Barefoot UK runner Anna McNuff has reached Leeds

Whatever you think of barefoot running, endurance athlete Anna McNuff ‘s updates from her #BarefootBritain challenge are entertaining, upbeat, and downright inspiring. McNuff, 34, the daughter of two Olympian rowers, embarked on her journey of 100 marathons through Britain in June, starting in the Shetland Isles, has already run almost 1,000 kilometres, is now in Leeds, and aims to reach London in November.

Fantastic to welcome adventurer @AnnaMcNuff to #Cumbria and @LodgeBreaks today on her #BarefootBritain challenge. She's running the equivalent of 100 marathons (2620 miles!), inspiring and encouraging @Girlguiding units along the way – go Anna! #theplacetobe pic.twitter.com/1UgrVSOMS6

— Cumbria Tourism (@cumbriatourism) August 12, 2019

McNuff’s journey is in support of Girlguiding UK, and the point of it all is not to be fast, but simply to inspire young women to challenge themselves in ways that make them grow. She has been speaking to Girlguiding groups along the way, and in her latest video update, shot in northwestern England, she explains that, having already done some rather ambitious runs in running shoes, she “felt like it was cheating to do it in trainers.” (McNuff ran the length of New Zealand’s two islands with all her gear on her back in 2015. She described it in a 2016 TED-X talk.)

RELATED: Olympians’ daughter running the length of Britain, barefoot

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1I2SvDnfNM/

McNuff communicates with locals in each community she travels through via social media, inviting people to run with her and asking them to put her up for the night. Her feet seem to be holding up well, and though she was waylaid temporarily with a calf injury a few days ago, she is now back to normal and covering between 10 and 30 miles (approximately 15 to 50K) per day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0vbHTjnhCY/

McNuff has a Canadian connection: In the late fall of 2017 and winter of 2018 she accompanied her partner, British ultrarunner Jamie McDonald, on a cross-Canada tour to promote the book he wrote about his unassisted cross-Canada run in 2014. They travelled in a Dodge Caravan. McDonald set a new 7-day treadmill record (833 kilometres) in Gloucester, UK in May.

You can track McNuff’s progress here.