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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.

35 by 35: A Runner’s Quest by Taryn Spates

35 by 35: A Runner’s Quest by Taryn Spates

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One thing (among many) that I love about running is our community. Over the years, I have had the pleasure to get to know and befriend many people through running, training, and racing across the country, and I’m pretty sure that with many of those people, I wouldn’t have had the good fortune of interacting with them otherwise. That’s the cool thing about running; when we’re not on the trails together, we all lead such distinctly separate lives as parents/employees/whatever, but when we’re on the run, our singular identity becomes that of a runner, and that’s what binds us together. It’s kinda cool, really.

Soon after my family relocated to the Bay Area, in July 2014, I had the pleasure of running the San Francisco Marathon as a member of TSFM’s race ambassador group, and in the process of being an ambassador for the year leading up to the race, I got to meet many runners, some of whom were Bay Area-based and others who were not. As I wrote about in my recap, I had an excellent second TSFM, and more importantly, it was a really fun weekend with friends old and new.

One of those new friends I had met over the course of TSFM weekend was Taryn Spates, sister to also-new-friend Sarah, who is friends with old-friend-from-Chicago-who-now-lives-here Erin. Finishing TSFM meant a lot of different things for our little gaggle of women that weekend – including some BQ or PR victories – but for Taryn, it signified the culmination of finishing her thirty-fifth marathon by the time she turned 35 years old.

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one of my fav pics because these ladies are wonderful and because we all had a memorable race. TSFM ’14 with L-R Erin, Meg, Taryn, and Sarah

Let that marinade for a minute.

What have you ever done willingly 35 times?

Prior to the race, Erin had mentioned to me that Taryn was in the throes of realizing this “35 by 35” goal of hers and that she was working on a book about it, but I think it was one of those unfortunate in one ear and out the other things for me. Knowing that Taryn had completed her 35th marathon on TSFM race day was cool in and of itself; eventually learning (re-learning) that she was working on a book about her adventures was like the icing.

Earlier this year, when I was posting some book reviews up here about some running-related stuff I had read lately, Taryn dropped me a line and offered to send me a copy of her book, aptly titled 35 by 35: A Runner’s Quest. I won’t say that this is a “sponsored post” or anything like that because while yes, it was free, there was no expectation of me posting a review – it was a gift – but I wanted to take some time to share Taryn’s book because I think it’s a gem. Honestly. I wouldn’t spend my precious time dropping a couple Ks worth of words if I felt otherwise. I think many readers of this blog would appreciate Taryn’s writing and would be equally inspired by her drive to realize her endurance athlete goals.

The executive summary: 35 by 35 is an inspiring, motivating quick read that captures Taryn’s pursuit of finishing 35 marathons – stand-alone marathons and those completed as part of Ironman races – by the time she turned 35 years old. Not every race was pretty, as any runner can attest, but Taryn shows us how she walked away from each experience having learned something about herself as an athlete but also as a person and how each experience further stoked her drive. Along the way, we learn about how the “external factors” of Taryn’s life outside of racing and training – such as her employment (and sometimes, unemployment) in the entertainment industry or her getting married and becoming a stepmother – positively and/or negatively affected her ability to pursue her goals, which, at one time, included becoming a professional triathlete. While we may not be able to understand her unflinching love of the most grueling endurance pursuits out there (we’re talking about a woman who has completed at least nine Ironman-distance races), we can relate to how dearly she holds the endurance community in her heart. I read Taryn’s book in the days leading up to the Modesto Marathon, and I apparently couldn’t have chosen a better time to be reading a book that would help get me back into the marathon mentality. Her ruminations are honest and insightful, funny and refreshing, and when I finished reading her book, I was all-too-eager to go gulp down that marathon koolaid that was awaiting me at Modesto.

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Taryn divides each race experience into its own chapter, with the book going in chronological order, and each race reads like a bird’s-eye-view story or perhaps even like a fairly general race recap that you might encounter on a blog post (but with far less obnoxious language). I got the impression that each chapter/race experience entry could be its own disparate, stand-alone entry (again, kind of like a blog post) and read on its own, since each chapter/race usually doesn’t build much upon the preceding. It’s an interesting balance that Taryn struck here because while each unit could stand alone, the book pretty seamlessly transitions from race to race and isn’t jarring or abrupt.

With endurance events becoming increasingly popular in recent years (particularly at the half marathon distance), more and more people will be able to proudly call themselves endurance athletes, but for the large majority of the population, how and why people could become interested in, if not also addicted to, gruelling events like the marathon or the Ironman distance is beyond comprehension. I totally get it with marathons; with Ironman-distance events, not so much 😉 Taryn’s book shows readers how relatively easy it is to fall down the rabbit hole in this community – particularly after you run your first event and you begin to think about all the ways you can improve at subsequent events. Taryn’s entries unfold this phenomenon nicely, and the conviction in her love of the run permeates her writing in a way that makes it accessible to even the strongest naysayers out there. Dare I say that she helps people “get it,” even when they don’t think they can (or want to).

From her first marathon in San Diego in 2001, when she had “become a grown up” to her thirty-fifth at San Francisco in 2014, so much about Taryn’s life had changed – career, marriage, motherhood, you name it – but one of the only things that remained constant was her drive to be a better athlete, in part inspired by her brother and other friends and family members. This is again something where many of us can relate; like Taryn, we run our first marathon for the experience, and soon after we cross the finish line, we begin scheming about how much time we could imagine taking off by tweaking our training. Once that happens, then we begin to think about what it would take to qualify for Boston. Then once we realize that goal, it becomes about AG placing, and the list goes on.

This isn’t to say that this book is just a laundry list of goals realized; Taryn is quite candid about when things didn’t go well or when shit just sometimes happens – quite literally, as it were – in races. When you’ve been an endurance athlete for so long, as Taryn shows, sometimes you have good seasons and good races, and sometimes things just don’t go according to plan. It’s the ebb and flow of training and racing, much as we all seem to have an ebb and flow of life. There’s a reason that so many runners are also writers; the sport is like one big freakin’ metaphor.

As a multiple-marathoner myself, I enjoyed reading Taryn’s book a lot and found myself nodding in agreement with so much of the sentiments that she captured. The parts I found especially interesting were about her Ironman training and the times that, thanks to some employment/family life stuff, she was able to train for her events on a nearly full-time basis in an attempt to become a pro triathlete. Never in my running career, even at my most zealous, have I thought I stood a chance in hell at going pro, so these sections were pretty eye-opening.

Since completing her 35 by 35 quest, Taryn has re-run the Boston and LA Marathons and has also run her first trail 50k. She has no intention of hanging up her running or triathlon shoes, and I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before we hear from her again as she sets off to realize her Next Big Goal and who knows, maybe that’ll mean there will be a sequel! If you’re looking for a quick and fun read before your next big event, I think Taryn’s 35 by 35 fits the bill (and plus, hey, how cool, I’m in it! I’m “Ambassador Erin” in the SF Marathon ’14 chapter). Likewise, I think this book would make a thoughtful gift for someone who’s about to complete his/her first marathon or Ironman-distance event. Meeting Taryn on the final leg of her 35 by 35 journey was a treat, and seeing her hard work come to fruition in the 35 by 35 manifestation has been as exciting as another marathon finish.