Scott Jurek's thoughts on Dean Karnazes

Dean Karnazes, the self-anointed "Ultra-marathon man" has been getting plenty of heat lately from the core running community for his recent grandstanding. When Karnazes first caught our attention, most wrote him off as an opportunistic novely act. The uproar over Karnazes reached the boiling point earlier this year when Outside Magazine anointed him "America's Greatest Runner" and put him on the cover of their magazine. The problem wasn't that the magazine made the claim, but that Karnazes, a mediocre runner at best, did nothing to refute or modestly deflect that claim (to put his ability in proper perspective, at last year's Whidbey Island Marathon, Karnazes finished over an hour behind me...and I ran 3:35. Nothing wrong with finishing a marathon in 4:30, but it certainly doesn't validate the title of "America's Greatest Runner.")

On sites like www.letsrun.com, discussions on Karnazes end up in writing him off and saying, in effect, that he would get his butt handed to him by the likes of Matt Carpenter, Pam Reed, and Scott Jurek, all ultrarunners of considerable achievement.

For the lay runner, Scott Jurek is the runner most people think of when you talk about ultramarathoning greatness. 7 Western States 100mile wins in a row; 2 Badwater wins and course record (just broken); a win at the Spartathlon ultra in Greece, arguably the oldest, toughest, and most famous ultra in the world. If there is a runner out there who could justifiably lay claim to the title of "ultramarathon man" it would be Jurek. In addition to his considerable achievements, Jurek has consistently maintained a humble and grounded persona, seemingly shunning the spotlight.

Since many runners hold Scott Jurek up as the "anti-Dean" it should come as no surprise that Scott Jurek's recent comments on Karnazes has generated plenty of interest.

Here's the transcript, courtesy of Scott Dunlop and his blog (runtrails.blogspot.com), of the recent podcast:

"It's good we get attention for the sport, but sometimes I wonder what kind of attention is good for the sport. At times I think that some of the Dean attention can hurt athletes like myself and other individuals performing well. There are athletes like us doing all kinds of amazing things and somebody else is walking around and actually accepting these titles and awards. You wouldn't see that in any other sport. I can't think of a sport where this happens - maybe once in a while somebody a bit lower on the elite status might pop up there for doing something extraordinary."

The rest of the podcast can be viewed here