More than 200 Mainers ran the Boston Marathon on Monday. Completing a marathon is a personal achievement by any standard, but 65-year-old Steve Cartwright of Tenants Harbor is one of the few runners who ran all 26.2 miles barefoot. And, when it comes to hot asphalt and loose gravel, that’s no easy feat.
Some runners have been doing it for decades. The idea is that running barefoot or with minimalist shoes is better because it’s less weight to pick up. Like Cartwright, proponents say it improves the mechanics of the way their feet strike the ground.
Cartwright, who finished the race in 4:03:37, didn’t start running marathons until he was in his 50s.
“When I wear shoes, when I get tired, I tend to be a heavy heel striker and sort of sound like an elephant coming down the road,” he says, “and when I run barefoot I run on the balls of my feet and just run more lightly.”
Other than rough pavement, Cartwright says he’s able to take running barefoot in stride. He jokes that the warm sun on the blacktop makes him pick up his pace. But he admits he probably won’t be running any marathons in August.
The inspiration to go shoeless came from watching other runners do it. And Cartwright says once he tried it he became a convert, a true “sole man.”
“You wouldn’t play guitar with gloves on. You want your hands bare so you can feel things. And I have to admit that I like the attention. People yell, ‘Hey, barefooter! Wow, look — he doesn’t have any shoes!’ It’s kind of a cool thing,” he says.
Of all the statistics it keeps, the Boston Athletic Association doesn’t keep track of the number of barefoot Boston marathoners. But in 2015 a running shoe website did a survey of the most popular footwear brands in the race and didn’t count any barefoot runners among the first 15,000 to cross the 11 mile mark.
Contrary to popular belief, Cartwright says the soles of his feet aren’t like leather. They’re a little tender today. But he says the experience was worth it.
“Volunteers at the race were the warmest, kindest people. And the spectators were joyful and funny and held up encouraging signs and cheered and put out their hands and so forth,” he says.
“The marathon, for me, has life lessons of achieving something you want to achieve and doing it by yourself but with the support of so many people.”
