Scott Jurek Appalachian Trail Record Attempt

It has been fun to keep track of his progress and to see if he would hold up over while he took on this challenge.

Pretty damn tough dude to pull ut off. And the down record is impressive too.

And Pharr said she literally never ran a step. She got up early and just hiked the trail from 5am to 9pm everyday.

Walking is different than running. Being a good runner does not make you a good walker. The gait is different. Example: I've done multiple ruck marches up to 12 miles with up to 80lbs. If marching for time walking is always harder for me. I always feel more comfortable shuffling or trotting along. I have countless thousands of running miles on my legs over the years and maybe 100 fast walking.

Also about run/walking....Jurek planned to be done in 42 days so he planned to run more but couldn't.

Alan

video of the last few meters

amazing - I can barely run 50 miles in a week without getting banged up and exhausted - SJ is an astonishingly good athlete to run 50 a day for 46 days straight.

agip wrote:

http://www.runnersworld.com/trail-racing/scott-jurek-celebrates-a-new-appalachian-trail-thru-hike-speed-record?cid=social49076196&adbid=10153459532237090&adbpl=fb&adbpr=23403427089

video of the last few meters

amazing - I can barely run 50 miles in a week without getting banged up and exhausted - SJ is an astonishingly good athlete to run 50 a day for 46 days straight.

He didn't run.

Run or walk, 300 miles per week for almost 7 straight weeks is damn impressive. Add in major elevation and technical trail and even more so.

A lot of the non-trail runners on this board seem to think 500 feet of elevation change over a marathon is a hilly course...and this is on pavement. Jurek averaged 11,000 feet of change a day...on technical trails.

Honestly, if I was Jurek and I wasn't going to beat the record by >24 hours, I would have stopped and waited. Breaking the record by such a tiny margin is essentially matching it at this point.

Old Man Runner wrote:

Run or walk, 300 miles per week for almost 7 straight weeks is damn impressive. Add in major elevation and technical trail and even more so.

A lot of the non-trail runners on this board seem to think 500 feet of elevation change over a marathon is a hilly course...and this is on pavement. Jurek averaged 11,000 feet of change a day...on technical trails.

Don´t expect the morons on LR to understand such subtleties.

This was simply low hanging fruit barely reached. He was right to at least predict a 42 day record because this does nothing. I got a lot more respect for the hiker than this premature failed running attempt from a sporting perspective. all i saw was a guy blowing and walking it in. People blow every day and have to trudge through 10-12 hours shifts day after day, great human interest story people can relate to but that's not why I follow sports. Hopefully Meltzer can lay down a definitive time his third try. Until then this makes ultra runners look bad being put into place by faster people in the last few years and now by slower people too.

iston wrote:

Honestly, if I was Jurek and I wasn't going to beat the record by >24 hours, I would have stopped and waited. Breaking the record by such a tiny margin is essentially matching it at this point.

Jurek was going northbound, which is harder. The Northbound record is 48 days (I believe). The previous overall record that Pharr-Davis held was going southbound. I'd say it's still an accomplishment, and he should be proud of the record, even if it was only by 3 hours.

Rewara wrote:Jurek was going northbound, which is harder.

eh,. wrote:

Old Man Runner wrote:

Run or walk, 300 miles per week for almost 7 straight weeks is damn impressive. Add in major elevation and technical trail and even more so.

A lot of the non-trail runners on this board seem to think 500 feet of elevation change over a marathon is a hilly course...and this is on pavement. Jurek averaged 11,000 feet of change a day...on technical trails.

Don´t expect the morons on LR to understand such subtleties.

Had he really crushed the record I guess I'd be impressed, but 3 hrs is a big meh... the woman that held it hiked the whole way with no pretense of "running".

He went through all those machinations and beat her by 3 freakin hours..not too impressive. Had it been 3 days... then yeah.

What?! No log-roll at the finish??! Now he has to do it again!

not going to blow sunshine wrote:

This was simply low hanging fruit barely reached. He was right to at least predict a 42 day record because this does nothing. I got a lot more respect for the hiker than this premature failed running attempt from a sporting perspective. all i saw was a guy blowing and walking it in. People blow every day and have to trudge through 10-12 hours shifts day after day, great human interest story people can relate to but that's not why I follow sports. Hopefully Meltzer can lay down a definitive time his third try. Until then this makes ultra runners look bad being put into place by faster people in the last few years and now by slower people too.

I hate when ultra runners look bad. I'll be at the movies with my hiking friends and they're like, "haha, your sport only beat ours by a few hours!" I feel so awful when they say that. My life is so hard.

Putting this in perspective - it's the equivalent of beating the marathon record by 0.4 second.

Then, the other factors come into play - like the conditions, heading north to south, the fact that he had pacers and tremendous support pretty much the whole time, etc. My conclusion is meh.

I think this is, at best, a pyrrhic victory for Jurek. Why is an ultrarunner even targeting a record currently held by a female walker?

It would be like if Meb decided that for one last challenge he was going after the American 50K racewalking record but he was going to run.

Add this to the fact that Jurek had waaaay more outside help, resources and most importantly, had an actual time (Pharr's record) that he was targeting.

I agree with those above who have said that to beat the record by 3 hours makes Jurek look a bit petty, especially given his over done celebration with the champagne and whatnot. It doesn't seem to be in line with the true ethos of UltraRunning.

What is Jurek going to do for his next stunt (sorry, I mean challenge)?

I fully agree with what has been said in the last posts. This was a PR disaster, no matter how hard earned.

Darth Opera wrote:

What is Jurek going to do for his next stunt (sorry, I mean challenge)?

How about 51 marathons in 51 days in 51 states?

Old Chubb wrote:

Putting this in perspective - it's the equivalent of beating the marathon record by 0.4 second.

Then, the other factors come into play - like the conditions, heading north to south, the fact that he had pacers and tremendous support pretty much the whole time, etc. My conclusion is meh.

Folks like you are pathetic. Honestly you shouldn't even have a right to an opinion when you have neither hiked the AT nor done hundreds of miles of trail hiking or running for weeks on end.

I've done various parts of the AT and all of them have been really rocky. I'm amazed that he could go "at that speed" and not break a foot or ankle.

Simple fact is you have no concept of 2200 miles of that sort of terrain. You see the "pub" he is getting. If it's so damn "meh" and easy maybe you should go steal his thunder? It's only cost you like 6 weeks.

Someone may easily break this record but props to him going for it and getting it despite things not going well for him along the way. It would have been very easy to quit when he saw it was gojng to be close. He did what a lot of people are afraid todo and push on and risk going all in and then failing to get the record.