The Longest Mile
You gotta be a fanatical runner—or crazy—to run an ultramarathon. Seattle’s Scott Jurek is a little bit of both.
By Sean Leslie
We follow one of Jurek’s favorite training routes in the city—from Volunteer Park through the Arboretum and along Interlaken Boulevard—and his easy and generous pace allows me to appreciate his effortless navigation of the slippery rocks, wet leaves, and gnarled roots that litter the trails. For me, the pace over the eight or so miles is comfortable enough that I can ask questions as we run. This is a terrific ego boost, until Jurek later confesses over coffee at Capitol Hill’s Top Pot Doughnuts that we’d been running significantly more slowly than his competitive speed. (To answer your question: Jurek’s a health nut—no surprise—and a vegan, so no, he didn’t have a doughnut.)
So, could a lowly yet-to-be first-time marathoner run an ultra?
“It’s really not that big of a step up,” Jurek says. “I mean, I did my first marathon, and a month later I did my first 50-miler. That’s one of the unique things about it: You don’t have to run a marathon before you run an ultramarathon.” That’s a little hard to swallow, but Jurek says an ultramarathon, while longer, can provide more opportunities for recovery than a traditional marathon. “A lot of times, people will hop into a 50k that’s on trails where they’re out there maybe twice the amount of time you are in a marathon, but they’re not running the entire time,” he says. “If it’s on trails, you’re getting a variety of power walking, running, and hiking.”
But what makes a sane person want to run 100 miles? Isn’t a marathon hard enough?
“I think most people just want to see what they can do beyond the marathon distance,” Jurek says. “For me, part of the attraction was certainly the ‘Wow. Can I do this?’ It was the mystery of pushing my boundaries, of exploring my limits. So as people become more comfortable with marathons, they go, ‘Well, I’ve run a marathon. Can I go five more miles? That was cool, but what’s next?’ ”
Published: May 2009
