Anna McNuff started to run barefoot after witnessing people in New Zealand doing it – and decided to give it a go herself.
A female adventurer and former GB rower, who claims to have been “feral” as a child, has shared her plans to run 2,620 miles across the length of the UK, completely barefoot.
A Girl Guides ambassador and motivational speaker, Gloucester-based Anna McNuff, 34 – whose parents also rowed for Great Britain in the Olympics – has been running extreme distances across the world since 2013 – but usually in top-of-the range £100 Brooks sports shoes.
Her barefoot epiphany came during a 2015 trip to New Zealand, when she ran 1,911 miles across the country over 148 days and, inspired by the number of barefoot runners she encountered, after 1,000 miles kicked off her shoes.
A tomboy through and through growing up, she immediately fell into the barefoot running groove, saying: “I was a little bit feral as a child and used to like running around with grazed knees and muddy feet.
“I was always mucking in with my brothers and the boys at school – I think it was only when I was about 20 that I realised I was female!
“My instinct had always been not to wear shoes and I remember my mum always telling me to put them on.”
She continued: “Now, while I’m not a barefoot evangelist, I love it and it has made such an impact on my running style.”
Despite her love of going shoeless as a youngster, growing older, Anna began to conform.
But, inspired by her New Zealand trip, she said: “People there are much happier to run and play sport barefoot, so I thought to myself, ‘Why am I wearing trainers when our feet are built to be free?'”
On returning to the home she shares with her partner Jamie McDonald, 32, a fellow adventurer and motivational speaker, she continued to jog barefoot.
Now, speaking of her next UK running challenge, which will take from June to November, she said: “Feet are amazing, complex machines with over 7,000 nerve endings in each sole and 26 bones in each foot.
“So, in this adventure I’m looking to see if I can coax my feet into doing what they were truly built to do, after a lifetime of being squidged up in shoes.”
Despite her rowing coach mum Sue, 62, and consultant dad Ian, 62, being incredibly sporty, Anna – who has two brothers, accountant Jonty, 32, and project manager Jamie, 36, – recalls her mother’s displeasure at her barefoot antics as a child.
Anna laughed: “In typical mothering fashion, she was always telling me to put some shoes on and keep my feet warm in case I caught a cold.”
A GB rower, although not an Olympian, Anna stopped competing aged 23 and went to work in marketing before getting the sporting itch again and setting off to cycle 11,000 miles around America in 2013.
Since then, her love of adventure has only grown and has seen her complete some ambitious escapades, like a cycle along the Andes mountains and running the 86-mile length of Hadrian’s Wall dressed as a Roman soldier.
Anna, who earns a living giving motivational talks to companies and schoolchildren, then set her sights on running across New Zealand – where she finally freed her feet.
She explained: “It was really liberating to realise that I didn’t have to wear trainers and that this was a way of exercising that people in other parts of the world actually did.”
In England, she graduated her descent into barefoot running, working down from trainers, to shoes, to socks and finally daring to go bare.
Even the inevitable – and often unpleasant – hazards she has encountered have not put her off.
She continued: “I have occasionally stepped on broken glass and in dog mess. But that’s all part of the experience and you pretty quickly grow hard callouses and thick skin on the bottom of your feet.”
Not everyone understands her running style, however, and she has received everything from snide comments to strangers offering to give her their shoes.
She said: “It took a little while to rebalance my muscles and there were times, at first, when I’d stagger home after running barefoot.
“It feels great now, though. I am lighter on my toes, my joints are under less strain and my thigh and calf muscles have become a lot more toned.
She added: “As for my feet – they’re like panther paws!”
In June, Anna will be starting her next mammoth challenge in the Shetland Islands and will finish in London – covering the distance of a full marathon most days for 155 days.
“I think it’s something I know I would be able to do wearing shoes, but going barefoot will be a real challenge – which makes it all the more exciting,” said Anna, who is encouraging others to join her at various stages along the way.
She continued: “I admit it’s pretty daunting, too, and I’m terrified that some sort of showstopper event will happen along the way that may prevent me from running.”
But Anna, who will be speaking at girl guiding units along the way, hopes to encourage girls to push themselves beyond their comfort zones.
“The world has become very sanitised these days and people are wrapped up in cotton wool,” she said.
She concluded: “I’m not saying that everyone should be like me and run around with no shoes on, but sometimes doing things that are a little unusual and which stand outside societal norms are the most rewarding of all.”
