Scott Jurek on the Golden Age of Ultra, Dean Potter and The Dark Wizard, 200-Milers, and the Odds of a Sub-14 at Western States (Sunday Conversation)

Singletrack

Finn Melanson

Running, Ultra Running, Sports News, Mountain Running, Ultrarunning, News, Wilderness, Ultramarathon, Sports, Trail Running

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2026

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scott Jurek is one of the greatest ultramarathoners of all time. His career ushered in an era of professionalism that enabled many that came after him to pursue this sport as a full-fledged career. Since 2024, we have had Scott in the studio for long-form conversations during Western States week. At this point, it’s become one of our favorite traditions. Sometimes we talk about the state of the sport, sometimes we reflect on key moments in his racing career, and other times we just shoo...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Norta is the official footwear partner of our 2026 Western States 100 coverage.
0:04.9	All the Rage this summer is the imminent release of their new model, the 055,
0:09.2	the shoe that Rachel Entrican wore start to finish en route to her course record victory
0:13.5	at the Kokadona 250 earlier this year.
0:16.3	Go check it out at norda run.com and make sure you are subscribed to their mailing list
0:20.6	to get exclusive
0:21.7	early access to the shoe. I've put a bunch of training miles in it. It's the real deal.
0:26.9	All right. Our 2026 Western States 100 coverage continues. At this point, we're calling it a tradition.
0:32.9	It is year three with Scott Jerk in studio. How are you doing today?
0:38.7	I'm doing well.
0:39.8	Usually we do this at the end, though.
0:41.3	So we're kind of like messing up.
0:42.7	I can usually talk trash about everybody after you've gotten their lowdown.
0:47.6	So I'm kind of going early.
0:49.7	We're a workshop in the timing.
0:51.2	And offline, I thought of a question because we have Hal Cuner's cougar staring us in the face right now. Do you know where all seven of your cougars are? This is Hal's here. I thought this might be Caleb's. Like, I figured you stole Calebs or something like that. That would have been an easier one. Does Hal like spit shine this thing? Or what does he do? He like buffs it. Mine do not look
1:12.5	like that. He likes keeping the store, you know, pretty tidy. That one's on one of the front
1:17.4	shelves as soon as you walk into RVR now. So he's probably making sure that that thing's front
1:22.2	and center. I don't know. I feel like he did a custom like refurbishing or something. Like he a custom detail on that thing, because mine did not look like that. Mine looked like they're, like, they're turning green. Maybe when he got one of his cars detailed, he just, like, threw in the Cooter Trophy. He was like, hey, you can get this too? Can you rework it? Do I know where all of them are? See, this is the one thing. I know there are two at Brooks.
1:47.3	Okay.
1:47.9	And somebody told me, oh, I know I've seen one of them.
1:51.5	And I'm like a little worried at this point that there's missing cougar.
	...

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