Anna McNuff (born 18 October 1984) is a British endurance athlete and author known for her long, human powered adventures – most notably running the distance of 90 marathons through Great Britain in her bare feet.

Biography

The daughter of two Olympians, McNuff grew up in a family where the pursuit of physical and mental excellence was encouraged. From age 6 she played football in a boys league and later went on to play for Wimbledon Ladies FC. At aged 16 she took up rowing and went on to represent

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. During her time in the Great Britain Squad, McNuff became a World Champion at the University Games in 2006, and won a bronze medal at the 2007 European Championships. Due to injury she retired from rowing. In 2017 McNuff co-founded ‘Adventure Queens’, a not-for-profit women's adventure project to equip women with practical information, advice and tips about wild camping. Shortly after in 2017, she became the UK Ambassador for Girlguiding.

Education

Anna attended The Tiffin Girls School, before studying

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

Adventures

McNuff has completed a multitude of challenges, the smaller of which include running the length of

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

(86 miles) dressed as a Roman soldier, running the length of the

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast, also known as the Dorset and East Devon Coast, is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was ins ...

(96 miles) dressed as a Dinosaur and rollerblading 100 miles around

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. In 2013 McNuff completed a 7-month, 11,000 mile cycle through

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. She travelled through every state of America, solo and unsupported. In 2015 McNuff became the first person (male or female) to run the 1,911 mile long

Te Araroa Te Araroa (The Long Pathway) is New Zealand's long distance tramping route, stretching circa along the length of the country's two main islands from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Officially opened in 2011, it is made up of a mixture of previously m ...

, without a support crew. Running up to 32 miles a day and sleeping wild most nights, McNuff completed this challenge in 148 days, carrying everything she required with her in a 14 kg backpack. In 2016 McNuff cycled 5,500 miles through

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in 184 days as part of a two-woman team. They ascended over 100,000 metres on their journey, which is equivalent to 11 times the height of

Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its ...

Barefoot Britain

In 2019 McNuff set out to run 2,620 miles (100 marathons) through Britain in her bare feet. Starting in the

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

and ending five months later in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, she gave talks to the young women of Britain in the towns and cities she visited. She also encouraged the general public to run with her (in trainers) and was joined by over 2,500 runners during the course of the adventure. The challenge received widespread media attention and included a feature on the cover of the UK's Women's Running Magazine and an interview on BBC Breakfast with Louise Minchin and Dan Walker.

Publishing

McNuff's debut book about running the length of New Zealand called ‘The Pants of Perspective’ was published in July 2017. She has since gone on to write a book about her journey by bike through America called ’50 Shades of the USA’ (published Sept 2017). Her third book about South America, ‘Llama Drama’ was published in July 2020. Bedtime Adventure Stories for Grown Ups (Anna's Adventures) was published in May 2021. 'Barefoot Britain: A Running Adventure Like No Other' was published in December 2022. McNuff's first children's book called ‘100 Adventures to Have Before You Grow Up’ was published by Walker Books UK and released on April 2, 2020. McNuff has contributed pieces to a number of other books including: Waymaking: ''An Anthology of Women's Adventure Writing, Poetry and Art'' (Vertebrate publishing, 2018), The Kindness of Strangers: ''Stories to make your heart grow'' (Summersdale, 2017), Lonely Planet Atlas of Adventure (Lonely Planet, 2017), Adventure Cycle touring Handbook (Trailblazer, 2015). McNuff has written for a number of magazines and newspapers, most notably The Telegraph Travel section.

TV and documentary

McNuff appeared on series 8 of CBBC's Operation Ouch - sharing her ‘brilliant body’ with Dr Ronx on an episode about barefoot running. Her Barefoot Britain run was also documented via a series of popular YouTube videos in 2019.

Personal life

McNuff lives in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

with her partner Jamie McDonald, aka Adventureman.

Honours

*UK Ambassador for Girlguiding: 2017 to present

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNuff, Anna Living people 1984 births Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London British long-distance runners People educated at the Tiffin Girls' School British ultramarathon runners Ultra-distance cyclists British rowers