Ultrarunning
Meet the woman who ran 2,352 miles completely barefoot across Britain
Adventurer Anna McNuff ran the equivalent of 90 marathons across the British Isles without shoes. Here she reveals what she learned from this gruelling challenge.
Over the course of five months, global adventurer Anna McNuff ran the distance of 90 marathons (2,352 miles) completely barefoot across the British Isles. The 34-year-old began her Barefoot Britain journey on June 2 2019 in the Shetland Islands and finished in London on November 17, battling razor-blade coastlines, mucky farmland and pebble beaches along the way.
McNuff, the ambassador for Girl Guiding UK, chose this challenge in a bid to inspire young women to reach for goals that they may believe lie beyond their capabilities. During the route she visited 143 towns, giving motivational talks to a total of 1,700 girl guides on the joys of adventure, taking risks and personal growth.
Anna's bag 'Barry Buttercup' was signed along the way by her hosts
© Anna McNuff
Spending 168 days on the road, Anna conquered parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the South Coast (check out her route map here). For support, Anna had over 2,000 members of the public join her on the open running stages of her journey, even if it was just for a mile or two.
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This isn’t the first endurance challenge Anna has faced. In 2015 she ran 2,000 miles across New Zealand to raise money for The Outward Bound Trust, that sends young people on adventures in the wild. Over the five-month journey, Anna carried 14kg worth of equipment on her back with no assistance.
When stretched to her limits, physically and mentally, during her most recent challenge, she would have no doubt needed to draw on that experience. However, with 7,000 nerve endings in the human foot, Anna explored new boundaries of endurance she had never faced before.
And unlike her time in New Zealand, this time Anna only ran with a small bag of essentials. Instead relying on the kindness of strangers to help lug equipment from one part of the UK to the next. After posting callouts on social media for accommodation, plenty of families welcomed her into their homes for the night, and when she was unable to find a place to rest, she was only happy to camp out under the stars.
Red Bull spoke to Anna when she was only 300 miles into her epic journey, having just arrived in Aberdeen after having trekked her way across the John O’Groats coastal trail in mainland Scotland.
From sleeping 10 hours a night to embracing the dirt between her toes, here's six key things Anna had learned from her journey so far...
1. Preparation is key
Anna trained for 18 months in the lead up to the challenge
© Anna McNuff
Working with Christian Poole, founder of The Running Lab, Anna trained for 18 months in preparation for the challenge, in order to alter her running style to accommodate being barefoot. Whereas trainers absorb the impact of the feet, allowing for a rougher landing, barefoot running puts more pressure on the knee and hip joints. Therefore, Christian provided Anna with specially designed exercises that would control her bounce and spread her toes – all while landing softly on her forefeet.
"He taught me to run like a swan as they glide forwards and then underneath is where all the work is going on," she says. "The up and down movement is minimised and I’m almost gliding forward with quick cadence."
Having ran in minimalist trainers for the past three years, Anna's feet were already used to running with little support. However, in order to toughen up her feet, during training Anna would switch between running in rubber socks and being barefoot, gradually upping her mileage barefoot every week. For practice, she ran the London Marathon (26.2 miles) in April 2019 without so much as a sock in sight.
Since the training, Anna noticed significant changes in her body, from the skin on the balls of her feet becoming 3mm thicker to the space between her toes widening: "As soon as I started doing more minimalist running, it was almost as if someone had taken a syringe and sucked any excess out of my calves. They got really tight because every muscle was being used all the time."
I second guess myself because I don’t know if pushing on is going to destroy me or make me sick or break my body
2. Embrace the grime
The thought of running barefoot, especially through the streets of London, is something of a nightmare for most people, but for Anna it was a chance to release her inner wild side.
"Whenever I did a run across London my feet would be disgusting at the end, but in a sick way I kind of enjoyed it because I was feeling my home city," reveals Anna. "I’ve got the dirt of London on my feet. I felt as if I was experiencing my environment. I think you give yourself permission to be free and care less. Then that translates to every other area of your life.”
Aside from getting her big toe caught in a deep bog by the coast, and stepping in sheep droppings, fortunately Anna hadn't experienced any major injuries or infections to her feet.
3. Listen to your body
Anna burnt up to 3,000 calories a day
© Anthony Behrens
Averaging about 20 miles a day, Anna had learned that she needed to listen to her body if she wanted to complete the challenge, allowing herself a day off if she was too exhausted to run:
"I second guess myself because I don’t know if pushing on is going to destroy me and make me sick or break my body. Or, if I can just go on a little bit more, so it's constantly a fine line.”
Burning 3,000 calories a day and running up to a week at a time with no breaks, Anna sleeps 10 hours a night to let her body recover. With no sport therapist or team to help her, if Anna does feel sore, she has to self-treat herself by pushing hard on the area of muscle that’s painful and then releasing the pressure, as well, of course, has using lots of plasters and tape.
4. There are many different types of terrain
The skin on Anna's feet became thicker and the space between her toes wider
© Anna McNuff
Hobbling over gravel one mile to flying through mossy forests the next, Anna has encountered a rollercoaster of different terrains during her journey. Depending on the surface, each marathon takes Anna roughly six hours to complete, four hours if she’s lucky enough to find smooth tarmac or flat grassland, like the Yorkshire Dales, to run on.
"I’ve learned that Great Britain has thousands of different surfaces that we move over every day and we never pay any attention to until you’re on your bare feet," she enthuses. I’m such a tarmac geek now!"
Having completed the Virgin Money London Marathon barefoot, Anna first thought that running on tarmac wasn’t going to be much of a problem. However, due to the ice in the north, stone chips are placed on the tarmac to make it spiky for car tyres to grip onto. So, for Anna, the start of her journey in the Scottish Shetlands was like running on a bed of nails (ouch!).
"People always ask me what happens when you step on a piece of glass or are concerned with the big things," says the explorer. "But the most difficult thing is getting splinters or tiny pieces of grit [in your feet] because they start to get infected.”
It felt like someone had taken a syringe and sucked any excess out of my calves, because every muscle was being used constantly
5. Anna says relax
Jump if you love running barefoot!
© Anna McNuff
Often feeling overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge, Anna learned that, in order to run until November, she needed to focus on one day at a time and relax her expectations.
"There is a chance of failure but that’s the reason why I picked this challenge. There is no reassurance that I will make it to the finish line, and I have no idea at the moment how I’m going to make it there, but I'm going to take it one day at a time. Who knows what’s going to happen along the way? That is the adventure. That is the unknown."
"It’s about maintaining a state of calm when everything around you is going crazy but you’re staying very centred and focused," adds Anna. You just keep moving forwards, no matter what is going on around you. I’ve just got to say, 'Come on universe, do your worst because I’m just going to keep running'.”
The explorer is determined to reach the finish line but she's aware she may have to reduce the distance and get more rest if she is really struggling. Though trainers are not an option – and she would always remain barefooted.
6. The strength of the human spirit
When Red Bull spoke to Anna, one of her biggest surprises was how much support and kindness she had received from the public: "My followers on social media are just amazing. I get so many messages from people saying, 'I went out for my run today and I had a really tough time, but then I thought, 'if you can run barefoot then I can complete this 5km'.' So, feeling like its bigger than just me makes me want to keep going. It’s the strength of the human spirit and showing what we can go through."
What also motivates Anna is speaking to the Girl Guides along the way and hearing all the challenges they want to undertake. "Girl Guiding has changed so much. They are creating feminists of the future. They do self-care, campaigning, storytelling, bush crafts. They are creating little Lara Crofts. I don’t want to let them down.”
Spurred on by the cheerful faces of the Girl Guides, Anna was able to ignore her blistered feet and achy hips to finish her journey to London, where she arrived on November 17, 2019.
