Everfit Book Review - Eat & Run

I really enjoyed reading Scott Jurecks New York Times best seller - "Eat & Run= My unlikely journey to Ultramarathon greatness". During the time I was reading the book Scott Jureck was attempting to run the Appalachian trail in under 50 days (2100 miles with 50 hilly miles a day from Georgia to Maine)

The book starts out with Scott recounting the story of his childhood memories. He discusses how his overly disciplined father and his loving mother (who was battling M/S) shaped his attitudes to life. The one statement that stood out about his upbringing was that without knowing it his parents helped shape him into a great runner due to making him understand suffering and "just getting things done". Scott showed no special talents at school. He wasn't the fastest runner, he wasn't the smartest, and he was constantly getting picked on for his scrawny size.  he started developing his aerobic capacity with high school ski events. He ran to keep fit for the Nordic type ski events and was placing near the top of the placings in state competitions. When one of his friends Dusty Olsen asked him to compete in a 50 mile ultra he discovered he was pretty good at it. He later beat his friend (who he considered a better runner) in the 1994 Minnesota Voyaguer 50 miler placing 2nd overall. This raced launched his stella career in the world of Ultra running.

The book is scattered with recipes that he uses with his daily eating. Over the course of his career he gradually dialed in a diet that worked for him. He started eating less processed meat, then went plant based, raw (he gave this up due to the extra prep time and the extra chewing time), he now is basically vegan with a few personal twists that work for him. As with other plant based athletes he talks about his increased recovery time with eating a plant centered diet (due to the anti-inflammatmatory nature of a plant based diet). I will endever to try some out and post them on the site under the article tab.

During his schooling Scott showed no special talent, he wasn't the fastest, or the smartest, and was constantly teased for having a slight frame (called pee wee). He first started to develop his aerobic capacity with nordic skiing at high school placing near the top in state competitions. He began running to keep fit for his ski competitions. When his friend Dusty Olsen asked him to run in a 50 mile ultra and Scott ended up beating him at the 1994 Minnesota Voyaguer race (placing 2nd overall) he realised he could excel at ultra running. This race launched his stella career. 

Scott went on to win the Western States 100 mile Ultra 7 times (best time of 15hrs 36min), the Badwater Ultramarathon in 2005 and 2006 (best time of 24hrs 36min), the Greek Spartathlon 3 times (best time of 22hrs 20min), and he capped off his competitive career by placing 2nd at the World 24hr running champs in 2010 in an American record 165.7miles!

I really enjoyed reading this book. I found it repeated the findings of many other ultra athlete books. You have to find joy in what you do, and when the going gets tough you need to look for inspiration from those you love. Striving to be the best takes constant consistent effort on a daily basis with every aspect of your life. Your life has to be in balance otherwise your true potential will never be achieved. Scott talked about the history of many of the worlds greatest ultra races and discussed some of the true legends of the sport. I loved learning about the running feats of Yiannis Kouros. He was the Greek running legend who won the Spartathlon 4 times with a Worlds best time of 20hrs 25min.This equates to 7 marathons back to back at 3hr 19min pace! The race is 245km or 152miles in length and had over 8000 feet in climbing!! 

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