Scott Jurek is one of the world’s top ultrarunners and author of the memoir, Eat & Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness.

 Scott is one of very few elite vegan athletes.  While the predominant thinking is that athletes can only get the nutrients they require by eating animal protein, Scott’s success speaks to the opposite; on this diet, he’s won all the major races that are 100+ miles and shattered all kinds of records.  (He currently holds the US record for the most consecutive miles run in 24 hours: 165.7 miles!)  As a trained physical therapist, he’s made special note of the connection between his diet and wellbeing.  Eat & Run is equal parts memoir, inspirational tale, and food book, and Scott discusses:

• his childhood in poor, rural Minnesota and how he became a runner completely by chance after hating it while young;
• how he learned to cook from a young age (at age 10, he had to take over for his mom who was diagnosed with MS and passed away in 2010);
• how he gradually went from being a meat-and-potatoes kid to McDonalds obsessed to a vegetarian to a vegan;
• how he started out as a virtual unknown at age 25 when he won the 100 mile Western States Endurance Run (the 1st of 7 times);
• how he’s smashed records and won epic races like the 135 mile Badwater Ultra Marathon in Death Valley and 153 mile Spartathlon in Greece;
• what it’s like to race the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico (Scott was profiled in Christopher McDougall’s bestseller Born to Run);

You can join Scott for a fun run starting at 6:30 tonight at Fit Right, 2258 NW Raleight St., or meet him at his book sgining event at Powell's at 7:30 pm located 1005 W Burnside.
• how beginners can get into running, how runners can get into ultrarunning, and why someone would ever want to run ultramarathons;
• the upsides of including vegetarian and vegan dishes in your diet, even if you still eat meat.