Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness [Kindle Edition]

Scott Jurek (Author), Steve Friedman (Author)

Book Description

“In pursuing the mental side of endurance, Jurek uncovers the most important secrets any runner can learn.”—Amby Burfoot, author of The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life

For nearly two decades, Scott Jurek has been a dominant force—and darling—in the grueling and growing sport of ultrarunning. Until recently he held the American 24-hour record and he was one of the elite runners profiled in the runaway bestseller Born to Run.

In Eat and Run, Jurek opens up about his life and career as a champion athlete with a plant-based diet and inspires runners at every level. From his Midwestern childhood hunting, fishing, and cooking for his meat-and-potatoes family to his slow transition to ultrarunning and veganism, Scott’s story shows the power of an iron will and blows apart the stereotypes of what athletes should eat to fuel optimal performance. Full of stories of competition as well as science and practical advice—including his own recipes—Eat and Run will motivate readers and expand their food horizons.

“Jurek’s story and ideas should easily manage to speak to and cheer on anyone seeking to live life as fully as possible.”—Denver Post

“A shockingly honest, revealing, and inspiring memoir.”—Trail Runner

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While many of us sit behind a desk for eight or nine hours a day, Scott Jurek is running. A legend among hard-core runners, Jurek has fashioned a lucrative career as an ultramarathoner. He runs--and wins--grueling races in excess of 100 miles in a wide array of usually inhospitable environments: Death Valley, the Sierra Nevada mountains, Mexico's Copper Canyon. And he does it on a completely plant-based diet. In Eat and Run, Jurek tells the story of how an average Midwestern kid growing up on meat he caught or killed himself became a vegan elite athlete. The most inspiring proposal in this book--part memoir, part training guide, part vegan manifesto--is that running, like so many things in life, depends less on physical skill than on willpower. Runners of all levels, meat eaters, and vegans alike will be inspired to lace up their sneaks and hit the trails. --Juliet Disparte

Review

"The surprise here isn't that Scott Jurek knows a lot about nutrition—I especially love his "Holy Moly Guacamole" recipe. Or that he ran prodigious mileage to prepare for his many ultramarathon victories. More impressively, we discover that Jurek studied many of the great philosophers, and used their lessons to focus his running. In pursuing the mental side of endurance, Jurek uncovers the most important secrets any runner can learn." —Amby Burfoot, winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon and author of The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life

"What a triumph—both Scott Jurek's life and this one-of-a-kind book. I've seen Scott in action as he defies unimaginable challenges, and thanks to this breathtakingly personal account, I finally understand how he does it. He rebuilt himself literally from the inside out, and the result is a man—and a story—unlike any other." —Christopher McDougall, best-selling author of Born to Run

"This is the inspiring story of an inspired man. Scott Jurek's phenomenal success as an ultramarathoner demonstrates that meat and other animal foods are not necessary for optimum health, strength, and endurance." —Andrew Weil, M.D. author of Spontaneous Happiness and 8 Weeks to Optimum Health

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 2413 KB
• Print Length: 273 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1408833409
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (June 5, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005OCHOZS
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,407 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Individual Sports > Running & Jogging
  • #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Running & Jogging
  • #6 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Running & Jogging

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 119 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I love Scott Jurek April 27, 2012

By G. Kellner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Many people first heard of Scott Jurek due to Chris McDougall's "Born to Run", although I think I had had heard of him through Runner's World. I must confess, I was anxiously awaiting the publication of this book, admiring it on Amazon and counting the days until June 5th. Then I had an opportunity to get it early--yippee!

Scott Jurek is an ultrarunning legend. Not only has he won Western States 100 seven times, but to do it he has run on torn ligaments and stepped on a rattlesnake (or maybe that was Badwater)and overcome countless other obstacles along the way. In any case, he's amazing, and many athletes think he is all the more amazing because he does all of this on a vegan diet. I admit to being intrigued about a vegan diet, and for anyone considering such a lifestyle change I found the book helpful. It's dotted with recipes, and I really like Scott's attitude--it's not holier-than-thou at all. He merely emphasizes that the three most common causes of death in the Western world are all diet and lifestyle related.

You wouldn't think someone who can run 165 miles at a stretch would be relatable, but he is! He's smart and funny and thoughtful and sometimes he seems like anyone else, if they happened to be running ridiculous distances. At one point during a race he's so miserable he starts looking for a sidewinder, figuring if he gets bit he can quit without guilt. I can totally relate to that! I have had similar thoughts--if I get eaten by this bear I won't have to climb this God-forsaken hill. I'm sure others have as well.

Very entertaining, and for the casual runner, like me, very inspiring. I don't think I'll go vegan--I like dairy and eggs a LOT--but I am putting some more thought into what I eat and eating more veggies and fruits, and I think Scott would approve.

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly intimate, revealing, and inspirational! May 4, 2012

By CLR VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Scott Jurek had me from the prologue through the very last word. The book arrived on a day when I had no time for reading it. Or so I thought. Just a peek, I told myself. I opened it and flew away with the runner, the skinny adolescent, the determined athlete, the world-renowned ultrarunner, the vegan. Many hours later having reached the end, I was finally able to put it down. That is some book!

The writing is crisp and vivid. The running is sweaty, painful, uplifting. Sometimes you are face down in Death Valley dry heaving and doubtful you can go on, sometimes you are jubilant in victory, always you are mesmerized, captivated, held in the grip of a writer who has something to say and knows how to say it. The book is written with certainty, determination, and nerve. Jurek grabs you and holds on just as he holds on to his dreams and aspirations. His father taught him "Don't ask why. Sometimes you just do things." The theme continues throughout the book, throughout Jurek's career. It is a rule that makes for hard lessons, but lessons that serve him well.

Along the way the author introduces us to fascinating characters, among them Dusty, his favorite last of the race pacer, his father, the disciplinarian and complicated man who eventually balloons to 280 pounds but urges his son to give up his vegan diet, his mother, the creative cook and loving early force in his life whose own life-force was sapped and eventually stamped out by multiple sclerosis.

The book is unified by three compelling themes: the running itself, the joys and requirements of food and eating, and deep spiritual discovery. All work together just as all have worked together to make Jurek the outstanding man and runner that he is.

I learned so much from this book. I cherish the insights into the hard realities of long distance running. I cherish the recipes, lentil-mushroom burgers, Minnesota winter chili, chocolate adzuki bars, kalamata hummus trail wrap, and more. Most of all I cherish the blazingly honest story of Jurek's spiritual discoveries, his inner contemplations and meanderings, his enlightenments that ultimately enlighten us. I am not much of a runner, but Jurek spoke to me as much as to anyone. This is a book I hope you will read.

81 of 94 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting peek into ultra lifestyle May 16, 2012

By booksy

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

As a casual runner whose longest distance has been the half-marathon, I've always been fascinated by the marathon and ultra community and what would make somebody train so hard and run such long distances. Scott Jurek provides some of the answers in this book.

The book is a sort of memoir, detailing Jurek's childhood and family life, and partially as the evolution of his ultra-running and dietary lifestyle. He tells us about the close-knit yet motley collection of dreamers in the ultra community, the desire to transcend bounds and push oneself to see how far one can go, and the psychological benefits and risks of all that time alone.

I really liked that there was a section ending each chapter that had either an exercise tip, a recipe, or both. Jurek is a serious vegan and writes a lot about his decision to eat that way. If you're curious or a committed vegan, the recipes look really good (I plan on trying some of them out!)

I wish that he had written more about his family life after he got married, or given more details in general about his personal life, because the book began to sound a little like a catalog of races after a while. He barely mentions his wife or what their relationship was like, and only writes a sentence or two about other friends. I think that adding a little more about them would have given the book a better balance. I also wish that he had given more detail in a couple of the training tips, and I would have loved to hear more about the logistics of planning an ultra and getting the crew together.

Solidly written and a good introduction to ultra running and veganism.