Grantham man completes Cardiff half marathon barefoot and with 22lb extra weight on his back and front
A man ditched his trainers to run a half-marathon barefoot and if that wasn’t enough, he also carried more than 40lbs of extra weight with him.
Steven Smith, 36, from Grantham, ran 13.02 miles in Cardiff on Sunday (October 6).
Compared to the other runners competing in traditional trainers, Steven decided to run barefoot. He also added a 22lb sandbag on his back and wore a 22lb weighted vest at the front.
“More than 29,000 people signed up to take part in the Cardiff half marathon, but I was the only one barefoot and had extra weight, so it was more for the shock value,” said Steven.
He added: “The Cardiff roads weren’t kind to my feet, so it felt like I was running on sandpaper for 13 miles.
“During the race, the roads were becoming too much so I decided to run on the white lines in the middle of the road for a smoother surface.
“Then I received a tap on the shoulder from another runner telling me to look back. All you could see was red bloody footprints in the middle of the road.”
His unusual method helped him to raise £260 for the British Heart Foundation
It is not the first time Steven has run long distance in such an unusual way, as he ran the London Marathon in 2022 barefoot and with a weighted vest.
He has also climbed Ben Nevis barefoot and has also climbed another mountain with a 100lb barbell on his back.
Steven has also previously done these unusual runs for charity.
On why he chose the British Heart Foundation to run for this time, he said: “In the UK, there are around 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks, which is one about every five minutes.
“The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK.”