Record-breaking British ultrarunner eyes marathon challenge after epic run across Australia

Will Goodge is still waiting for the Guinness Book of Records to verify his headline-grabbing run across the width of Australia.

But the 31-year-old, who claims he completed his epic adventure in a new world record of just over 34 days, is already eyeing up a new challenge next year.

Goodge, from Bedfordshire, wants to run all seven major marathons – Tokyo, Boston, London, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago, and New York – in the same year. And he wants to run them all in under three hours.

“Explore the world”

Speaking to RUN247, Goodge, who enjoyed a change of pace in Monaco last month, said: “Australia was a crazy experience and I always give myself space after these big ones to decompress.

“But I’m always looking for the next thing, and next year I have a goal I’d like to tick off – doing all the world’s major marathons. And doing them all in sub three hours would be quite cool.

“I have a big desire to explore the world this way. Next year will probably be a down year but I already have a bunch of ideas. I want to look at doing my first IRONMAN as well.”

Goodge started running marathons after his mother, Amanda, died from cancer in 2018, and raised over $17,000 (USD) for the Cancer Council of Australia, Macmillan Cancer Support and The American Cancer Society on his epic run Down Under.

He ran almost 4,000km from Perth to Sydney, and looks to have smashed Chris Turnbull’s certified mark of 39 days which the Aussie set in 2023.

Critics have questioned his data but Goodge, who also claims the record for the fastest Brit ever to run across the USA, from Los Angeles to New York in 55 days, stands by every step and used three different trackers – Garmin, Strava and Whoop.

“Stubbornness for suffering”

One thing is for sure, Goodge has helped bring ultra-running into the public eye – and he says the sport is changing.

He told RUN247: “Ultra-running is just becoming more well known and popular. At first it was always an older generation. My first race there weren’t many young people there. Now it’s different.

“But to be good at this you have to have been through hard stuff. You have a stubbornness to your own suffering. It helps with doing long mundane things that hurt. Can I win some of these bigger races? Perhaps.”

Don’t be surprised then if you see Goodge on the racing circuit some time soon. But it might be a very different version of himself that next laces up.

“Not boxes I fit into”

That’s because Goodge, who used be a male model and carries a lot of muscle, dropped around 11kg on his run across Australia – and has decided that his starting weight of 92.7kg was much too high, contributing to a gruelling first nine days when he often felt so much pain he couldn’t sleep.

In a recent Instagram post he said: “Once I get over this thing… which right now feels like a very long time off… I think I’ll find a lot more success if I stick to the low 80s.

“It’s still heavy for your ‘typical runner’, but I think we’ve all learned that normal or typical are not boxes I fit into.

“Something to lose”

“My thoughts about weight and especially starting weight have changed. Yes I’m heavy AF for an ultra runner and I usually pack on a few extra kgs before starting so I have ‘something to lose’.

“I’m opposed to this method now as either way in the first week I lost 4kgs in mainly water weight and I naturally have quite a low body fat % so the extra weight is just more hard work.

“The first nine days of torture could be partly down to the extra effort of carrying all that extra mass and when I do get below 85 I feel stronger.”