Barefoot clown triumphant at Fox Valley Marathon

A barefoot clown was fastest to the finish at the 2011 Advocate Dreyer Fox Valley Marathon.

Tim Cunningham's toes quickly lost feeling on a cool, rainy Sunday morning, but he was not numb to his triumph or the bizarre fashion in which it came about.

"Maybe it's a new style of clowning," Cunningham said. "It evokes laughter. Kids freakin' love it."

Given the quirky circumstances, Sunday's second annual running of the Fox Valley Marathon had race officials scrambling to verify Cunningham's winning time of 2:56.24. Preliminary race results excluded Cunningham who, lacking shoes, donned an ankle bracelet with a timing device rather than the shoe clip that most runners wore.

Video footage eventually confirmed Cunningham's victorious finish, nudging Rick Hornstrom, of St. Charles, to second place with a time of 2:58.25.

Cunningham had a heartfelt reason for putting his feet through 26.2 miles of unprotected toil. The 33-year-old from Charlottesville, Va., is president of Clowns Without Borders, a non-profit group that sends clowns to refugee camps and other "zones of crisis" around the world, providing a temporary release for children whose lives are shrouded in tension.

"The majority of kids we work with don't have shoes, never will have shoes," Cunningham said. "So it's a way to honor them and also raise money for the organization. After this marathon, we've raised enough to send a group of clowns to Haiti for 10 days."

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