A 37-year-old Dutch army veteran by the name of Anton Nootenboom just set a new world record after walking barefoot from Los Angeles to New York City in the span of 260 days, a journey that he completed this past weekend a day ahead of the NYC Marathon.
Anton Nootenboom goes by ‘the barefoot dutchman’ on social media and he embarked on this record-setting walk in order to raise awareness and money for men’s mental health which has historically received disproportionately less coverage and emphasis than mental health for women. During his 3,100 mile walk, he raised over $92,000 and saved 3,698 lives according to the count on his website, bravementalwalk.com.
As part of the world record attempt, he had to make the entire 3,100 mile trip completely barefoot.This meant he wasn’t allowed to wrap his toes in bandaids if (when) they got tore up. He had to remain 100% barefoot.
Walking Barefoot For Mental Health And A World Record
According to the New …