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Scott Jurek has been called the "King of Pain" and the greatest ultramarathoner ever.

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Ultramarathons can be 125 miles longer than a typical 26-mile marathon.

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Scott finished his first in 1994, and since then, he's dominated the sport.

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Today he holds records for these races that cover more than 150 miles and last over 24 hours straight.

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A notoriously tough ultramarathon is the 135-mile Badwater in Death Valley, California.

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In 2005, to get through the 130-degree heat, Scott was dunked in this king-sized cooler full of ice water.

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Halfway through the race, he collapsed, and for ten minutes he didn't move.

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But he managed to get up and not only finish the race, but shatter the course record.

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Scott says it was his mother, Lynn, who taught him how to persevere.

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She died last March after living with multiple sclerosis for 30 years.

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So what propels you to be able to do some of these things? Running the distances you do?

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A lot of people wouldn't even dream of it.

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I think for me it's that self-exploration,

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that idea of there's something out there and the desire to see what my body,

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what my mind and down to what my spirit can do.

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Were you always a runner? I mean, how did this start?

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For me, I actually used to hate running.

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I grew up hunting and fishing in northern Minnesota, and that really was where I got connected with the outdoors.

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And I had got[ten] interested in running through Nordic ski racing and had to get ready for the,

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basically, the snow season by doing some running on the ski trails.

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You obviously do this competitively. What's the furthest distance you've ever run? 

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The furthest distance I've run is 165.7 miles in 24 hours.

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So tell me how that works. Are you taking breaks or what are you doing?

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So the more time I take breaks�Kthe clock is always going,

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so the idea is to continue running throughout and as much as you can, 'cause you only get 24 hours.

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And the only times I did stop were to go to the bathroom, basically, and even eating is done on the run.

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Have you heard about the medical aspects of this? What have you been told?

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Well, I think it helps...I'm actually a physical therapist and so know a little bit about the body.

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But you know, is it healthy to go that far in that amount of time?

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You know, it's hard to say, but the human body was built for endurance. If you look at our ancestors and what they did...

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I mean, even think of my great grandparents and what they did for work out in the fields.

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And I think maybe our perception of what is normal has changed over the years.

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And I like to always refer to what people used to do.

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You talk about exploration and maybe to some extent exploring what the body can do,

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but at some point you made the decision to say,

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I'm gonna go from someone who didn't like to run to racing in the hardest, presumably, running competitions in the world.

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Was there a moment when that happened for you and you said, "I can actually do this"?

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I think it was probably after my first 50-miler, after my first ultramarathon.

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I'd run a marathon and then a month later decided to do this 50-mile race a buddy of mine,

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Dusty Olson, said you've got to try this out.

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And at 20 years old, most 20-year-olds aren't thinking about running 50 miles,

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but after I had completed that I said, of course, "Never again."

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But it was after a few hours, and I was like, "You know, yeah, I can...I think I can be pretty good at this."

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Are you competing when you're out there? Are you competing against the other racers?

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Against yourself? Running away from something?

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I like to say I'm trying not to compete. I'm trying to work with my body. I'm not compete [competing] against myself.

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Obviously, there's a clock out there.

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And I do use the other racers in the competition to push my body to that edge because the competition really helps,

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you know, explore those boundaries -- you know, what am I capable of?