After running 3,437.5 miles over eight months, Rae Heim, 18, was recognized as the youngest person to run solo across the U.S. She is also the first to tackle the country’s terrain barefoot.

Heim’s immediate goal was to get across the country successfully. “I wanted to see how far I could go to test my mind and body,” she told Runner’s World Newswire.

Heim, an Iowa native, started her adventure in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 1. Before she set out on her trip, though, Heim developed a bigger mission for her journey. She wanted to help kids in need of shoes.

Partnering with Soles4Souls, which distributes shoes to people in need throughout the world, Heim said she was “running barefoot so kids don’t have to.” Heim set up a website where friends, family and other followers could go to help her cause. Just two weeks before reaching the end of her journey in Huntington Beach, California, Heim surpassed her goal of raising $10,000, and in turn, 10,000 pairs of shoes for kids who need them.

During high school, Heim despised running. But after a spur-of-the-moment decision to run a seven-mile race with her mother, Lesleh, Heim fell in love with the sport.

After that, Heim began training regularly. A roadblock emerged a year and a half ago while she was preparing for the San Francisco Marathon: a broken big toe. To repair the bone, doctors had to remove the toenail, which made wearing shoes painful.

Barefoot running was a way for Heim to continue training while her toenail healed. “It just worked for me,” she said, so she kept up with it after she recovered from the injury. With a few exceptions on unforgiving terrain, most of her cross-country run was barefoot, Heim said.

Traveling alone without a support crew made financial sense for Heim, who graduated from high school in January and funded the trip herself. To ease her mother’s concerns about safety and health, Heim stayed with a host family each night. She ran pushing a baby stroller to hold all her belongings while on the road.

Her first day out, Heim ran 44 miles. After the first few days of running alone through unknown towns and scenery, Heim said she was overcome with fatigue and homesickness. “The first week was awful,” she said. Heim found herself crying on the side of a road on the fourth day, desperate for motivation to continue.

“The hardest part was definitely the first week, emotionally and physically,” she said. “It was tough due to the shock of the mileage and the shock value of the, ‘Oh my god, I can't turn back. What the heck have I gotten myself in to?’ aspect of it.”



Renewed motivation came from a phone call with her mother and sisters, who encouraged her to keep going. After the call, Heim ran 22-30 miles most days.



Heim, who had never been east before the run, said she wanted to do a little sightseeing, so she ran down the East Coast visiting landmarks and cities like New York City and Washington, D.C., before running across the country.

Eight months, 21 states, and many miles later, Hein finished her cross-country run on November 14.

“I miss the whole adventure part, where you don’t really know what will happen next,” she said.

Although she hasn’t planned her next adventure yet, Heim said another ultramarathon quest isn’t out of the question.

“It’s always a possibility,” she said. “I’m only 18 years old, so I still have a lot of time left.”

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