Birmingham man to attempt half marathon in ski boots

Tom Bracey has combined his love of running and skiing

A man will combine his love of skiing and running when he attempts a half-marathon in ski boots.

Tom Bracey is taking part in the AJ Bell Great Birmingham Run on 7 May and hopes his challenge will make it into the Guinness World Records.

The 23-year-old aims to be the first man to do it, as the last person to run a half marathon in ski boots was a French woman.

He has run a marathon before and said he was "massively into skiing".

"The only half marathon world record for running in ski boots is currently only held in the female category so I applied to Guinness World Records for the male category," Mr Bracey said.

The fastest half marathon wearing ski boots is three hours, seven minutes and 35 seconds, and was achieved by Emilie Cruz from France.

Mr Bracey has practised a 5k in his boots

The keen sportsman has run a 5k in ski boots around the city centre and will next attempt a 10k in his new ones.

"My new boots are slightly more lightweight but they are still very rigid. They don't have any of the flexibility of trainers, so you get less muscle stretch and it really punishes your calves," he said.

Mr Bracey will be running for Protect our Winters UK (POW), which campaigns for solutions to climate change.