William Goodge is an ultra-endurance athlete who has raced across the Sahara, completed 48 marathons in 30 days and ran 3,175-mile from Los Angeles to New York.
But what is the story behind Goodge?
Who is William Goodge?
William Goodge was born in 1994 and grew up in Ampthill, Bedfordshire.
Up until the age of 22, Goodge played semi-professional rugby for championship team Ampthill RUFC.
He said: “I hit puberty and from 15 onwards I started going to the gym.
“Once I had that controllable asset in my life, what I lacked in skill I made up for in work ethic.
READ MORE ON THE 24/7 PROJECT
“It was probably the first time I exercised mental toughness: I knew that if I had a physical presence and was aggressive in what I could do on the pitch, I could be fast, big and strong even if I lacked the skill and natural ability other people had.
“My success at rugby stemmed from hard work rather than talent or ability.”
Goodge first fell in love with running while on a trip to LA. He woke up at 4 am, jet lagged, and decided to go for a jog down the beach while the sun was rising.
He ran 14K.
“I had my first runner’s high – all those endorphins were flowing from feeling good from doing a long run,” he said.
After completing his first marathon in Christmas 2018, he decided to run the full length of the UK, from John O’Groats at the top of Scotland to Land’s End at the bottom of England – 850 miles in total.
Goodge started ultra-endurance as a coping mechanism after his mother passed away with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, at the age of 53.
He said: “It broke me down physically and mentally in a way I cannot describe in words.”
In September 2021, Goodge completed 48 marathons in each of the 48 counties of England in 30 days.
His 48th was the London Marathon, where he ran a time of 3:06:00.
Goodge said: “Running helped me to deal with my demons. And I found I liked running on my own because it helped my mind to process and deal with the things I faced.”
He added: “After she passed, I had this immense sense of making it mean something more than a sad story.
“I immediately had this sense of purpose, using all the negative emotion, I had a lot of pain, a lot of anger at the world and channelling it into something positive.”
In 2022, Goodge completed the New York, Berlin and London marathons, ran the 104-mile perimeter of Lake Como in less than 24 hours and ran 242 miles with ultra-endurance athlete Robbie Balengar in Texas.
But Goodge never expected to make running a career.
“A big part of doing these challenges is raising money for charity and being able to give back,” he said
In 2023, Goodge became the fastest-ever Briton to run from LA to New York.
The mission took him 55 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes, beating the previous record posted by Bruce Tulloh who did it in 65 days back in 1969.
Goodge ran through 13 states, and clocked 3,175 miles, doing 55 miles a day.
He went through 12 pairs of running shoes and consumed 7,000 calories every day.
He said: “I had pain in my knees and glutes throughout but interestingly I only got two blisters.
“I got one on my first day of running, I remember it popping as I ran down the hill, so I never used those shoes again.”