Awesome - Man Ran 874 Miles Entirely Barefoot For The Most Baffling Reason
Have you ever felt like your potential as a human being is stifled by sitting, cooped up, in an office all day? Do you look out the window longingly, feeling like if you could just take a quick recess, you’d be more productive? Well, as it turns out, you’re not alone.
The “natural living” movement has grown in popularity over recent years and champions the return of organic human habits, like spending most of your time outdoors and going to sleep early. One man has taken it even further: he doesn’t believe in wearing shoes, and his rationale is more logical than you’d think.
The Guy
Tony Riddle is a natural living coach from Hampstead, London. Along with his wife Katarina and their four kids, he researches ways to bring healthy, easily implemented human habits back into the hustle and bustle of contemporary 9-to-5 life.
Beliefs
His philosophy is that humans, like other animals, are most successful when they live how nature intended. According to Riddle, raising a family has driven him to identify the ancestral tools his children will need to succeed.
Roots vs. Innovation
“We exist in a modern technological age,” says Riddle. “We can’t turn back the clock or expect to be able to live as we did as hunter-gatherers. But we can relearn these deep connections to nature, ourselves, and each other.”
Modern Health
By relearning the basics of human survival instincts, Riddle has been able to thrive. “In doing so,” he says, we can “find profound states of wellbeing." And what wellbeing he's found, indeed...
Backstory
When Riddle was born, his feet were twisted towards his upper body from being curled up incorrectly in the womb. He had to wear plaster boots with a metal brace to twist his feet back down, which was incredibly painful.
Hypothesis
As he got older, Riddle began to question the need for the boots. He thought that if he could just run naturally without shoes on, and keep at it for long enough, his body would gradually realign on its own.
Process
So, he set out to try it. At first, his feet were tender, but they calloused quickly, and he learned to adapt to different surfaces, like grass and tarmac. The harder the surface, the more gently Riddle would run.
Slow Results
Gradually, Riddle began feeling better than he'd ever felt. He looked for ways to continue making improvements in his quality of life, and ways to steer his life focus away from consumerism and back toward the environment he lived in.
Further Exploration
Through trial and error, Riddle developed a series of habits that worked to make him healthier. He ate a vegetable-based diet, took cold water baths, and exercised in ways that maximized his range of movement. He learned how to meditate and control his breathing.
Body-focused Methods
Riddle's main focus never strayed far from running, though. At home, he got rid of all his chairs and sofas, opting to sit on the floor to fix his posture; good sitting posture, he said, translated into good running posture.
Reaching Further
All the while, people had been seeking Riddle out as a natural living coach. By 2019, he had thousands of curious Instagram followers, and his consultation business was booming. However, he wasn't satisfied. He wanted to do more.
New Endeavor
So Riddle began planning his biggest personal challenge yet: He would run the entire length of the United Kingdom, almost 900 miles, and he would do it barefoot. He wanted to use the trek to raise awareness for environmental causes.
The Plan
He broke the journey down into a 30-day schedule, hoping to cover 30 miles each day. After every 10-mile segment, he would stop and talk with various environmentalists to learn about best practices for conservation.
Awareness
Riddle figured he'd be covered by news outlets during his run, and the talks he had with activists and conservationists would receive more press due to the existing run coverage. It was a good strategy, and everything seemed ready.
Starting Out
Early on September 1st, Riddle set out from Land's End, the southernmost point in the UK. True to his word, he was barefoot. His family rode along in the car, planning to meet him in towns every four days.
First Leg
After the first four-day stretch, his feet already looked pretty rough, but he seemed to be having a blast, posting Instagram stories of himself singing while trotting down the open road. His joy was not to last, however.
Trouble Strikes
Only a week into the trek, Tony cut his right foot badly, and his foot and ankle swelled up close to the size of a flour sack. He had to take two days off to rest, bandage the injury, and wait for the swelling to go down.
Catching Up
As a result, Riddle got back on the road with two days' worth of running to catch up on. Still determined to accomplish his goal of running 874 miles in 30 days, he added a few extra miles every day, as much as his injury could withstand.
Forging Ahead
Finally, on September 30th, 2019, Riddle ran 57 miles and finished his journey at John o' Groats, the most northern village in Scotland. As he pushed through the last agonizing half-mile, his family was there to congratulate him — and whisk him away to get some rest.
Onward And Upward
What's next for Tony Riddle? Over the COVID-19 quarantine, he set up a "lockdown relay," where teams of 6 runners virtually passed the baton along to complete 100 miles in 24 hours. Not even a pandemic could keep this guy down! Some people are just cut from different cloths.
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