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North by Scott and Jenny Jurek: a book review

North by Scott and Jenny Jurek: a book review

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So much good stuff has come out recently in the running lit world, as I think I’ve said many times already this year, and adding to the already robust canon is Scott and Jenny Jurek’s North. Recently released in early 2018, the book chronicles Scott’s attempt at notching the FKT (fastest known time) on the northbound Appalachian Trail, starting in Georgia and ending in Maine, back in 2015.

If you’re a regular reader here, then it’s a safe assumption that you’re probably a runner and thus already know some of the background to this quest. If not, here’s a primer. Scott Jurek is one of the most fabled ultrarunners of all time. You can quickly scan his Wikipedia page to get a bird’s eye view of his many accomplishments, but suffice it to say that this guy has serious talent and the apparent drive to improve. A few years prior, he released his autobiography, Eat and Run, that allowed him to share his upbringing, how he came to the sport, how and why he came to veganism (which is a huge part of his life and identity) and the like. If you haven’t yet read Eat and Run, by the way, I’d definitely recommend it.

So, North. I won’t delve too deeply into the story and details here because it’s worth discovering for yourself, but it was a somewhat predictable and understandable storyline: professional ultrarunner, aging and beginning to think that his glory days are behind him, decides to do this utterly crazy-ass and grueling thing. Urging and supporting him along the way is his wife, Jenny, an accomplished climber and athlete in her own rite. Aside from Scott’s own personal reasons for taking on this enormous undertaking, it was a herculean effort from Jenny, too, to handle all the logistics and crewing to support her athlete (who happened to also be her husband, a combination that can compound an already tough effort into something far more complicated). Right before Scott’s FKT began, he and Jenny experienced some harrowing medical issues that made this already meaningful and life-centering act even more so. (No spoilers).

Even if you’ve never done an ultra before, if you’ve ever read stories and tales from the ultra community (or have seen any of the many documentaries about them), you know that ultrarunners are a completely separate breed of runner. It’s routine that ultrarunners will bring themselves to the brink repeatedly during the course of the race, and there are stories out there about runners who all but bring themselves to pounding on death’s door (with some ultimately actually doing themselves in). It’s with that knowledge in mind, then, that reading Scott’s and Jenny’s stories about the FKT makes comprehending this even more eye-opening and jaw-dropping because Scott was doing shit like that all day, every day, for more than 40 consecutive days. Maybe it’s heroic, or maybe it’s dumb; either way, it makes for some interesting reading.

Along the way, Scott introduces us to the key players in his FKT journey, and some of them you may recognize from Eat and Run. The personalities and friendships roll deep, and I found myself nodding my head in agreement while I was reading, thinking about my own running-based friendships and knowing how different people serve different roles: some as the always-optimistic cheerleader, others as the hard-ass drill sergeant, the guy who has all the answers, and the like. One type isn’t inherently better or worse than the other, but when you’re working hard toward realizing your goals, it’s helpful to have the variety at your disposal. I felt like I knew some of the characters by the end of the book, which is a testament to Scott and Jenny’s storytelling.

North is a quick read, and I think part of what contributes to its speed is the authorial voice of both Scott and Jenny. Scott is the primary storyteller in each chapter, but Jenny’s voice is also in the mix, typically at the end of each chapter (and briefly). Usually it plays out in such a way that Scott recounts his experiences for an almost-entire chapter, and then Jenny chimes in at the very end, sometimes elucidating and elaborating and other times refuting Scott’s memories. There’s always more than one side to every story, as we all know, and I can imagine that this is especially true when it comes to enormous endeavors like a FKT record. Scott’s experiences are going to inherently differ from those of Jenny (or Speedgoat, or whomever else), but the other voices still contribute in a meaningful way to the overall story. Honestly, I only wish that I would have heard more from Jenny since she played such a huge role in the effort.

For what it’s worth, I saw that Scott reads the audio version of the book, and while I think that’d be cool to hear — just like Deena did with her own book — I think I’d actually dissuade people from listening to the book simply because you just have to see the pictures from his adventure. The hard copy of the book includes probably close to 20-30 pictures of Scott, Jenny, and the gang at various points in the FKT quest, and the pictures really give credence to Scott’s descriptions of the varying and (sometimes horrifically) challenging terrain at different points in the AT. It’s one thing to read his description about grappling over huge slabs of rock or squeezing through narrow tunnels, but it’s another thing to actually see a picture of him actually doing it. Same goes for seeing his apparent devolution on the FKT; you can take him at his word when he describes how emaciated he became, but when you see it for yourself, I feel like we as readers can get a much fuller appreciation of how exhaustingly he taxed every ounce of his being to do this crazy-ass thing.

An aside: why. Why, why, why, why, why would someone do something like this? It’s a question that all of us runners can relate to, at least on some base level, because it’s a question that we’ve probably asked of ourselves and/or one that others have asked of us, too. As a hobby-joggin’ mom to two young kids, it’s basically unfathomable to me to try to imagine putting my life on hold for many weeks to go all-in on a running-related goal for which truly nothing is at stake but pride and ego. There are many times in North when shit hits the fan so hard, and flies so furiously, and I’m on the edge of my seat awaiting what will happen next, when I all but want to throw the book against the wall because I can’t understand why Scott would put himself through this “stuff” that was obviously hurting him (sorry for the vaguesauce; no spoilers here) … but I think that’s part of what makes this story so compelling and interesting.

The only comparison I can make, the only way I can even kinda-sorta understand it, relates to a gift someone gave me before my first marathon, a print-out of a quote from a professional marathoner. In it, the runner answers a reporter’s question about the marathon distance, and his response is basically along the lines of “if I have to tell explain the marathon to you, you still won’t understand. It’s beyond you and me.” It sounds like a cop-out answer, sure, but at the same time, when you’re undertaking some huge endeavor that seems to take on a life of its own, every rational part of you — or of others, who care about you deeply — may urge you to stop or to at least question your motives and intentions. You don’t, of course, and instead “keep showing up” — a la Des Linden — and you trust that your Holy Grail is worth it. I guess this is all to say that the fact that the Jureks even attempted to write about their FKT AT experiences is somewhat laudable in my book because we — people who weren’t there, people who didn’t do it with them — will never “get it.” Criticizing and questioning will forever be easier than understanding. I think if we at least try, however, we can be better for it.  

answering “why” is hard. training partners make it easier.

I really enjoyed reading North, and to be honest, I was dubious that I would. I knew the ending because I had passively followed along when they were in the throes of it, so I didn’t think there would be much more to glean from their experiences. Dude. I was wrong. I would have liked to hear more about their life post-FKT quest (no spoilers), but I guess since the purpose of the book was to document their journey, it wouldn’t make sense to include much of a postmortem. I guess I’ll have to keep an eye out for some follow-up podcast interviews instead.  

My opinion? North is an excellent summertime read because it’ll likely leave you feeling both empowered and inspired — what crazyass thing can I do?! — while also sucking you in to a man and woman’s adventure that became so much more than what they intended. Running, in general, is good for that, isn’t it? We start running for one reason, and then things change, and the miles become more than miles. It’s a pretty cool transformation. You may find yourself cheering for them (even if you know the outcome, as I did), celebrating their highs and damning their lows — of which there are many — and anxiously turning the page to find out what happens next.

Book Review: Deena Kastor’s _Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory_

Book Review: Deena Kastor’s _Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory_

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Everyone loves Deena Kastor; that’s pretty much a fact of life. She seems to have this superhuman quality about her that makes runners who have followed her career, or those lucky enough to know her in real life, all unanimously agree that she is just so great. By no means is this a knock to her, nor am I being insincere; I honestly feel like Deena’s just one of those rare athletes and people to whom everyone gravitates for one reason or another.

I can’t remember where I heard or read it, but the label of being “America’s distance sweetheart” about sums it up for me for Deena. This woman is the real deal, a hardcore and accomplished athlete who has kicked ass and taken names her entire running career, and yet she also seems so incredibly genuine and just — for lack of a better word — real. Plus, there was that one time when she waved to A during the SJ RNR race, when Deena was a pace group leader and ran by us, as we were course monitoring on the Alameda. The fact that she heard and acknowledged my ~4 year-old who yelled “HI DEENA!” pretty much sealed the deal that I’d forever be a Deena fangirl.

It’s probably not a surprise, then, when I first heard that Deena was releasing a memoir, I was just keen as hell to read it as soon as it came out. Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory is Deena’s recently-released book, written with Michelle Hamilton, that takes readers through her running life, beginning with her first foray with the sport as a young child and ultimately into her master’s running years, with all types of adventures and experiences along the way.

Before I read the book, which just came out in the past few months, I heard Lindsey Hein interview her for her podcast, back in late October/early November. Lindsey had her on again relatively recently, right when the book launched, and in the event that you’re pressed for time and can’t read the book anytime soon — but really, go make the time because it’s worth it — both of Lindsey’s interviews with her give a great idea of what Deena’s book is all about.

Of course, because it’s essentially her running life story, Let Your Mind Run gives readers a fairly linear understanding of how she progressed from being a kid who ran pretty fast in southern California to becoming one of the best American distance runners, ever. That can potentially make for fairly dry reading though, right? This type of writing can become akin to essentially reading someone’s resume. Fortunately for us, Deena punctuates all of her running exploits with the behind-the-scenes action and commentary that led her to that very moment. Her writing is accessible and honest and — something that I appreciate — owning of the hard work she put in day after day to get where she wanted to go. She doesn’t self-deprecate because she doesn’t need to. There isn’t any distracting hubris that readers have to sift through, either. She knew she was talented, evidenced by the many victories she pulled fairly effortlessly early on, but eventually, she realized that her talent was only going to get her so far; now, she’d actually have to begin working: and hard.  

I noticed that she had dedicated her book to Coach, whom I initially assumed was her husband, Andrew, with whom she has worked for years. I didn’t know anything about the actual coach, Coach Vigil, the man who took a huge bet on her and who arguably helped shape her into such a formidable powerhouse of running. I don’t want to ruin her story, but imagine you deciding today that you want to become one of the best runners in the world, though you don’t really have the marks or history to prove that you’re a shoe-in or capable. Regardless, you woman up and phone the expert on the subject who — for some reason that you may never know nor understand — decides to take you on.

What phenomenal trust from the get-go, right?

Coach Vigil helped get Deena into powerhouse shape by enabling her to take on everything from the super short distances to the marathon. Reading about the many ways her relationship with her coach shaped her running — not just the physical side of her running but perhaps even more importantly, the mental side of it — was such an excellent reminder of the importance that coaches have with their athletes. Similarly, Deena talks a lot about the role of her teammates in her training — exclusively guys, initially — and the ways in which working with others who were better, faster, stronger, fitter, whatever more than she helped to contribute to her growth as an athlete. In the sports psych, running lit, and general “business motivation” genres, there’s so much written about the power of team, and reading a world-class professional runner’s ruminations on the subject is yet another excellent reminder of how important it is to potentially catapulting one’s athleticism to the next level.

One of my biggest takeaways from Deena’s book is the almost palpable sense of gratitude that has seemingly permeated her running from day one. Sure, she absolutely has had bad workouts and subpar races — she’s one of us, after all! — but even when her running wasn’t going as she had envisioned it would, she still seemed to radiate a sense of gratefulness for her abilities to do what she’s doing in the first place and for all the people with whom she had surrounded herself. You might say that it’s revisionist history at its finest, that surely she wasn’t feeling all that grateful when she literally broke herself mid-marathon in Beijing, and I get it. However, I’d argue that reading one of the world’s best marathoners keep perspective on the subject — “I caught my tone. Well, no, wait a second, I’m not a victim here. This is a big deal, but maybe a big deal has a big lesson to teach. I shifted. Why? Why did this happen? It was the better question than ‘Why me?’” — is really powerful stuff.

So often, we runners get in our heads about everything. We take things so seriously, and I’d argue that we do so needlessly. Even the most recreational amongst us make our running so life-or-death serious that we track everything — splits, volume, rest intervals, calories consumed, calories burned, number of hours spent sleeping, and who knows what else minutiae — that you’d think we’re doing this stuff because our mortgage is on the line. So often we get so freaking trees-driven that it’s not even that we can’t see the forest; it’s like we’ve burned it down and left a conflagration in its place. In doing so, we tend to lose the joy that initially brought us to the sport, and suddenly our “I get to go train for a marathon” statements turn into “I have to go train for a marathon.”

You can argue that it’s semantics, but I’d counter that our word choice can have an outsized effect on our moods, feelings, sense of obligation and responsibility, everything related to this hobby that we’re doing for fun, emphasis needed. When we talk about our running in the same way that we talk about needing to clean the toilets or take out the trash, suffice it to say that the loving feeling has flown the coop.

I don’t recall a particular experience or dramatic breakdown that Deena had that made her mentality shift toward running. That said, it seems like her vast experiences in the sport, especially as she climbed the rungs to become one of the best runners in the world, gave her plenty of opportunities to pretty profoundly internalize running’s role in her life and her attitude toward it. Particularly when she was coming back from poor race performances (wherein her mortgage really was on the line) and/or possibly career-ending or season-shortening injuries, she was in a position to evaluate everything and make future choices accordingly. In this respect, it was especially interesting to read about her transition into pregnant running, postpartum running, and master’s running and to see how her goals and training changed as her life fundamentally changed, too. Again: hearing from a professional about this stuff is so refreshing.

There has been so much written recently in sports psych and the running lit worlds about mental toughness, grit, and resilience, and Deena’s book blends that genre with sports memoir in a way that’s memorable and accessible. “Define yourself” is something that I’ll always attribute to Deena — listen to Lindsey’s interviews and read the book for the backstory there — and it’s from Deena’s many poignant passages that I repeatedly found myself nodding along in agreement through her book.

I’ve read before that one of the hardest parts of writing a book, aside from the obvious, is the end. What are the last lessons, the last bit of sagacious wisdom, you as an author wish to confer on your throngs of adoring readers? Out of everything I could have quoted, I think her closing sentiments encapsulate what it means to let one’s mind run and how all of us can “think our way to victory,” in whatever environment we find ourselves. She writes:

“It became a game to hunt down the struggle, to get to the point where negativity bubbled and I had to be more resilient, more creative, more optimistic, and more grateful to emerge stronger from it. Every day I got out there so I could apply the mental habits to life more readily. Staying composed in an anxious pack let me keep my wits in L.A. traffic. I could handle a broken foot in the Olympics, and a broken yolk in the skillet. Patience in a long run gave me patience when Piper’s flute playing got a bit loud. Seeing all the lessons along the way added to my motivation. I had learned disappointment was rooted in the desire to improve and that under the grief, there was deep love. Resiliency opens doors, and compassion and gratitude can dissolve tension, and enrich any moment. What more can I understand? I ran on to see what discovery and life lesson would emerge from the miles ahead.” (278)

Many runners will claim that running, and in particular, long distance running, is as much a mental endeavor as it is physical. Deena Kastor’s Let Your Mind Run shows how that symbiotic relationship can play out and how those lessons we learn in the many miles we post — the lessons about ourselves, about our world, about our relationships, and just about everything else —  can permeate the rest of our lives in meaningful, long-lasting ways and that we really do become better for it and because of it.