Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness

By Scott Jurek and Steve Friedman

'Run until you can't run anymore. Then run some more. Find a new source of energy and will. Then run even faster.' The words of Scott Jurek, a dominant force - and darling - in the gruelling and growing sport of ultrarunning for more than a decade. In 1999, as a complete unknown, he took the lead in the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile jaunt over the Gold Rush trails of America's Sierra Nevada. He went on to win that race seven years in a row. Jurek was also one of the elite runners who travelled to Mexico to run with the Tarahumara Indians, as profiled in the international bestseller Born to Run. His accomplishments are nothing short of extraordinary.

In Eat and Run, Jurek opens up about his life and career as an elite athlete, and about the vegan diet that is key to his success. From his Midwestern childhood of hunting and fishing to his slow transition to ultrarunning and veganism, to his epic, record-breaking races, Jurek's story shows the power of an iron will and the importance of thinking of food as fuel.

Full of stories of endurance and competition as well as practical advice and some of his original recipes, Eat and Run will motivate people to go the distance, whether that means getting out for a first run, expanding your food horizons, or simply exploring the limits of human potential.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jul 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781408833391

Scott Jurek

SCOTT JUREK is a world-renowned ultramarathon champion who trains and races on a vegan diet, as chronicled in his New York Times besteller Eat and Run. He has prominently appeared in two New York Times bestsellers, Born to Run and The 4-Hour Body, and has been featured on CNN and in The New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and numerous other media. Known and admired for his earth-conscious lifestyle, Scott is also a highly sought after motivational speaker, physical therapist, coach, and chef. He has delivered talks to numerous organizations, including Microsoft, Starbucks, and the esteemed Entertainment Gathering. 

Reviews for Eat and Run

[meggiebeth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book written by a great runner. I really enjoyed reading this as I struggled to train for a half marathon. It was very motivating, and I was inspired to think about how I was eating as I read it. I highly recommend this book to any runner.

[391_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eat & Run is ultrarunner Scott Jurek's running autobiography. He goes into detail about his childhood, how he got into running and developed skills as a runner, to his current status as one of ultrarunning's great runners. The book is also interspersed with recipes, as food is a huge part of his success to him, as well as his views on meditation and yoga interspersed with buddhist thoughts and values.

[realbigcat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Scott Jurek is a champion ultra runner. Being an ultra runner myself I was interested in reading this book to gain some insight. At first I found Jurek to be a lttle full of himself but as I continued reading I gained an appreciation for his passion for the sport. Jurek is also very much into nutrition and is a vegan. Ultra runner's are a breed of their own. Jurek describes his childhood and how he entered the running scene. He gives well described recounts of his races which I found quite interesting. Jurek has traveled all over the world to race ultras. The book is very interesting and it also contains a lot of vegan recipies.

[sandydog1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very simplistic writing (presumably by Steve Friedman), trite and reteitive. But it is worth reading. Pay attention to the running motivation guidance or the recipes, or both.

[runs2xs · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I just finished "Eat & Run" and enjoyed it for the most part. One of the earlier reviewers mentioned the recipes at the end of each chapter "slowing down" the flow of the book. I disagree, as eating is a major part of who Jurek is and what he's about. I don't have much interest in the recipes either, but I saw them as little bonuses, like the running tips. I am fascinated to read elite athlete memoirs, as they give a little peek into the mind of the athlete. I recently finished Alberto Salazar's book and was left with some of the same impressions as this one. On the one hand, elite athletes have massive egos. On the other hand, they are very insecure and are driven to achieve.

[oceanwings07_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just finished reading "Eat & Run" and was entranced. As the other reviewer mentioned, it is a memoir detailing Jurek's life and transformation, both as a runner and as a vegan. I have been a big fan of Jurek's for some time, and have to say I was thrilled when I found out he was writing a book. Unlike some ultrarunners, Jurek doesn't force himself into the spotlight, and just goes out there, doing what he loves to do. I find this incredibly admirable and makes me more interested in what he has to say. Yes, Jurek spends a fair portion discussing his vegan diet, but it is certainly not thrust down the reader's throat as a "you must do" but there are tips/recipes at the end of each chapter. I look forward to trying some of the recipes and it was great to read Jurek's "training tips" on running. I really enjoyed reading about Jurek's journey and definitely inspired me to make running a more integral part of my life.

[_zoe__1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this book because Jurek was featured in Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, which I loved. I also enjoy running books more generally, so I figured I'd give this one a try, even though I knew going in that there was another major aspect that I was less interested in: in addition to running, Jurek is also very focused on diet, and achieved his major ultramarathon victories while being a committed vegan. So, as is obvious from the title, this memoir focuses both on running and on food.The first thing to emphasize is that it is a memoir, more than a book focused on a specific running event. Jurek tells us a lot about how his difficult childhood gave him the determination needed to succeed as an ultrarunner. We read about the death of his mother, his messy divorce, and his attempts to find peace and transcendence through running. I came away with the impression that Jurek is a really good guy, committed to his beliefs but not the sort to force those beliefs on others.Still, the fact remains that memoirs just aren't my favourite type of reading. Thinking back on the running books that I've enjoyed, I think I prefer the ones that focus on a particular race and provide people's backstories as part of the lead-up to the main event: books like Born to Run, or A Race Like No Other, or You Are an Ironman. Or, in the case of books focused on an individual, there's something else about their particular story that grips me: I was interested in Triumph because of the political issues surrounding the Berlin Olympics in 1936, and I was interested in An Accidental Athlete because I can relate to the feelings of a non-athlete taking up running. The story of someone who's just always been a good runner, though, seems not to hold a lot of interest for me unless there's something more as well.And of course, there is something more here: the focus on veganism. For people who are already vegans themselves, or who are even remotely considering it, I can imagine that this book would make for a compelling read. I did appreciate Jurek's point that he felt much better and became a better runner after he switched to a vegan diet. I just can't imagine doing it myself, though; the amount of extra effort involved is just too much for me.Since I do generally want to eat more healthily, though, I had thought going in that I might still be interested in some of the included recipes. There's one at the end of every chapter, or 22 in all. In reality, though, I found that the recipes just slowed down the book; whenever I got into the flow of it, that flow was soon interrupted. I don't know that I'll actually try out any of the recipes, either. The ones that I'm more likely to make--basic mainstream Mexican-type things like guacamole, salsa, or refried beans--are things that I don't really need this book for. On the other hand, I'm not really interested in some of the more extreme vegan recipes like pizza bread with tofu "cheese". Maybe most importantly, though, the fact that the recipes are mixed in with the main text of the book, and not listed in the index as far as I can see, means that I'm just unlikely to look at these recipes now that I'm done reading. The only way to get at them is to flip through the book and consider each one individually, which is pretty inefficient. I think it might have been better both for the flow of the text and for future reference if the recipes had all been gathered together at the end.So, all that is to explain why I seem to be one of the only people who didn't love this book. I don't think it's a bad book at all; I just probably wasn't the ideal reader. If you're interested in general memoirs or veganism as well as running, then you may want to give this book a try. But if you're just looking for something else like Born to Run, then this may not be quite what you want.