Running Is Always Blind - Issue 38: Noise

Wearing a headband of replica Tibetan prayer flags, Scott Jurek meets me in a park in Boulder, Colorado to demonstrate proper trail-running technique. This isn't just jogging down a paved suburban street, but racing along forest and mountain trails that would tax even an unhurried hiker. Last year Jurek ran the entire length of the Appalachian Trail--2,189 miles in 46 days, the equivalent of nearly two marathons every day, over rocky terrain, up and down thousands of feet in elevation. We walk along a dusty trail segment--while an avid trail runner, I figured I shouldn't embarrass myself by trying to keep up. What strikes me when I watch him running for demonstration purposes, though, is that Jurek never looks down, no matter how uneven the ground may be. He politely slows pace to stand still and shoot the breeze, waxing rhapsodic about stride rate and length.