Ski boot marathon world record for BPA fundraiser

Paul Harnett ran himself into the world record books - and raised thousands of pounds for the British Paralympic Association – at this weekend’s London Marathon.

Every marathon runner will talk about when they ‘hit the wall’ - and that happened earlier for orthopaedic surgeon Harnett than most.

However, after he crossed the line in five hours and 30 minutes, taking 22 minutes off the previous mark, all the hard work and blisters were worth it.

“It’s not easy to run in ski boots - and it started to really hurt in mile one to be honest,” he admitted.

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“My feet are in pretty bad shape right now, I think I’ve got some purple toes to show for it. Because of the day job I was sure I was getting a stress fracture but the pain seemed to come and go and I tried to put it out of my mind.

“The first half was really fun and I was going at a good pace but the second half was much tougher and I had to alternate walking and running. I’ve got some really bad blisters.

“However, our Paralympians go through crazy struggles every day and this was just a few hours of my life.”

Harnett got the inspiration from his son’s Guinness Book of World Records book last Christmas.

Their rules state standard ski boots must be used, though he did get a specialist fitting to help with the aches and rubs.

After clocking a two hour and 18 minute half-marathon in training, he had hoped to dip below five hours on the big day - but blustery conditions meant beating the record soon became the only focus.

“The crowd were amazing, they lifted your spirits all the way around,” he added.

“The amount of times I heard someone say ‘oh my God, that’s crazy’ and a give me a massive cheer and shout my name. Lots of runners gave me encouragement too, though a few said I must be mad!

“There is no marathon quite like London, the support helped me every stride of the way, there’s nothing like this race.”

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