One of the coolest things about Scott Jurek—besides the whole living legend bit—is that when finishing a race, he’s been known to stay at the finish line and cheer his fellow runners as they come in. Now, if that isn’t the best example of honor and respect you’ve ever heard, I’ll eat my hat. Hell, I’ll eat my boots, too, panfried with a side of sautéed socks-n-shorts if Scott isn’t the dictionary definition of ‘good sportsmanship’.
He's also the dictionary definition of ‘meteoritic’ when it comes to his running career. In 1994, Scott came second in his first-ever ultra race (the Minnesota Voyageur Trail 50) and thought to himself, ‘Gosh, that was close—maybe I can train for this and win.’ And he did, in 1996. A few years later, he knocked over Western States, and the rest, as they say, is history. We’ve collected some of the memorable wins from that history here in a concise and perfectly sedate listicle called ‘What Scott Did’.
1999-2005: Western States 100
Before UTMB, Western States was THE 100-mile race if you wanted to pit yourself against the cream of the ultrarunning crop, and Scott won that Sierra Nevada sucker a record seven-times-in-a-row. In fact, he won his very first attempt at Western States in June 1999 as a virtually unheard-of athlete (17:34:22). ‘Scott who?’ said the spectators at the finish line, as Scott reportedly did high kicks and karate-chopped the air, crying, ‘JURRRRRR—EK!’ Let the record show that he definitely did not do that—he just smiled, waved, drank lots of water, and then had a shower. But the running world did sit up, and so began Scott’s, dare I say, folkloric career as an ultra-athlete. JURRRRRR—EK!
2005-2006: Badwater
After smashing Western States seven times—consecutively—Scott headed for Death Valley, California, and the gnarly, treacherous, and exceptionally unpleasant Badwater Ultramarathon. Badwater is a 135-mile (217 km) summer hell-race with temperatures that can and often do reach 130 °F (54 °C). In 2000, Anatoli Kruglikov ran Badwater in 25:09:05, a record considered unbreakable at the time. Scott arrived in 2005 (just two weeks after winning his seventh Western States) and shaved more than thirty minutes off—24:36:08. This was the fastest anyone had run the race since its inception in 1987. ‘Hmm,’ said Scott, when asked at the finish line if he’d ever run Badwater again, ‘ask me in another day or two. I told my crew and everybody that this was a one-time thing... But you never know!’ He came back the following year and won that bad boy again.
2006 – 2008: Spartathlon
In 2006, after running with the Tarahumara in Mexico’s Copper Canyon Ultra (see Born to Run), Scott traveled to Greece to compete in the Spartathlon. Widely considered one of the most difficult ultramarathons in the world, the Spartathlon is a 153-mile (245km) road race that annually wends its way from Athens to Sparti in late September. Arriving at the starting line, Scott looked around and noted that there were 292 elite athletes from 34 countries—an intimidating field by anyone’s estimate. But on that day—and on his first attempt—Scott became the first American to win in the race’s history, and his time (22:52:18) was the second fastest of all time. Scott returned and won twice more—and always with a significant lead on second place—making him a three-time consecutive Spartathlon winner.
A beastly pattern had emerged: show up, destroy, return and destroy a few more times, then go destroy something else.
2007: Hardrock
Scott’s first crack at the Hardrock 100 in the year 2000 ended with a DNF, but his 2007 return to Colorado’s San Juan Range was a TDF (Totally Did Finish)—and how. This time around, he chose to train in Colorado for four weeks leading up to the race to help acclimatize to the altitude and get a grip on the topography. Unfortunately, a few days out from the starting gun, he sprained his ankle playing soccer with some local kids. For most humans, this would spell disaster, but Scott strapped on an ankle brace and went out anyway. After a few miles of agony, his ankle went numb, and the 33,992 feet of cumulative elevation gain wasn’t too bad... According to the Denver Post, Scott’s ankle was ‘swollen and discolored—red, purple and green,’ but he still won—and broke the course record by over thirty minutes for the hell of it.
2010: The American Record in the IAAF 24-Hour World Championship
On May 14, 2010, in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, Scott ran 6.5 marathons—on a one-mile loop—and set an American 24-hour record. Six and a half marathons works out to 165.7 miles, which is 266.6 kilometers, which is very much a lot of running to do in a single day. If you’ve run a marathon, you know how gnarly it is, but 6.5 marathons in a row is literally unimaginable. I mean, TWO back-to-back marathons is unimaginable, but Scott did six and a half on a looped one-mile track, which is just asking for the men in the white coats to sedate you and take you away in a van. ‘Those other races look tougher on paper,’ said Scott, ‘but the 24-hour race was a different challenge—no change in scenery, no running from A to B, no finish line. Mentally, it’s a killer.’
2015: Appalachian Trail
Scott retired from competitive ultrarunning in 2013, but he didn’t retire from blowing minds. In 2015, he popped on some shoes and headed off on the Appalachian Trail to set a new speed record. Averaging nearly 50 Miles per day over 46 days, Scott covered all 2,189 miles (3523 km) of the Appalachian Trail, taking notes as he did for a future best-selling book, North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail. Scott reached the end of the trail with a time of 46 days, 8 hours, and 7 minutes, which is almost exactly how long it takes to grow spinach from planting to harvest—and, as we all know, Scott loves spinach (cue X-Files theme).
In addition to the above running accomplishments, Scott also won the Leona Divide 50 Mile Run four times, the Diez Vista 50K Trail Run twice, the Montrail Ultra Cup series twice, and has been UltraRunning Magazine's North American Male Ultrarunner of the Year four times. He also appeared on the cover of the POSSESSED at least once. Incredible.
