Jack Scott, the record-breaking Winter Spine Race winner in 2024, has written a heartfelt and insightful blog about the process of turning things around after a big-race DNF.
Scott produced one of the great ultrarunning performances in the Spine last year as he shattered Barkley Marathons history-maker Jasmin Paris’ overall course record of 83:12:23 with a time of 72 hours, 55 minutes and five seconds.
And the 30-year-old Brit’s big project after that was Cocodona 250, a 255-mile desert epic in Arizona which the GOAT of women’s trail running, Courtney Dauwalter, was also targeting.
Scott took a sabbatical from work and focussed on heat prep with sports performance experts at Leeds Beckett University, underlining just how much the race meant to him.
‘The race got away from me’
But that all magnified the disappointment when things didn’t go to plan in Arizona and he starts his blog, on the INOV8 website, by explaining exactly what happened: “On May 6th I had to withdraw from the Cocodona 250 with a hamstring injury. I was 91 miles into the US race, which is 255 miles in total. It was a very difficult and hard decision to make.
“My training and preparation were outstanding, enjoyable and right. But at this level, 91 miles is not enough – it’s only about 35% of the entire Cocodona course. The race got away from me, and I quit.
“The negatives had built up and a hamstring twinge at mile 51 had gotten out of control. There was too much time left in the race for me to survive.
“Normally I look at the clock and view the remaining mileage left as an opportunity to move through the field. Not this time.
I hobbled to the DNF tent and handed in my bib. Ryan (INOV8 photographer and my only support crew member) offered to do it for me as I lay there in the truck. I declined and went to the tent – I had to face it myself.”
‘Looking for redemption’
An incident on the plane home – read the full blog here – helped him, in his own words, “wake up”.
From that point onwards the first priority was physio on his hamstring but then he effectively did what he advises many of the clients he coaches to do: “Did not finish, absorb it, remember it, use it.”
He began by coming up with a new plan: “I also made the decision to return to work as a steel fixer after a seven-week break to focus on my exploits in America.
“Aware there were selection races looming for the World Mountain & Trail Running Championships – to be held in Spain in September – I decided to shift my focus. I wanted to see if I could turn things around, qualify, and look for ‘redemption.’
“Ok, it felt greedy, risky and unrealistic, but sometimes this sport allows for these emotions and characteristics to manifest.”
That meant entering and then building towards two races – the first of which was the Scafell Sky Race, the ‘short’ (27 miles) selection race for the GB national team.
On race day in the Lake District little more than five minutes separated the first five and all of them beat the previous record time set by Tom Evans in 2022, the year before he won Western States.
Scott was an encouraging fourth, though being just off the podium meant he’d likely fallen just short of GB selection and he was indeed made first reserve.
Taking the opportunity
However there was a significant second chance in the shape of the ‘long’ selection race – the 14 Peaks Ultra over 33.5 miles in Snowdonia three weeks later.
But as if that timeframe wasn’t short enough as it was, an allergic reaction after Scafell meant eight days of doing virtually nothing.
A back issue compounded things further but a recce of the final part of the 14 Peaks made up Jack’s mind that he would run.
He knew he needed a top-two placing to effectively seal qualification and that’s exactly what he achieved with second place behind Hugh Chatfield.
It means he will represent GB in Spain later this year to complete a remarkable turnaround – and not just those 47 days since that Cocodona DNF.
For Scott, who took up running in his early twenties to help beat a gambling addiction, added: “I didn’t know running for your country was an option in this sport back in 2020 when I started showing signs of potential. I remember receiving a message off Kim Collison encouraging me and I presume other up-and-coming runners to enter a trial race later that year. I went, I raced, and I was beaten. But the lure and dream remained.
“When you focus on running distances like the Spine Race or Cocodona, you have to turn your back on this style of racing, and I did that for three years. Only off the back of failure has this door showed itself once more.
“I’ve made the team for the long trail race at the World Championships.
“I’d like to thank my wife, family, lads at work, the team at INOV8, Dan and his team at Leeds Beckett University, as well as many more.”
It’s a fascinating blog and well worth a read.
