Just a few hundred yards stood between Thomas Reuter and the summit of Mauna Kea mid-Sunday — and yet he almost didn’t make it.
His legs felt like jelly, and his body was so weak he had to crawl.
His feet were black and inflamed, and every step over jagged lava rock sent pain shooting through his heels.
“There were sections of the hike where it was tear-inducing, but the last 200 yards were the worst,” Reuter said Monday, recounting the experience to the Tribune-Herald. “The mountain was going to create one last bit of torture. It was the sharpest, most painful rocks of them all.”
While others have hiked the more than 40 miles to the top of Mauna Kea, Reuter, a 38-year-old Colorado resident, set out last week to tackle the trek as he thinks no one else has before — barefoot.
He departed Friday afternoon from Hilo’s Kaipalaoa Landing. He said he hiked, sans shoes, across Saddle Road and up the Mauna Kea Access Road. He summited just before 3 p.m. Sunday, nearly two full days later.
Reuter described the experience as tortuous and isn’t sure he’d repeat it. But ultimately he’s glad he did it. The hike was a tribute to his grandmother, a longtime Oahu resident who recently died.
“I think if my grandma could look at it, I’m sure she would look at it as being a little on the crazy side. But she would be pleased,” Reuter said. “ … It was way more challenging than I expected, and I expected it to be a big challenge. (Barefoot running) for me isn’t an exercise in pain tolerance. It’s fun and it feels good — but this did not feel good at all.”
Proponents say running barefoot or with “minimalist” footwear reduces injuries, among other things. Reuter, a longtime runner, began doing so two years ago and now trains almost entirely shoe free. Last year, he ran the Boston Marathon as well as a half-marathon in the snow — both times wearing no shoes. He also summited Colorado’s Mt. Bierstadt barefoot.
He said he keeps his feet warm using a special breathing technique called the Wim Hof Method. He said he’s only gotten four cuts in two years and can count the number of truly unfortunate encounters on one hand — among the most unfortunate being the time he once stepped into a dirty diaper.
“Barefoot running is not abuse,” Reuter said. “You get a connection with the environment around you, and you take it all in — you have to get used to the squeamish part of it and the things you step in, but it’s also a great way to introduce things from the environment into your skin.
“But you have to pay attention and be fully focused on every step. (For example) you can’t be looking around at the pretty girl in front of you with short shorts. You have to be looking at every footstep.”
Last week, Reuter was in Honolulu for his grandmother’s funeral. He initially planned to ascend Oahu’s Mt. Ka‘ala in her honor — a mere 4,000 feet. After a little more research, however, he decided to up the ante to Mauna Kea, the world’s tallest peak from base to summit.
He contacted Melissa Braswell, owner of Big Island Running Company, to see if she knew of anyone who had completed a barefoot run up Mauna Kea. Braswell told the Tribune-Herald Monday she didn’t, and the store sees plenty of “ultra runners” and athletes “doing epic things,” she said.
“We were a little surprised when he told us his plan and everything,” Braswell recalled. “But he did it.”
The challenge proved longer and more arduous than Reuter initially planned. He estimated the trek would take 20 hours — ultimately it took about 46 hours, including 24 hours of movement and about four hours of napping.
Walking over lava rock is akin to walking on glass, Reuter said, and he encountered more jagged and unpaved road than anticipated. About 8 miles outside Hilo, he hit a grueling 4-mile gravel portion of Saddle Road, where road work is being done, and contemplated turning around.
But the last stretch was most agonizing — the final 300 yards took about 45 minutes alone, he said. When he finally reached the top, he placed a flower lei for his grandmother.
“I just felt relief that it was over,” Reuter said. “I wasn’t like overjoyed, and I didn’t jump up and raise my hands in victory. It was just like this calm — oh, yeah, I’m never doing that again. It was worth it on one level, but I don’t run barefoot because it’s torture — I do it because it’s enjoyable and the vast majority of this was self-abuse. I’m glad I did it, but I’ll never do it again.
“It was painful enough. I would have quit if I wasn’t doing it for this stated mission. And I’ve never not finished a race in my life. But it was this tribute for a higher cause, and so there was no way I could have failed.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
