Official William Goodge TransAus World Record Thread, Perth to Sydney, 35 days, 68.5 miles a day

Spot on. Some influencers immediately block anyone critical. But the most successful ones often embrace the controversy and stoke the flames. The engagement gets the algorithms working in their favour, leading to more views, likes and therefore more sponsorship.

As I said on the Strava thread, a better approach-- if he were somehow actually on the level-- would be to publicly invite Will C to come to AUS, expenses paid, to enjoy full access to everything he's doing for as long as Will C would like! This would turn Will C, his former principal sceptic, into his biggest supporter and promoter. If I'm him, and I'm legit, I'm asking someone like Will C to tell me exactly what he wants, so that I can give it to him, rub his nose in the whole business, and crow about it to my now vastly expanded legion of fans and supporters!

Imagine, for example, if Shelby H. had some way of unquestionably proving she's never doped. You don't think she, or anyone else in a similar situation, would use it without hesitation?

But why do I think Goodge is NEVER going to do this?

He can't do that because he actually is cheating.

Detente doesn't pay the bills. Conflict does in the runfluencer world.

thetimes.com

Briton running across Australia fights pain, flies and a ‘cheating’ row

James Salmon, Perth

Will Goodge is attempting to set a record by jogging 2,400 miles from Perth to Sydney in 35 days, but other runners claim he may have used back-ups

Link:www.thetimes.com/world/australasia/art...

Article in the Sunday Times today, but it's behind a pay wall. Subscribers can feel free to copy and paste here.

Briton running across Australia fights pain, flies and a ‘cheating’ row
Will Goodge is attempting to set a record by jogging 2,400 miles from Perth to Sydney in 35 days, but other runners claim he may have used back-ups
James Salmon, Perth
Saturday April 26 2025, 6.00pm BST, The Sunday Times
Will Goodge set off from Cottesloe Beach on April 15
The
Eyre Highway stretches more than 1,000 miles across the Nullarbor
Plain, from Western Australia to the South Australian border.
It
includes the continent’s longest straight stretch of road, a relentless
strip of tarmac through the outback marked by little more than a few
roadhouses and known as the “90-mile Straight”.
Last
week it included one other curiosity: Will Goodge, a British fitness
model, social media influencer and ultra-endurance athlete who is
attempting to set a new world record by running from Perth to Sydney in
just 35 days.
Having
run from John o’ Groats to Land’s End and become the fastest Englishman
to cross the US on foot, the 30-year-old from Bedfordshire was fighting
a mental battle as well as a physical one.
Goodge says he runs for up to 15 hours a day
WILLIAM GOODGE
“Boredom
is a real factor because it’s all quite similar out here,” he said from
his campsite on the Nullarbor after completing his tenth consecutive
day of slow-jogging the equivalent of more than two and half marathons.
“It almost feels like you’re on a treadmill in the same spot. Five
minutes feels like 50.” Also, he added, “the flies are horrendous”.
Goodge
is woken up at 4am every morning by his father, Graham, with a bowl of
cereal and coffee. After that he will stop every seven miles to
replenish some of the 8,000 to 10,000 calories he burns while spending
up to 15 hours a day on the road.
“The
first nine days were pretty horrendous,” he said. “The team would push
me into my RV. I’d have a shower, I’d start shivering and compulsively
shaking, and then they’d put me in bed.
“I have deep pain within my bones, hip flexors and everything. I’ve had night terrors, so I haven’t slept very well.”
He
said he hoped the worst was over, having finally felt strong enough to
enjoy his first evening meal with the four members of his support crew,
including his father.
Apart
from the flies, Goodge has to tolerate another irritant: he has spent
the past two years denying claims from a small minority in the niche
ultra-endurance running community that he is a cheat.
The
record attempt began before dawn on April 15 at Cottesloe Beach in
Perth, surrounded by dozens of Lycra-clad admirers, eager to join Goodge
for an early morning jog.
His
destination of Bondi Beach in Sydney lay 2,400 miles away across
Australia and his intention was to shave four days off the time of 39
days, eight hours and one minute set by Australian Chris Turnbull in
2023.
Before
leaving, Goodge laid two white tulips in the Indian Ocean — a tribute to
his mother, Amanda, who died of cancer in 2018 at the age of 53, and
his grandfather Mick, who died in November.
It
was Amanda’s death that inspired the then 23-year-old semi-professional
rugby player and part-time model from the town of Ampthill to start
running for cancer charities including Macmillan Cancer Support.
At
6ft 2in and about 90kg (14st 2lb), Goodge still does not look like most
ultra-endurance athletes but his inspiring back story, impressive feats
and chiselled good looks have helped him amass more than 218,000
followers on Instagram and almost 17,000 subscribers to his YouTube
channel.
Sponsorships
from wellness brands, sports drinks and fitness clothing companies
enabled Goodge to turn his new hobby into a career.
They also put a target on his back.
Goodge running through Missouri on a previous endurance feat
WILLIAM GOODGE
Will
Cockerell, a veteran long-distance runner and long-serving secretary of
the Belgrave Harriers athletics club, in southwest London, has been the
most vocal critic.
From
his home in Wimbledon, Cockerell, 51, has been trawling through
Goodge’s heart-rate data on the exercise tracking social network Strava and comparing it with the data of top ultra-marathon runners in recent years.
He is convinced Goodge’s feats are too good to be true.
Cockerell
has accused Goodge of “watch muling”, a form of cheating whereby a
wrist-based fitness device is shared so that back-up runners can log
miles while the lead athlete rests.
These accusations have been vehemently denied by Goodge and his team.
On
Thursday evening, after racking up his best day on the road so far,
covering more than 71 miles in just under 13 hours, Goodge posted a
message to the 87,000 people following his journey on Strava: “What the
f*** do you think about that huh.”
Cockerell’s
claims rest on what he says is Goodge’s “suspiciously low” heart rate
during his runs, combined with Goodge’s relatively poor showing in
official ultra-marathons — including the Marathon des Sables across the
Moroccan desert, against men whose records he is trying to beat.
“A
world record could be getting smashed by this practice, which would be
quite appalling,” Cockerell said. “This is all about marketing and
selling. It’s not real sport this, it’s not athletics.”
Goodge after his 3,076-mile run from Los Angeles to New York
WILLIAM GOODGE
In 2023, Cockerell flew out to Oklahoma to confront Goodge and his team on his 3,076-mile run from Los Angeles to New York.
The encounter was captured in an episode on Goodge’s YouTube channel.
Cockerell
flew home without any evidence to back up his accusations, having
failed to catch members of Goodge’s team running in his place.
But
other ultra-endurance runners have also raised concerns. Rob Pope, a
Briton who has run across the US five times for charity, said: “I want
this to be genuine. If it is, then it’s great. But his heart rate just
does not make sense. I did a run last night at his pace and couldn’t
keep my heart rate below 120.
I’m a 2 hours 27 minutes marathon runner, which is half an hour quicker than Will Goodge.’
Cockerell,
who has been bombarded with abuse online by Goodge’s supporters,
insists he is not motivated by jealousy. He said that he has no problem
with other social media influencers who have taken on epic running
challenges, including the former Made in Chelsea stars Jamie Laing and Spencer Matthews, raising large sums for charity in the process.
Their data, says Cockerell, stacks up.
“Yes,
Goodge is a good-looking guy, and he’s making a lot of money. But what
appalls me is he is taking a lot of money away from the more deserving
international athletes out there,” said Cockerell.
Goodge said the cheating allegations are both categorically false and deeply hurtful.
“I’m
extremely fit and my heart rate’s low, and I’m also running at very low
speeds all day, so it’s not really going to get elevated,” said Goodge.
In addition to
wearing both a fitness watch and a separate GPS tracking device and
sharing his data publicly, Goodge is also required by Guinness World
Records to collect signatures from witnesses along the way. His support
crew have also been given fitness tracking devices.
“I take every single step, and I’ll stand by that until the day I die,” he said.

Goodge just did a live video broadcast on Instagram. Like in the US, he says people are welcome to join for a run, but can't just turn up at any time as it can disrupt things.

He doesn't just look remarkably fresh. He sounds remarkably fresh too.

And he also says that he got hardly any sleep for the first 9 nights. Why the hell did he ditch Nucalm if it was so good!?

That's easy to say while you are running throw one of the most remote stretches of paved road in the world.
I hope that some Australian runners will check on him once he gets into civilization again.

Hilarious, every time I am out running, if someone watches me go past I feel all disrupted. Gives off "We learned from the Rob Young situation" vibes.

Everyone should prepare themselves for the negative split.

It’s really interesting to compare this effort to what Nedd Brockmann did in his 1000 mile challenge. Although Nedd did average 15 miles per day more than Goodge, anyone who watched the livestream saw how fast Nedd’s body deteriorated. The dude was held together by bandages and duct tape after only a few days and was diminished to a really bad janky looking shuffle. Meanwhile Goodge just looks like he’s out for a daily run with his buds. No injuries, his feet look fine etc. The differences between the two are striking.

Two weeks of 100+ kms days and he is maintaining his considerable muscle mass, too. No catabolisis in evidence at all. He must be hitting the dumbbells pretty hard every couple of days, on top of the running!

When is someone gonna follow this guy with a drone for a day

And Nedd just ran a 2:30 in London…

Once he makes it out of the Nullarbor Desert, there will be people following him.

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as soon as there's a commercially available drone with a battery life of 24 hours

Ive watched a few of his clips over the last few days on Instagram and I'm SHOCKED at how fresh and full of energy he is every day before, during and after his runs.

I dont get it. I'm curious, I have no clue if or how hes cheating, but Ive seen lots of people doing multi day ultras and Ive never seen anyone look this fresh and unbroken doing this kind of running in hot conditions.

Drones are very disruptive and will make his hr race.

Nothing to see there.

It's a good comparison. Goodge is looking just as fresh as he did on his US run. In all the 6 and 10 day races I've done, I've never seen anyone look as fresh as Goodge.

And worth remember that while Brockmann ran his marathon PB in an actual race, Goodge also faked his marathon PB while doing a solo run in Battersea Park.