Would You Run a Marathon In Flip Flops?

Some headlines are fun, some headlines are disturbing, some headlines are fascinating and some just cause you to scratch your head. This was a head scratcher!

This past Saturday, a runner named Keith Levasseur, completed the Baltimore marathon in a record-setting time of two hours and 46 minutes.  Where did the record come in?  He was wearing flip-flops!

Levasseur said that when the course was hilly it was hard to keep the flip-flops on his feet and his feet seemed to hurt especially on the outside of his feet. He figured that this was because of the way he had to run and the lack of cushioning in the flip-flops

This runner’s feet may be perfect. Maybe he has the perfect biomechanics and doesn’t need shoes at all. Maybe the flip-flops provided just enough cushioning so he didn’t have any major problems. But why did he do this?

Doing something new that pushes the frontiers of our knowledge or serves humanity seems to make sense. And I guess oddball stunts serve to amuse us so maybe there is a purpose after all.  Since this is a category that already exists in the Guiness Book of World Records, we can assume that it will happen again.  But reportedly, not by Keith Lavasseur–“Many friends have asked if I’ll do it again and my answer has been a resounding ‘no,’” Levasseur has said.