Savannah Wild ran the last of fifty kilometres shortly after one o'clock on Victoria Day, her feet bare on the track, the clock reading five hours and eight minutes. The figure meant a Guinness World Record for the fastest 50km barefoot run by a woman. The previous mark had stood near seven hours. She beat it by the better part of two.
The attempt began at eight in the morning at the Greater Vernon Athletics Park. Wild, a Kelowna-based ultra-endurance athlete and coach, set out to break the record for the fastest 50 kilometre barefoot run on Monday, May 18. The distance had to be covered with no footwear at any point. Ahead of the run she named the terms plainly: "The record is for the Fastest 50km Barefoot (Female). I'll need to run sub-seven hours to claim it."
The run
Fifty kilometres on unprotected soles is an exercise in restraint before speed. The skin, not the lungs, tends to end these attempts. The organisers had expected the effort to wrap up around 1:30 to 2 p.m. , a window that allowed for the slower pace bare feet usually demand. Wild ran faster than that. She held a rhythm that no barefoot woman had held over the distance, and she crossed the line inside her own margin with time to spare. The community was invited to watch her complete the 50km, and they saw the record fall.
What made the pace remarkable was not only the surface but the body carrying it. Two years earlier that body had been broken.
The road back
Less than two years before the record, Wild was hit by an F-150, broke her neck, and was told her athletic career was over. The recovery that followed was one her medical team did not anticipate. She answered the prognosis in her own way. "I was told athletics was off the table," she said. "I've always liked proving people wrong. The barefoot World Record attempt is my answer to that."
The record did not arrive from nowhere. Wild is a multi-discipline athlete with a long back catalogue of endurance work. She has competed at the 70.3 World Championships and carries a background of ultra endeavours, including a 25-hour continuous run and, most recently, a 300km ultra-triathlon. She returned to competition within months of the crash and founded Sav Athletics, a coaching practice focused on athletic development and mindset. The barefoot run sits at the end of that line, the point where recovery turned into record.
She started again from a hospital bed. She finished barefoot, first in the world, two hours clear.
