Scott Jurek calls out Dean Karnazes...

Before anyone in cyberspace gets all riled up, let me be the first to say that I quite honestly don't know squat about ultra-running, other than the fact that these people run for a REALLY long time...why?

The only answer I have is I have absolutely no clue.

Seattle's Scott Jurek, who is one of the best ultra-runners in the world, called out Dean Karnazes recently on Scott Dunlap's blog...you can read it
here


So, who in the hell is Dean Karnazes?

Karnazes is the guy who Time Magazine calls one of the 100 most influential people. Right...

What's he done, you might ask? He completed 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, ending with the New York City marathon, which he completed in three hours thirty seconds, according to Time. His book, Ultramarathon Man, was the #7 bestselling sports book worldwide in 2005.

He recently did a stunt in June where he ran 128.75 miles in 24 hours on a treadmill suspended above New York's Times Square. He was voted by fans who logged on to espn.com as the winner of the ESPY for "Best Outdoor Athlete" by a large margin.

Apparently in this interview that was posted on Scott Dunlap's blogspot site, Jurek, who has more outstanding credentials in the sport than Karnazes, expressed displeasure with the way the PR machine of Karnazes, while bringing up publicity to the sport, has left out some of the other top athletes.

Jurek says, "It's good to bring [ultrarunning] to the general audience, but from the standpoint of elite athletes who are working their butts off, training and racing, not making any money...it's not like I'm jealous or envious since I have gotten my share of publicity...but it's getting a little old. It's time the media began focus on the true champions of the sport and those that are doing amazing things because we kind of get lost in the shuffle."

If you want to see an interesting take on Jurek and Karnazes, see this thread at letsrun.com.

Quite honestly, I like what one guy posted on letsrun--why don't Jurek & Karnazes have a match race the way Michael Johnson & Donovan Bailey did ten years ago in Toronto?

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