mountains are calling and I must go. —JOHN MUIR

To my delight (and, I admit, surprise), subtracting some things from my diet actually allowed me to expand the number of foods I ate and to discover incredible and delicious new foods.

now that I knew the rewards of pain, I wanted more pain. I wanted to use it as a tool to pry myself open. Pitting myself against 100 miles of terrain and the best trail distance runners in the world would provide that pain.

the Western States Endurance Run (commonly known as the Western States 100)

My consumption of bananas, potatoes, bean and rice burritos, with the occasional energy gel and Clif Bar, had me running exactly as I wanted to.

Some runners take Prilosec before a race to avoid the inevitable gastric upset, but if I was committing to plant-based, non-processed foods, I wasn’t about to do that.

Two slices of sprouted-grain bread with almond butter. A bean burrito (with rice) at 42 miles. Bananas and cooked potatoes dipped in salt along the way. Clif Shot energy gels, electrolyte drink, and an occasional Clif Bar. I’d been consuming about 300 calories an hour.

My biggest challenge in plant-based eating isn’t taking in enough protein but taking in enough calories to replace those I burn on my training runs. I make a big effort to include enough calorie-dense foods in my diet—nuts and nut butters, seeds, avocados, starchy root vegetables, coconut milk, and oils such as olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, and sesame oil. When you’re eliminating so many foods in your diet, you need to be careful to include enough new ones to compensate.

Think about what high-quality foods you can bring into your diet to replace the calories from animal products you’re excluding. And make sure you get enough.

I wanted to know more about that space between exhaustion and breaking.

The point was living with grace, decency, and attention to the world, and breaking free of the artificial constructs in your own life.

A lot of marathoners log 120 to 140 miles. I was doing 90 to 110.

When I raced, I stuck with the usual healthy fare—bananas, potatoes, energy gels—and I added more rice burritos and occasional hummus wraps.

If I thought biology was destiny, I would have given up a long time ago. I’ve got scoliosis, my left foot toes out, I had high blood pressure in elementary school, and my marathon time of 2:38 is nothing special.

I started making my own gels. I mixed brown rice syrup with blueberries or cocoa powder and made it in bulk. I also experimented with kalamata olives and hummus on whole wheat tortillas for long runs.

Every time the foot hits the ground, the quadriceps and calf muscles have to lengthen to absorb the shock of the impact, and that adds up when you go a hundred miles,

When you see runners shuffling across the Badwater finish line, it’s not because they’re too tired to push off, it’s because they’re too sore to land.

I crossed the finish line, 135 miles from where I had started, after 24 hours and 36 minutes. No one had ever run it faster, nor had anybody won the Western States 100 and the Badwater 135 a mere two weeks apart.

Anyone who pays attention to what they eat and how it affects them will naturally move toward plants—and toward health.

occasionally downing some gels, potatoes, bananas, and energy drinks,

I didn’t notice my broken toe anymore. The rest of my body ached, but I didn’t care. That’s one of the many great pleasures of an ultramarathon. You can hurt more than you ever thought possible, then continue until you discover that hurting isn’t that big a deal.

What were my limits? And how could I discover them unless I tried to go beyond them? The last was a question I asked myself each time I ran an ultra.

She had spent most of her life unable to do things most of us take for granted.

His Mom

We had trails and the fresh air and a little water and food and our fit bodies to move through and with the land. That was all we needed. Seeing Kyle and Tony so happy reminded me that that was all I ever needed, all any of us needed.

Running allowed me to define myself as an athlete.

“Scott,” he said, “sometimes we have to go to dark places. Things will be better off and you’ll grow. You just don’t know it now.”

Ultramarathon by James Shapiro

Add to book list

Peter Nabokov’s Indian Running,

It hit me that night—as I was contemplating a life alone on a country farm—how important friendship was to me. It also struck me how ironic it was that my most important friendships had come from a sport singular in its isolation and demands on self-reliance. Ultramarathons aren’t won by teams, yet the bonds I have forged through this sport of obsessive individualism are stronger than any others in my life.