Wild world record broken by barefoot B.C. runner<\/p>\n
Published 3:30 pm Monday, May 18, 2026<\/p>\n
Fifty kilometres, barefoot, in just over five hours, and there was not even a spot of blood on her feet.<\/p>\n
All Savannah Wild walked away with was one big blister on her blackened pads.<\/p>\n
Oh, and the title of Guinness World Record holder.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old ultra athlete took the title on Victoria Day, Monday, May 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
Under sunny skies, with some wind for relief, she ran laps all day at the Greater Vernon Athletic Park.<\/p>\n
Her record to beat was seven hours, and she did it in just over five hours and eight minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got off 20 minutes early,\u201d said Wild, a Kelowna resident, who estimated she would take five-and-a-half to six hours.<\/p>\n
Sitting on the track surrounded by family and friends, Wild felt a little nauseous from the heat, but overall \u201cpretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so grateful and I\u2019m so amazed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first 10 kms \u201cfelt great,\u201d but it didn\u2019t take long for the pain to set in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think i was about 15k in and the pain was already setting in and I was like alright well let\u2019s just push \u2018er and get it over and done with.\u201d<\/p>\n
She admits a track, which has some give under it, is a lot nicer than cement.<\/p>\n
But it also has its moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cNearing the end, it did feel like glass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little four-year-old fan Lua Magee, of Lake Country, sat with Wild after the race, comparing her own pinkie toes to the runner\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feet are pretty good,\u201d Wild noted. \u201cThere\u2019s a pretty gnarly blister, but one blister is a lot less than I was expecting. I\u2019ve run in shoes and gotten a lot more than that. I actually always say, the secret to no blisters is go barefoot.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what led Wild to the record, which she saw was up for grabs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarefoot was my intro to ultra running back in 2021 so it felt like a full circle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
A momentous feat for anyone, but particularly this woman, who in 2024 was hit by a truck, broke her neck and was told her athletic career was over.<\/p>\n
So even though she spent a week sick in bed ahead of Sunday\u2019s run, she wasn\u2019t going to let this opportunity pass her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like to postpone things,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n
While she is from Kelowna, her hometown Apple Bowl is under construction, plus, overlooking Kalamalka Lake made the run a little more pleasant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so beautiful up here and I just love the scenery ,\u201d said Wild. \u201cFor a track, you get the best view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up next, Wild is taking a well-deserved rest, but will be back training for her next race in six weeks \u2013 the Canadian Death Race.<\/p>\n
A long list of evidence was collected throughout the day by family, friends and witnesses, which will be submitted to Guinness for official review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wild world record broken by barefoot B.C. runner Published 3:30 pm Monday, May 18, 2026 Fifty kilometres, barefoot,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,79004,87674],"class_list":["post-678538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-okanagan","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}