Coast to Coast feat on bare feet

CARYS MONTEATH

Mean feat: Christchurch's Josh Stevenson completed the Coast to Coast in bare feet.

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In a rare feat, veteran Coast to Coast competitor Josh Stevenson covered a gruelling 243 kilometres in bare feet.

"It was a totally worthwhile exercise but there was a little question of insanity about three-quarters of the way through the race and especially the last 8km," a footsore Stevenson said yesterday.

Braving such toe-shredding obstacles as shingle beaches, tarmac and river rocks, Stevenson succeeded in his bare-footed objective, completing the two-day course in 20 hours.

In June last year, the Christchurch athlete decided to step outside his comfort zone for his eighth race.

Needing new orthotic innersoles for his training shoes sparked Stevenson's imagination.

If Kenyan athletes could run long distances bare-footed, why couldn't he?

Stevenson approached race organiser Robin Judkins about his plan, and Judkins replied: "Of course you can, there are no barriers to madness."

However, Stevenson was serious. He slowly increased his barefoot distances to the point where he would leave the house for a 2 1/2-hour run.

"You could do two weeks of training barefeet, and then you had to give your feet a week to recover by wearing shoes when training," he said.

In the lead-up to the weekend challenge, Stevenson admitted to some concerns.

"It was like rocking up for the race the first time again; there was tonnes of pre-race nervousness as I was driving over and in the weeks before thinking `Can I do this? Are my feet tough enough?' I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew.

"I stubbed a toe on the start line at the beach.

"I thought if I'm stubbing my toe now, what are my feet going to look like at the end of this?"

Surprisingly, Stevenson's feet survived. The stubbed toe, which he banged twice more during the race, a slight cut and some swelling were the sum of his injuries.

"If I can do it in bare feet, hopefully I can inspire other people to do it in shoes."

However, would he do it again? "No," Stevenson said bluntly. "I really enjoyed the challenge of it, to go back and do it again knowing what I would be in for, would definitely be difficult. And mad."

- © Fairfax NZ News