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Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Since We Asked Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Readers Choice 2006 Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Our Valley Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend June 30, 2006 Scott Jurek of Seattle crosses the finish line in first place at the end of the 2005 Badwater Ultramarathon. He hopes to repeat this year. The challenge of ... Badwater A Seattle runner hopes for a second winning assault on the 135-mile ultramarathon from Death Valley halfway up Mount Whitney July 24 By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE The Associated Press SEATTLE — The sun has not quite risen on a cool, cloudy morning as Scott Jurek straps a water bottle to his right hand and starts running up a steep alder-lined trail, heading to the summit of Mount Si. Most of the ultramarathons he runs take him through similar terrain. But now he's training for a race he spent years avoiding, because it stretches across 135 miles of Southern California asphalt in the cruel midsummer heat of a vast desert. On July 24, Jurek and about 90 other of the world's most seasoned long-distance runners will take on the notoriously grueling Badwater Ultramarathon, which begins in the belly of Death Valley and ends more than halfway up Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States. With temperatures that often soar past 120 degrees, many runners wear hats and bandanas equipped with pockets for ice cubes that melt every mile or so. Five times during last year's race, Jurek spent several minutes sitting in a super-sized cooler full of ice water. A running coach, pitchman for Brooks Sports, Inc., and physical therapist based in Seattle, the 32-year-old Jurek ran Badwater for the first time last year, just two weeks after his seventh consecutive win at the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run in Northern California. Advertisement Few were surprised that he won and set a Badwater course record of 24 hours, 36 minutes and 8 seconds. This year, he's out to finish it in less than a day. "I think his chances are excellent," said Marshall Ulrich, a four-time Badwater winner. "I think he may not just break 24 hours — he may break 23 hours or maybe even 22." Some people thought Jurek was crazy last year when he ran it so soon after Western States. Even he acknowledged it was "a little bit over the edge." This year, he's skipping Western States and concentrating on Badwater. He'll be heading down to Death Valley 21/2 weeks before the race, spending more than double the time he did last year getting acclimated to the searing heat. "Definitely being more heat-trained this year, knowing the course, knowing how my body reacts to certain stages of the race will be a huge benefit," Jurek said after wrapping up a recent training run up the four-mile Mount Si trail, an elevation gain of nearly 4,000 feet, in less than an hour. He was "taking it easy" that day, he said, running up the mountain only once instead of three times because he had run a 100-kilometer race a week before. During the hottest hours of the day, runners rarely see their own sweat. It evaporates that quickly. They have to monitor their electrolyte levels regularly throughout the race, and hop on scales to weigh themselves every hour or two, to make sure their bodies are processing all the fluids they're sucking down. At times, Jurek's weight was down 3 or 4 pounds — a lot, he said, for a man who weighs 165. He guzzled about a gallon of water every couple of hours, but figured out it wasn't quite enough. This year, he said he plans to drink more and weigh himself more often to make sure he drops no more than a pound or two at any given time. Some Badwater runners take sleep breaks. Jurek lay down at one of his low points last year, but never snoozed. At one low point last year, he had a rare bout of vomiting. At other lows, he said it felt draining just to walk. He ran backward a time or two just to vary his stride, giving his muscles a bit of a break. His goal all along was to win the race, but he held back and let others lead until mile 90 or so. That impressed Lisa Bliss, who served as the race medical director. "He was able to plan and pace himself very well. I think in that respect he's a phenomenal runner," said Bliss, a veteran ultrarunner who finished Badwater two years ago. Tall and trim but a bit less lanky than many hard-core runners, Jurek logs 55-70 miles a week on average, and 100-120 as he's peaking before a big race — running as many as he can on wooded trails. In recent years, he's added yoga, weightlifting and a vegan diet to his training regimen. Instead of milk, eggs, steak and other staples of many meat-eating runners' diets, Jurek eats a lot of tofu, tempeh (a high-protein food made of cooked soybeans) and whole grains, and adds things such as almonds, hemp seed and protein powder to the smoothies he often blends up for breakfast. It's all part of a regimen he says dramatically has improved how his body recovers from races and all-out training runs. "Definitely the recovery is as important as training," he said. "I wouldn't say I had things totally wrong before. It's like a fine-tuning process I've tweaked and tweaked." Jurek hasn't always been an avid runner. He used to hate it. Growing up outside Duluth, Minn., he did a lot of cross-country skiing. When he got into the racing circuit, he ran in the offseason, but only to stay in shape for the winter. "Running just seemed really ... boring and monotonous," he said one recent afternoon from the office of Beyond Running, the company he runs with his wife, Leah. He decided to give long-distance running a try after a friend raved about his experience running — and winning — a 50-mile race. Jurek entered the same race, the Minnesota Voyageur 50-Mile Run, a year later at age 20 and came in second in a field of about 100 runners. Despite the impressive finish, he wasn't sure he'd ever do it again. "Much like a lot of first-time marathoners, when you finish, it's like, 'Never again,' you know, 'That's it. I'm stopping here,' " Jurek said. A few hours after the pain wore off, he said he decided, "Hey, I might want to give this a go." And so he did. He's run dozens of ultramarathons since, most of them ranging from 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) to 100 miles. Of 28 individual and team races he lists among his career highlights, he's won 20 of them and placed in the top five in the rest. You'd think such consistent success would make him cocky, but he's soft-spoken about his accomplishments. He talks less about his talent than about the fulfillment he gets from pushing his body to the limit and teaching other runners how to maximize their potential. He still relishes the thrill of competing, but said the part he's come to appreciate most is "learning about how I can get my body to continue on, how I can just turn off the noise in my brain telling me, 'This is too hard.' " On the Net: Badwater: www.badwater.com/ Scott Jurek: www.scottjurek.com/ Beyond Running: www.beyond-running.com/ Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems California Casinos Men's Clothing Southern Oregon Loans --> GMAT Prep Fundraisers Send Flowers Entertainment Guide --> Casinos Canada Trunks, Footlocker Online Casino Reviews Advertisement s Advertisement