Barefoot Britain: A running adventure like no other: 4 (Anna's Adventures)

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Having the support of Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers and all the incredible Girlguiding leaders, hosting me and cheering me on along the way was fantastic. When the going got tough and I wanted to give up, the reason why I had set out on this adventure in the first place kept me determined to reach the end.” Starting in the Shetland Islands and ending five months later in London, I weaved my way along rugged coastlines, through small villages, across moors, along beaches, over farmland and even pitter-pattered down the odd picturesque A-road too. I have to admit I got a bit emotional in the book when she reached the final day of running as it touched me so much.

Barefoot Britain (Audiobook): A Running Adventure Like No Other Barefoot Britain (Audiobook): A Running Adventure Like No Other

Why take the shortest, most direct route through life, when you could choose the wiggliest, most mountainous one possible? McNuff is an established motivational and keynote speaker. Her talks focus on the topics of resilience, growth mindset, dealing with change and overcoming a fear of failure. Her TEDx talk, ‘But what if I Fail?’ is a popular example of her talk. If you couldn’t have guessed from the hair, bare feet and the scale and obscurity of her challenge, Anna McNuff is an extremely energetic human with a matching personality. With only a farm dog, Holly, labelled “a domesticated wolf” by her former owners, to keep her company, Trina unravels under the pressure of a long-distance relationship and a dawning awareness of the environmental crisis that climate change is producing in the boreal. Anna again writes an inimitable book about an adventure that only she could have imagined, produced, participated in w many others and grown from. Her style is easily readable and intensely detailed. Her eye for landscapes and landforms translates into a fascinating tale.Like many of us, she read Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run, took in its message about the benefits of minimal running, bought a pair of Fivefingers shoes, ‘ran 10K and absolutely destroyed myself’. Getting ready to run this epic distance barefoot was a much longer process. ‘I essentially spent four and a half years transitioning down from trainers.’ The daughter of two Olympians, McNuff grew up in a family where the pursuit of physical and mental excellence was encouraged. From age 6 she played football in a boys league and later went on to play for Wimbledon Ladies FC. At aged 16 she took up rowing and went on to represent Great Britain. During her time in the Great Britain Squad, McNuff became a World Champion at the University Games in 2006, [1] and won a bronze medal at the 2007 European Championships. Due to injury she retired from rowing and embarked upon new endurance challenges as an adventurer. The moment Jamie McDonald won Pride of Britain's Fundraiser of the Year - and why Boris Johnson could join him on his next Adventureman journey Adventuremanis written by Anna McNuff’s boyfriend and tells the story of his adventure as he ran across Canada raising money for children’s hospitals after he spent a lot of his own childhood in one.

BAREFOOT BRITAIN - Anna McNuff

And with that, and a trademark McNuff hug, I retire from the group and watch the 10-strong remaining runners head further south down the map of Britain. One is running in their barefeet, all the way to London. Throughout her run, she stopped off to talk with groups of Girl Guides across the country, speaking to them about “ the joys of adventure and the great outdoors”. But you do have to take that first step out of your comfort zone. I know that if girls can take those first adventurous steps, then they'll see what they are truly capable of.” Read More Related Articles I’m actually tending more towards roads now,” she laughs. “Grass is amazing but it’s when I don’t know what the trail is going to bring it’s difficult. The worst thing is the tarmac with the chips over the top. That is brutal. But for the most part suburban and city tarmac is fine.” If I get injured or step on a broken Irn Bru bottle in the outskirts of Glasgow, then I will deal with that then.”Barefoot Britain” by Anna McNuff is one of the best outdoor adventure books as it takes readers on a journey of pushing mind and body to the limit by running 100 marathons barefoot from the Shetland Islands to London. Anna is an ambassador for UK Girl Guiding, and a central part of her mission is “to show the young women of Great Britain that there is more magic in them than they will ever know.”

Barefoot Britain: A Running Adventure Like No Other by Anna Barefoot Britain: A Running Adventure Like No Other by Anna

Another thing that came out of it is that they wanted to take part in adventure and not feel like gender was a barrier at all. So everything I’m doing feeds into that – telling them that they don’t have to think twice about it. If they want to go on an adventure, hopefully they’ll think ‘oh yeah there was that crazy girl with pink hair and barefeet that did an adventure’. A fiction book but a great adventure nonetheless this book set in Alaksa, will have you mesmerised by both the beauty and the harshness of an Alaskan winter. If you’ve ever felt like you’re the only one in your group of friends who is not buying a house, married or pregnant, then this book’s for you. She started working in marketing and, conditioned by structured training programmes and organised competition, did an Ironman, some ultra runs and the Swedish swimrun race Ötillö. ‘But I realised what I really wanted to do was just GO,’ she says. In 2013 she cycled across every state in the US and one Canadian province – 11,000 miles over seven months. That’s why I’ve run the length of the UK in my bare feet – to show girls and young women that taking risks and doing things that scare them, big or small, can be incredible.I have enjoyed all of Anna's books but this one holds a special place for me as I was one of those 2500 runners who joined her for a stage on her journey running barefoot Britain. As a teenager, Jan sets her sights on the improbable dream of climbing mountains. By age twenty, she’s a climber with a magnetic attraction to misadventures and the wrong men. I listened to a podcast interview with Diana Nyad and her attempts to swim across from Cuba to Florida. This is a book I could not put down – every day was different and Anna carried me through every exciting mile of it. A truly wonderful book that should inspire us all – young and old! ” I’ve read all of Anna’s book but I have a tile and it’s that I have to be travelling. It’s a self imposed rule but it feels McNuffy so I go with it. Because of said rule this has been patiently waiting for me to get on a train and March 2023 I finally went on many trains, a plane and quite a few tube/metros and went in headfirst.

Barefoot Britain (Paperback): A Running - McNuff Books

Through catastrophic crashes and wild crosswinds, they endure a determined saddle sore called Sally and ascend over 100,000 meters through the Andes – equivalent to 11 times the height of Everest. The book takes a look at the mysterious Tarahumara tribe who live in the Mexican canyons. They’re reputed to be the best distance runners in the world; in 1993, one of them, aged 57, came first in a prestigious 100-mile race wearing a toga and sandals!Anna McNuff had never run a mile without shoes on before. And yet, one British summer, she set off to run a (very) wiggly route from the Shetland Islands to London - on a mission to cover the distance of 100 marathons... in bare feet. In 2013 McNuff completed a 7-month, 11,000 mile cycle through North America. She travelled through every state of America, solo and unsupported. While I’ve yet to read it, My Midsummer Morning, where Alastair recreated the journey of Laurie Lee mentioned above, is sure to be another great read. One I’m adding to my list while we’re at home! Final thoughts on the best outdoor books