‘A low point, I won’t forget’ – British ultrarunning star on missed Cocodona 250 opportunity

British ultrarunning star Jack Scott has penned a heartfelt reaction to his injury-forced exit from this week’s Cocodona 250 race in Arizona.

The record-breaking winner of the Montane Winter Spine Race last year had been targeting the 256-mile epic for months.

He had even taken a sabbatical from work and enlisted the help of sports performance experts at Leeds Beckett University to help him prepare for the likely conditions he would face in Arizona.

‘There is nothing after this’

But as it happened it was hail, snow and lots of rain rather than searing heat which greeted the runners in the early stages.

However that wasn’t the issue for Scott – instead it was a hamstring injury at mile 52 which proved his undoing.

He bravely tried to battle on and ran more than another marathon but by that point going uphill was close to impossible and he had to bow to the inevitable.

And the impact of that DNF was crystal clear when he took to Instagram.

He wrote: “This is a huge opportunity missed, it was there and I was ready. I said in a pre-race interview that there is nothing after this, and I was ready to go into that realm once more.”

Early run partner Green takes the win

Explaining what had happened, he added: “In short, hamstring went @ mile 52. Fibres shredded and pinged into my glute. Quit at a snowy Camp Kipa 10 miles later, but soon realised the battle had begun early here and I had to go and try again.

“28 miles later and the technical Dells rocks outside Prescott confirmed I could no longer move uphill.

“A low point, I won’t forget. There’s a reason I’m not a pro ping pong player, I want exposure and real life experiences. 🏓”

Just to make the blow even more intense, Scott had been running with American Dan Green in those early stages before pulling around 10 minutes clear of him.

And Green would go on to notch overall victory in a course record time to underline what might have been for the Brit.