McDougall-Jurek-Krupicka

Last night the Boulder running community enjoyed a special treat. Anton Krupicka's girlfriend Jocelyn is involved with the Center for Energy and Environmental Security through the University of Colorado Law School. She put on a fund raiser for the organization that brought together Christpher McDougall, Scott Jurek, and Anton Krupicka to share some of their running experiences. The court room of the Wolf Law Building probably exceeded its capacity by 100 people.

Timmy O'Neill (I don't know who he is but clearly a local comedian) had made a hilarious and rather silly film about wanting to become an ultra-runner and seeking out Scott Jurek to train with. He also livened up the room with some entertaining antics before the running gods spoke. The director of the CEES had also prepared a humorous monologue about his take on ultra running.

Tony spoke first and through slides shared his development as an ultra runner with us. It was interesting to know that his inspiration to run came from a book bought in a second hand shop and that he ran his first marathon at 12 years old. He spoke of runners who influenced him, his mediocrity as a runner in high school and college, and his training as he moved into the world of ultrarunning.

Through a response to a later question about avoiding injury he shared a good rule about training; he said that sustainability was important and in training he tries to run only what he could go out and repeat day after day. Of course what he can do day after day and what I can do day after day are different but it can be built upon slowly.


McDougall Krupicka Jurek







Roes (red cap), Jurek at microphone, Krupicka to right







Jurek explains
Krupicka (blue shirt) listens








McDougall speaks










Jurek and McDougall spoke next and they mostly spoke to Luis Escobar (also present) slides about the Mexico trip that was recounted in Born to Run. There was little new insight to the adventure but it was fun to hear it from the two of them live and in person. Their enthusiasm was the same as if they had just come back from the trip and were telling about it for the first time.

I hung around for the raffle afterwards. Geoff Roes (2010 Western States winner) was recruited to draw the numbers and Scott announcing the prizes and calling out the numbers. There were lots of prizes and I won a winter beanie, socks, and gloves. There was a brief question and answer session and autograph signing. I had brought the book (I told McDougall that it was the family bible). It was getting late and I didn't want to wait in two more lines for Scott and Tony so I split although waiting may have increased the potential value of the book some day.