Scott Jurek Gets Personal

The Runner's World June 2012 Issue features Ultramarathon phenomenon Scott Jurek. The Article, Eat Vegan & Run: How a whole-foods, plant-based diet—free of all meat and animal products—has propelled one runner to ultramarathon greatness, is an excerpt from his forthcoming memoir.

In the article he reveals how he went from being a "Minnesota redneck, a hunter and fisherman" to a passionate, vegan, high-performance, award-winning athlete.

When I finally went vegan in 1999, I lost a layer of fat—the layer that came with eating the cookies and cakes and cheese pizza that so many omnivores and even vegetarians gulp down. I learned that I could eat more, enjoy it more (fruit tasted sweeter, vegetables crunchier and more flavorful), and still get leaner than I had ever been in my life. I started on more whole grains and legumes. Muscles I didn't even know I had popped out. My blood pressure and triglyceride levels dropped to all-time lows, my HDL, "good" cholesterol, shot up to an all-time high. I had virtually no joint inflammation, even after miles of pounding trails and roads, and on the rare occasion I sprained my ankle or fell and whacked my elbow or knee, the soreness left faster than it ever had before. I was running in the morning, working eight-to 10-hour days, then running 10 miles in the evening—yet I woke up with more energy every day.