After 70 miles of running, Jurek started shaking and vomiting, then collapsed onto the roadside. For 10 minutes, he didn't move. "My brain was on fire... My body was burning up... My crew was telling me to get up, that they knew I could go on, but I could barely hear them... This was the point in a race where I had made a career of locating hidden reservoirs of sheer will that others didn’t possess, and now I didn’t think I could finish... Another runner, a desert race veteran, dropped out about mile 50 mile, right about the time he realized his urine was flowing dark as coffee... Ultramarathons give you plenty of time to think... Not moving was actually pleasant. It wasn’t nearly as shameful as I had imagined... Maybe this would help me with humility. Maybe dropping out and being defeated would renew my spirit. Maybe cutting one race short was a good thing... I heard the authoritative voice of my father, telling me, 'Sometimes you just do things!'"
Eventually Scott got up and shattered the course record by more than half an hour.
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