2 min readWhile spring may just be starting to bloom and the clothing layers are being shed, one British man is still holding tight to his ski boots—in fact, he’s even set to run a half marathon in them.
Tom Bracey, of Birmingham, England, is set to take part in the Great Birmingham Run on May 7 and is hoping to make history along the way by getting his feat of running a half marathon while wearing ski boots recognized by Guinness World Records.
The 23-year-old will hope to be the first man to do so after Frenchwoman Emilie Cruz successfully accomplished it at the Marathon de Genève in 2019. She finished the race with a time of 3 hours, 7 minutes, and 35 seconds.
"The only half marathon world record for running in ski boots is currently only held in the female category, so I applied to Guinness World Records for the male category," Bracey told the BBC.
An avid runner, Bracey ran in the 2019 London Marathon and has run a few races at the half distance as well, albeit all run in more traditional shoes. To help get him up to speed for such a different race, Bracey has been training for the event by running the 5K distance with the boots on around Birmingham and will follow that up with a 10K wearing a newer, more lightweight pair.
“My new boots are slightly more lightweight, but they are still very rigid. They don't have any of the flexibility of trainers, so you get less muscle stretch, and it really punishes your calves,” he said. Sounds fun.
While many new ski boots come equipped with a “walk mode” that loosens the cuffs inside to allow for more foot and ankle room to move around in, they are still not designed for running purposes—but this hasn’t stopped running in ski boots from becoming a full-on trend in recent years.
Besting both Bracey and Cruz is Dr. Paul Harnett, who completed a Guinness record when he ran the 2019 London Marathon in a pair of ski boots with a time of 5 hours, 30 minutes. Harnett, an orthopedic surgeon, ran with the ski boots on to raise awareness for the British Paralympic Association. That record would only stand until 2021 when Paul Bennett ran the London Marathon seven seconds faster.
At this rate, Bracey, who will be running for climate change charity Protect Our Winters UK, may just want to hold off long enough for a pair of ski boots with a “run mode” to be made.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
