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

Scott Jurek , Steve Friedman
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (410 customer reviews)

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Book Description

June 5, 2012
For nearly two decades, Scott Jurek has been a dominant force—and darling—in the grueling and growing sport of ultrarunning. In 1999, as a complete unknown, he took the lead of the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile traverse over the old Gold Rush trails of the California Sierra Nevada. He won that race seven years in a row, setting a course record along the way. Twice he won the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile “jaunt” through Death Valley. Recently he set an American record of 165.7 miles in 24 hours—6 1/2 marathons in one day. And he was one of the elite runners who traveled to Mexico to run with the Tarahumara Indians, as profiled in the bestseller Born to Run. His accomplishments are nothing short of extraordinary, but that he has achieved all of this on a plant-based diet makes his story all the more so.

In Eat and Run, Scott Jurek opens up about his life and career—as an elite athlete and a vegan—and inspires runners at every level. From his Midwestern childhood hunting, fishing, and cooking for his meat-and-potatoes family, to his early beginnings in running (he hated it), to his slow transition to ultrarunning and veganism, to his world-spanning, record-breaking races, Scott’s story shows the power of an iron will and blows apart all the stereotypes of what athletes should eat to fuel optimal performance. Chock-full of incredible, on-the-brink stories of endurance and competition, fascinating science, and accessible practical advice—including his own favorite plant-based recipes—Eat and Run will motivate everyone to “go the distance,” whether that means getting out for that first run, expanding your food horizons, or simply exploring the limits of your own potential.

Frequently Bought Together

Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness + Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself + Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life
Price for all three: $47.29

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2012: 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. Part memoir, part training guide, part vegan manifesto, Jurek’s most inspiring proposal here is that running—like so many things in life—is less dependent on physical skill than it is 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


Photographs from Eat and Run

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The Tarahumara were known for their grace and speed. The fastest and most graceful of them all was Arnulfo Quimare, and to this day I consider him one of my noblest competitors.
In 2005, two weeks after my seventh consecutive Western States 100 victory, I set out to conquer the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile endurance slog through Death Valley. Mile 12, 120 degrees, and I'm leading. What could go wrong?
At 48miles in, I was over 5 miles behind, considered quitting, and decided that yes, those who described the insanity of the Badwater were right.
In 2010, New York Times columnist Mark Bittman interviewed me. Before any questions, he opened his fridge and asked me to prepare a meal. I whipped up a veggie and tofu stir fry with homemade Indonesian almond sauce and quinoa.


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 triumphboth 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

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st Edition, 1st Printing edition (June 5, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0547569653
  • ISBN-13: 978-0547569659
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (410 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

I first learned of the great Scott Jurek while reading the amazing book Born to Run. T. DeBrock  |  221 reviewers made a similar statement
Inspiring book and great read! sharks4  |  96 reviewers made a similar statement
This is a book about running and about diets just like the title says. D. Kasper  |  48 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
119 of 127 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars I love Scott Jurek April 27, 2012
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.
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68 of 72 people found the following review helpful
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.
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86 of 99 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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
Fantastic story of Scott Jurek's journey. This book made me love running even more. It even inspired me to go vegetarian- never thought that was possible!
Published 2 days ago by Arlene Buenviaje
5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and inspirational
I just started running and I picked up this book after reading "Born to Run". I liked Scott's personal style of sharing with his childhood & how he started running. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Chia
5.0 out of 5 stars Best thing since Born to Run
Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, which features several non-Tarahumara runners, including Scott Jurek, is my favorite book about running. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Julee Rudolf
3.0 out of 5 stars just ok
Not written very well, but an interesting story with some great vegan recipes. I realize he is not a writer, but it shows.
Published 5 days ago by B. J. Dzomba
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing tale
This book tells a great story about running and eating. The recipes at the end of each chapter are just a bonus.
Published 5 days ago by winedope
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific; made me run farther and faster.
Jurek is a machine; he reminded me that going harder and faster is what works for me. This book joins Dean Karnazes's "Ultramarathon Man" and Christopher McDougall's... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Timothy Allen
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting in many ways, Glad I read it.
This was an enjoyable book and an easy introduction to the ultramarathon sport and vegan eating. I am not even a vegetarian but I appreciated Scott's style of communication on the... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Pat Thomasson
4.0 out of 5 stars Great, But Gets a Bit Dull at the End
Jurek's story is interesting--he was the one person in Born to Run that I wanted to know more about. I will never been an ultrarunner, but they fascinate me and long have. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Tom Triumph
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
It is an entertaining and insightful look at the sport of ultra running and the mind frame of an endurance athlete. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Enrique Villegas
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
I loved this book. Scott Jurek grabbed me from the first sentence and I ran with him to all the way through to the poignant and beautiful last word. Read more
Published 8 days ago by gillian alessio
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