On a list of people doing dumb things simply to prove they can, we submit Keith Levasseur, who this weekend broke the Guinness world record for fastest marathon run in flip-flops when he finished Saturday’s Baltimore race in an impressive-in-normal-shoes time of 2 hours, 46 minutes.
“I knew it was all about maintaining a very efficient and balanced stride,” Levasseur told RunnersWorld.com. “There were times when my feet and ankles would get tired from maintaining a more rigid stride than I might otherwise have and I would start landing more on the outside of the my foot and cause my heel to slip off the sandal…they never fell off.”
Levasseur, who said he was called “crazy” throughout the day but didn’t mention how the repetitive sound the shoe is named for numbed his mind to pain and emotion, only complained that the tight straps of the sandals essentially rubbed the skin way off the top of his foot and that his ankles, quadriceps, and balls of his feet were more sore than normal because of his altered running style.
We’re not suggesting this become an Olympic sport and our lawyers are specifically suggesting you don’t try this at home, but the feat is admittedly as remarkable as it is silly, especially given a terrain that included cobble stones and the fact he ran upwards of 14 miles in the shoes to prepare for the race.
So would he ever do it again? “My answer has been a resounding ‘no,’” Levasseur admitted. “If someone breaks the record, I will simply congratulate them.” Okay, so maybe not so dumb after all.
