Harvard runner wins 3,000-meter race with one shoe, felt skin on foot 'peel away'

A Harvard distance runner lost a shoe but kept running and won the race. (Missouri Department of Natural Resources)

A Harvard distance runner lost one of his shoes in the first lap of the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships' 3,000-meter race Saturday, but ran the rest of it barefoot and won.

Kieran Tuntivate's left shoe came loose at around 300 meters, but he continued to race with his foot chipping against the harsh texture of an indoor track, reports said. At the end of the race, his skin was peeling off and his toes were raw, as seen in an Instagram photo he shared.

“If anyone has seen the rest of my toe pls let me know,” he wrote on the post.

GRAPHIC IMAGE WARNING

He told the Washington Post that he thought if he stopped to put his shoe back on, "the moment might get away from me."

"I probably noticed it about 2,000 meters in. I felt the skin start to peel away, and then it clumped up underneath my foot, and it felt like running on a pebble," he said. "The final lap was probably the hardest. It was a tough sprint to the finish, and the curves on the indoor track are so tight, I felt my foot slipping. I really zoned out pretty hard during that middle section between my shoe coming off and when it started to get painful."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He told the Post that his last hundred meters were "really a blur."

The next day, he ran the 5,000-meter race and won again.