Prepared to be Inspired by Another Run Across America

Bruce Tulloh was European 5000m Champion in 1962 and completed his TransCon 7 years later in 1969. Back then his time of 64 days was the fastest time ever achieved. For the magnitude of this range of distances he was surely one of the most impressive athletes to ever lace up a pair of running shoes. The taking on of Tulloh's (now purely English) record by an ex rugby player with absolutely no Power of 10 presence (and very modest DUV history) is intriguing to say the least.

With that in mind it would certainly be very helpful for Goodge to discuss and share in some detail his physical / athletic approach to the considerable challenges of a run of this epic proportion. Such things as how his fatigue levels are building up over, say, the initial fortnight (although he always seems very energised in front of a camera) and his method of coping with 12 hour running days would be fascinating to hear.

I only watched the first few minutes. These highly edited "documentaries" are a bit annoying in my opinion.

50 miles per day is a quit achievable goal for a solid ultrarunner. And quite some have done that in that fashion. Let's also not forget that the temperatures in the Mojave Desert are very pleasant right now. Pretty much perfect running conditions for this kind of adventure.

Let see how long that gentleman can keep that up. I also hope that his "recording" of this "record" will improve. Having a tracker in the car is unacceptable. With 4 guys supporting, I can see another "Robert Young" in the making when things go sideways in a few days.

Runs across America are not impressive. There are plenty of supplies around, places to go if you're in trouble, roads everywhere, easy to cross the terrain. Few deadly wild animals to interfere.

Someone do a "run through the jungle" in Africa, South America or Southeast Asia. That would be interesting.

Time to step up Bad Wigins.

I will go if I get plenty of funding and nobody cares if I spend it all as intended. I will also raise awareness for some important cause if you like.

It may be worth keeping a closer eye on his heart rate. It's completely nonsensical. It sky-rockets to 153bpm when he bashes out a 6:15k, then he goes up to a normal 8 minute k, then he drops down to almost unheard of low 5 ks, which you rarely if ever see in the multi-day - that's 8 minute miling. But his heart-rate at an incredibly low 115.

Why is his heart-rate in the 150s for a 6.15k, but only 115 for a 5.15k?

4
1.00 km
6:21
6:21 /km
6:13 /km
136 bpm
5
1.00 km
6:33
6:33 /km
6:25 /km
143 bpm
6
1.00 km
6:17
6:17 /km
6:08 /km
151 bpm
7
1.00 km
6:20
6:20 /km
6:12 /km
153 bpm
8
1.00 km
6:15
6:15 /km
6:10 /km
152 bpm
9
1.00 km
6:14
6:14 /km
6:08 /km
128 bpm
10
1.00 km
7:00
7:00 /km
6:56 /km
119 bpm
11
1.00 km
5:54
5:54 /km
5:50 /km
120 bpm
12
1.00 km
8:06
8:06 /km
8:13 /km
104 bpm
13
1.00 km
5:21
5:21 /km
5:28 /km
118 bpm
14
1.00 km
5:20
5:20 /km
5:30 /km
117 bpm
15
1.00 km
5:18
5:18 /km
5:36 /km
115 bpm
16
1.00 km
5:21
5:21 /km
5:30 /km
116 bpm
17
1.00 km
5:20
5:20 /km
5:28 /km
116 bpm
18
1.00 km
5:52
5:52 /km
6:02 /km
115 bpm

And analysis of the following day is even more bizarre.

For Kms 2-13 he averages 8:06 per K, with an average heart-rate of 134bpm.

For Kms 21-32 he averages 6:45 per K, with an average heart-rate of 106bpm

Thanks for the observations.

It's easy to imagine than any of the 4 guys could run a part. Not that I expect that right now already. But you never now.

Looking at his heart rate stuff...it's very strange. Doesn't get any higher when he's running up a mountain versus on the flat...going at the same speed. Peculiar. Very peculiar indeed. I also see he's doing a GoFundMe for the charity, rather than a direct link that ensures the money goes to the cause and his website seems to be mostly pushing supplements where 10% goes to charity. Does he ever talk about the charity apart from saying f*** off to cancer? Not cool. Needs more transparency on the charity side at the very least. Hopefully it's all very innocent but someone needs to tell the dude that it doesn't look classy.

In one of his last runs I noticed that his heart rate is significantly different in the first third. I am not a heart expert but that scream: There was another person running.

There are not any steep hills on that route (which I ran as well), so that can't be a reason for heart rate changes.

Yep, the heart stats blow this whole thing out the water. This written to a Facebook group I run on Jogle:

Hi all, here's the latest heart-rate for William Goodge's Transcon. I am NOT crying foul, but I AM saying that nothing like this has ever remotely occurred in the history of endurance running. Ie: not working hard & walking leads to a holding or even increase of pace. And if such numbers have ever occurred before, let's see them.

Alarm bells rang for this venture due to an unknown runner going after one of the great British legends, and painting all over his vehicles and social media his precise intentions.
Further alarm bells rung when he surrounded himself with competent runners, puts the tracker in the van, not on himself, admits to switching the Strava with Balenger on day 5, and is clearly an salesman for up to 8 different brands, and is trying to raise HALF A MILLION quid, although those funds are currently going to Go Fund Me, not the cancer charities.

You'll see by these numbers that day 1 and 2 paint the perfect picture of someone having to work terribly hard, and getting into deep water. Day 3's numbers are a bit strange and Day 4 are total devoid of all logic. And this pattern has then held throughout. It doesn't matter how much he walks or chills, the pace either remains untouched or improved.

In quick summary though his numbers look like this. Working Ks [125+bpm] v Non-working Ks.

Day Working Not-working

1 64 16

2 40 40

3 17 63

4 4 76

6 6 74

7 10 70

8 15 65

9 0 80

So many things to note here, but two crucial ones are that on Day 4 his pace for the day dropped from 7:47 to 7:08 and he only had to work for four of the 80 Ks.

And the last day, yesterday, his pace was a very reasonable 7:49 [the same as days 2 and 3 and much better than the previous two days], and he did not have to work for a single K.

I remember following those 2 guys who did the run back in 2003. I think they were a year ahead of me, I must have raced them in college, and I remember that I wanted to quit my job and do the same thing. Now at 44 I would still like to do it. Not for any prize or recognition, but simply for the adventure.

Keeping the tracker in the van was the first and final straw. The heart rate is even more damming but It shouldn't even require that.

Its 2023, its easy to wear a watch and semi-livestream location data. If you wanted to prove legitimacy in 2023, you would have an insane amount of data.

I'm not interested in doing something like that, but I'd image I'd buy a second watch and do 24/7 HR, respiration tracking. Every step would be tracked which would give a stride length calculation that would be pretty hard to fake, unless you found a similar runner, with a similar stride length through all speeds, a similar resting, recovery and workout HR, etc.

There are PCT / AT records from a decade ago which will have better supporting evidence than this. And its stupid, people would likely still donate if you decided to do a 4 man relay across the US. (It might even make for better video content showing the dynamics of helping each other through the days)

I just want to call out the Brojos again. They claim to be the voice of the fans, and then shy away from the most popular thread in years on their website.

In another time they'd be the ones offering up cash to get someone to go check this out.

Oh boy, here we go again. Stay on him! Already strange data popping.....I'm not sure this dude knows that LetsRun exits and the work here that has preceded his attempt and others...