"Barefoot Bandito" marathon runner returns to Guam
by Dave Delgado
Guam - Eddie Vega also known as the "Barefoot Bandito" made a quick stop on island before heading to the Philippines for some charity work. Vega has etched his name in the Guinness Book of World Records for completing 101 marathons barefoot along with a couple of other records along the way.
Vega said, "I started this journey January 1, 2014 and the purpose of the journey was to create awareness for kids who have no shoes. I figured the best way to do that was to maybe set a Guinness World Record. My goal was to set 2 Guinness World Records and to complete a marathon in all 50 states at the same time within a 1 year period all running barefoot. On July 7th 2014 I achieved my first Guinness World Record of running 10 barefoot marathons in 10 consecutive days. On the same month I also set another Guinness World Record of running 50 barefoot marathons in a year. Since I had until December 31st I extended that record to 101 barefoot marathons in a year as of December 31st.
Eddie's Sole4Souls charity helps raise money for young kids who lack proper foot wear. His main purpose is to create awareness of the situation and try to help as many kids in need as possible. The organization has donated over 7,000 pairs of shoes to kids in the Philippines in 2014. He said, "To really understand someone you need to walk a mile in their shoes. So I figured that I wanted to champion the cause for these kids that are impoverished and who can't afford shoes. There are over 300 million kids in the world that can't afford shoes and lack adequate foot wear. And so since running barefoot it creates a lot of attention I wanted to create awareness and let the whole world know there are kids out there who are in need of shoes. They need protection from getting infectious diseases and harmful wounds if they did not have any protection. So that was my main goal as well as trying to collect donations so that I can use that money to fund the shipping expenses of sending the shoes to places like the Philippines who have been the beneficiaries so far of over 7,000 pairs of shoes that have been distributed in the 2014 alone."
