book review: Eat & Run

It's been a while since I've done a book review but this book was too good not to share.  Eat & Run shares some of Scott Jurek's most challenging ultra marathon races, his journey to running, his journey to healthy eating, and everything in between.  If you don't know already, an ultra marathon is any running race with a distance greater than a marathon (26.2 miles), but are often 50 miles, 100 miles, or more.

Scott mentions that most good marathon runners "hit a wall" during a race, or after it, but ultra runners hit wall after wall after wall and still continue to run.  These walls are often mental.  Scott wanted to challenge his body as far to the edge of physical/emotional limit without going over the edge and won many ultra marathon races.  An astounding fact is that he is Vegan, so he had to find ways to get plenty of protein in his diet without meat and eggs.  Each chapter shares a Vegan recipe he would eat before, during, or after his races.

Scott also mentions a woman who ran the Wasatch Back ultra marathon 8 weeks after having a baby, nursed her baby at every water station, and finished the race with a new women's record.  Crazy!

I don't plan on being an ultra marathon runner, or even become Vegan, but this book fascinated me and inspired me to run harder and realize that what I eat affects my runs.  Over that last several weeks I have had a goal to run a certain number of miles each week.  I started out at 4 miles accumulative by the end of the week and now I'm at 13 miles and use an app called Run Keeper to keep track of my miles/pace.  With a triathlon and turkey trot next month and plans to do a half marathon in February it's great to see progress!