William Goodge smashes record after running across Australia in 35 days

An ultra-endurance athlete has smashed the world record for running across Australia after spending more than a month on foot.

Spurred on by his mother’s battle with cancer, and with his father by his side, William Goodge crossed the finish line in Sydney just after 4pm on Monday.

It brought an end to 35 days of pounding the pavement, striding the equivalent of two-and-a-half marathons a day.

That’s four days quicker than previous record holder, Chris Turnbull, who completed the 3,800km feat in 39 days in 2023.

The 31-year-old British athlete crossed the finish line at Bondi beach, making his massive run a new Guinness world record.

Goodge set out from Cottesloe beach in Perth on 15 April, averaging more than 100km a day at about seven-and-a-half minutes a kilometre.

“Done a run in Centennial park,” he said in a video posted to social media just moments before finishing.

“What’s up!?” he shouted to the hundreds of runners behind him who turned out to run the last five and 10km with him.

“It’s obviously been quite the journey … we start before the sun comes up and finish when the sun’s gone down,” he previously told AAP.

“I’ve seen every one of your famous animals, other than sharks and crocodiles, but unfortunately, a lot of them have been dead on the side of the road.”

After crossing the line he was handed a bunch of flowers which he placed at the shoreline in memory of his late mother, Amanda, who died from cancer in 2018.

William Goodge was joined by his father as he placed a bunch of lilies at the shoreline of Bondi beach in memory of his mother, who was the inspiration behind his world record-breaking run. Photograph: Dean Lewins/EPA

“She was the most special person in my life … she passed away seven-and-a half years ago to cancer,” he said.

Throughout the run, Goodge raised money for the Cancer Council of Australia in honour of his mother.

He said he used his grief and the strength his mother showed while fighting the disease to motivate him to do something positive instead of “waving the white flag”.

“She would be proud of everything I’ve done. She’d also be concerned,” he said with a chuckle.

The punishing run has tested Goodge.

“The first nine days trying to sort of acclimatise to what I was doing was a big challenge,” he previously said.

“I wasn’t sleeping at night and I had deep pain in my bones and things like hip flexors … and mentally I was tossing and turning throughout the night, hallucinating a little bit, which isn’t that fun.”

Goodge said he suffered multiple injuries as he crossed the country, including toenails falling off and one toe that’s “been rotting for the past probably a week”.

“Ironically, the knees have felt OK. They’ve been very solid,” he said.

Goodge, who celebrated his birthday on the Nullarbor Plain during the run, is also the fastest British athlete to run across the US.