Scott Jurek Quotes

To run 100 miles and more is to bring the body to the point of breaking, to bring the mind to the point of destruction, to arrive at that place where you can alter your consciousness.

The ultra distance forgives injury, fatigue, bad form, and illness. A bear with determination will defeat a dreamy gazelle every time.

Train where your fitness is NOW, not where you want to be.

A recent study in the American Journal of Epidemiology followed 123,216 subjects over fourteen years and found that men who spent more than 6 hours a day sitting were 17 percent more likely to die during that time than men who sat for less than 3 hours. For women, the increased risk of death was 34 percent. This increased mortality persisted regardless of whether the participants smoked, were overweight, and - this shocked me - regardless of how much they exercised. Humans aren't built to sit all day.

In ultrarunning, the mountains and willpower equalize the genders. Strawburst

It's a hard, simple calculus: Run until you can't run anymore. Then run some more. Find a new source of energy and will. Then run even faster.

We strive toward a goal, and whether we achieve it or not is important, but it's not what's most important. What matters is how we move toward that goal.

Most of all, the ultra distance leaves you alone with your thoughts to an excruciating extent. Whatever song you have in your head had better be a good one. Whatever story you are telling yourself had better be a story about going on. There is no room for negativity. The reason most people quit has nothing to do with their body.

FINDING THE TIME If you're going to run regularly, you're going to need to carve out part of your day, even if it's 30 to 60 minutes. If that seems impossible, ask yourself: How much time do I spend watching television? Or surfing the Internet? Or shopping? Take some of that time and devote it to doing something good for yourself.

Nature's arena has a way of humbling and energizing us.

Laura Vaughan, who set a women's record at the Hardrock in 1997, the only year she ran it, also was the first person to finish the Wasatch Front 100 for ten consecutive years and the first woman to break 24 hours. That makes her fast. What makes her tough, though - what makes her a bona fide Hardrocker - is that in 1996, nine weeks after giving birth to a son, she ran the Wasatch and breastfed her baby at the aid stations. Her ten-year ring from the event is engraved "Lactating Laura." Tough?

Snow. Sun. Sandstone. Sky. He was doing what he liked and knew. It was now. And this now had no pressure, just permission. - James Galvin

For me, it's about optimizing health. It's about lifestyle and longevity. Then you think about what vegetarian diets can do for the mass population, in terms of lower consumption of resources. When you look at the numbers, it's pretty staggering.

The most devoted complete a 25-mile run every day for a thousand consecutive days. They wear straw sandals and carry a knife at their waist, to be used to kill themselves should they fail to continue. After five years, they conduct a nine-day fast, after which their senses are heightened to such a degree that they can hear ash fall from an incense stick. In the seventh year of their pilgrimage, the monks undertake the "Great Marathon" of 52.5 miles a day every day for a year.

Skiing was my passion. Running was a means to stay in shape for that.

Asking why had somehow led me to the thing that I loved - the feeling of moving over the earth, with the earth, the sensation of being in the present, free from chores and expectations and disappointment and worry.

Red Curry Almond Sauce ½ cup almond butter ½ cup water ¼ cup fresh lime juice or rice vinegar 2 tablespoons miso 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro 2 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup 2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste, or to taste 1 teaspoon onion powder ½ teaspoon garlic powder ½ teaspoon ground ginger

We all struggle to find meaning in a sometimes painful world.

If your mind is dirty you can run 10,000 miles, but where have you gotten? If you go for a 1-mile run and you're passionately engaged with the world, who cares about the other 9,999?

But the longer and further I ran, the more I realized that what I was often chasing was a state of mind- a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus.

You could carry your burdens lightly or with great effort. You could worry about tomorrow or not. You could imagine horrible fates or garland-filled tomorrows. None of it mattered as long as you moved, as long as you did something. Asking why was fine, but it wasn't action. Nothing brought the rewards of moving, of running. Sometimes you just do things.

We would wake and have smoothies every morning with fresh whole-grain bread from the small bakery in town, then run and climb and take walks together, and catch up on e-mail in the evening before we went to bed and talk about food and music and life and death and meaning and love. We fell asleep to the rushing of the stream and the cool spring breeze wafting through the window.

We can live as we were meant to live - simply, joyously, of and on the earth. We can live with all our effort and with pure happiness.

Injuries are our best teachers.

In the case of pain, perhaps the one we know hurts us less than the one we fear.

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Altogether, our modern inclination toward sloth, the easy availability of processed food, and the prevalence of life-saving medical treatments have made us a long-lived, unhealthy people.

Every single one of us possesses the strength to attempt something he isn't sure he can accomplish. It can be running a mile, or a 10K race, or 100 miles. It can be changing a career, losing 5 pounds, or telling someone you love her (or him).

Train at your current fitness level, or slightly above - not where you want to be.

For me, challenging myself with this type of endeavor [ultramarathons] brings the best out in me because even at the darkest, deepest moments when I feel like I can't go on, when I feel like there's no chance I could break the record or much less finish the trail, somehow I find that strength inside of me.

Run until you can't run anymore. Then run some more. Find a new source of energy and will. Then run even faster. Other

You can spend your life chitchatting with someone - even a good friend - but spend even an hour moving over a rocky path, breathing in pine-scented air, and I guarantee you the chitchat will turn to something else.

The reward of running - of anything - lies within us ... We focus on something external to motivate us, but we need to remember that it's the process of reaching for that prize - not the prize itself - that can bring us peace and joy.

But you can be transformed. Not overnight, but over time. Life is not a race.

They're gonna chick you, Jurker! Do you want to get chicked?" (Dusty had coined the term when he was in high school. It's now part of the ultra-running lexicon). I

We move forward, but we must stay in the present.

Humans aren't built to sit all day. Nor are we built for the kinds of repetitive, small movements that so much of today's specialized work demands. Our bodies crave big, varied movements that originate at the core of our body.

Let's improve ourselves as human beings, let's become more compassionate, let's become bigger, let's become stronger, let's become nicer people.

Eating raw was like getting a Ph.D. in a plant-based diet - hard work, but worth it.

I'm convinced that a lot of people run ultramarathons for the same reason they take mood-altering drugs. I don't mean to minimize the gifts of friendship, achievement, and closeness to nature that I've received in my running career. But the longer and farther I ran, the more I realized that what I was often chasing was a state of mind - a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus. I don't think anyone starts running distances to obtain that kind of vision. I certainly didn't. But I don't think anyone who runs ultra distances with regularity fails to get there. The trick is to recognize the vision when it comes over you.

You can hurt more than you ever thought possible, then continue until you discover that hurting isn't that big a deal.

I started running for reasons I had only just begun to understand. 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. I ran, and kept running, because I had learned that once you started something you didn't quit, because in life, much like in an ultramarathon, you have to keep pressing forward. Eventually I ran because I turned into a runner, and my sport brought me physical pleasure and spirited me away from debt and disease, from the niggling worries of everyday existence. I ran because I grew to love other runners. I ran because I loved challenges and because there is no better feeling than arriving at the finish line or completing a difficult training run. And because, as an accomplished runner, I could tell others how rewarding it was to live healthily, to move my body every day, to get through difficulties, to eat with consciousness, that what mattered wasn't how much money you made or where you lived, it was how you lived. I ran because overcoming the difficulties of an ultramarathon reminded me that I could overcome the difficulties of life, that overcoming difficulties was life.

Running efficiently demands good technique, and running efficiently for 100 miles demands great technique.