ULTRA RUNNERS are not the most glamorous lot. As a demographic that likes to run extremely long distances under occasionally extreme conditions for fun, they tend to look perennially unkempt, windswept and weatherworn. And, under the circumstances of their hobby, they can hardly be expected to care too much about how they look, or to uphold the fashion standards propagated by running influencers who cover far shorter distances.
Will Goodge, though, is different.
As something of a square peg in a round hole, Goodge is the opposite of the stereotypical ultra runner. A part-time model when he’s not running, he cuts a different figure, boasting the kind of toned musculature and refined look that isn’t just rare, but practically no-existent among endurance athletes.
A quick scroll of his meticulously curated Instagram feed will let you glean that Goodge is just as likely to wear tailored Giorgio Armani suits and designer labels as he is high performance running gear. Last year, he codesigned an athletic collection with luxury British brand Represent, and he regularly collaborates with American cult fashion label Vuori.
So no, Goodge is not your typical ultra runner, but the fact that he has a skincare routine doesn’t make him any less capable as an athlete. In 2019, he ran the UK from end to end, covering more than 1,350 kilometres. In 2023, he ran from coast to coast in the USA, logging nearly 5,000 kilometres in 55 days from Los Angeles to New York City. In 2024, he finished 11th in the legendary Moab 240 ultramarathon. When he sits down with Men’s Health, Goodge is less than 24 hours away from his next challenge, his most gruelling one yet.
Beginning on April 15, Goodge is running 3,800 kilometres across Australia, from Cottesloe Beach in Perth to Bondi Beach in Sydney, in a bid to break the speed record for crossing the country on foot. It’s the same record Nedd Brockmann tried and failed to break in 2022. The current benchmark belongs to Chris Turnbull, who crossed the country in 2024 in 39 days. Goodge is aiming to cover the distance in 35. “It’s about two and a half marathons per day,” he says, almost casually. “We’re looking at around 108 kilometres each day.”
For most, such a feat would be incomprehensible. For Goodge, it’s the next logical step in a journey that’s taken him across the UK, the USA and Japan on foot. “When I have a certain affiliation or love for a country, I show that love by running across it,” he jokes. But this attempt, he admits, is the most ambitious of his life. “I’ve never trained as hard for anything in my life as this,” he says. “I am very confident that I’ll do it though.
“Anything can happen,” Goodge continues. “I could twist my ankle running out of Cottesloe Beach, for example. But I’ve done this before, and with each challenge and with each big distance I’ve done, I’ve gained more confidence in my own ability.”
Growing up, Goodge didn’t harbour dreams of setting ultrarunning records. In fact, he played rugby until he was 23. “I was semi-pro with ambitions to try and take it further, but I had a history of concussions; I kept getting knocked out, I’d fail return-to-play protocols,” he says.
That series of head injuries made Goodge question whether he had a future in rugby. Then, during a six-week stint on the sidelines as a result of yet another injury, tragedy struck when his mother passed away from cancer. “I decided to take a year to just figure things out,” he says. “In that year, running started to come into things and turned out to be an extremely positive way for me to deal with my emotions. It was just something I found myself doing, and it’d be at all times of the day and night. Whenever I was feeling some type of way I’d run and I’d use some of that negative emotion to fuel myself and feel a bit better.”
Running became therapy, and then it helped Goodge find purpose. He ran his first marathon for Macmillan Cancer Support in 2018, raising close to £20,000 ($41,500 AUD). “That led me to having an epiphany that putting myself through physical pain was offset by the fact that I knew my mum would be proud of me, and that I could help other people by doing it,” he says. Eight months later he was running across the UK, and he has continued to support cancer charities ever since.
Australia is different to Goodge’s previous challenges, though. In the past, simply finishing the challenge has been the primary goal, doing it in a record time has been secondary. Now he’ll be under the pump every day, with his team pushing him to stay ahead of the record.
Goodge knows what he’s up against. It’s not just the heat, the wind and the wear on his body, but the sheer volume of time spent moving forward. “The first few days will probably be around 11–12 hours of movement, and then once I’m in the groove, it’ll probably be more like 15–16 hours a day,” he says. “I’ll try to keep my movement time lower than 17 hours a day, because sleep is king on these things.” He’ll break up those hours with carefully timed stops, and a midday nap.
A big part of making that schedule work will come down to fuel. For Goodge, that doesn’t mean your typical gels and sports drinks. “I actually don’t really like gels for this kind of exercise,” he says. “I prefer gels for racing shorter distances. When I’m doing this kind of stuff I like whole foods.”
“Sure, I’m still gonna be eating meat pies because I’m in Australia and they’re fucking delicious,” he laughs. “But generally speaking, I’m trying to keep it as whole foods-based as possible.”
His day starts light: a bowl of cereal, coffee and electrolytes – “I use Cadence, either a can of the electrolyte drink or the Core 500 sachet,” he says. Next is a smoothie that’s “packed out with basically everything you can think of; fruits, vegetables, nut butter, protein, some collagen.” At the next stop, he has a breakfast sandwich – bacon and egg or sausage. For lunch he’ll usually have rice dishes, pasta, sandwiches, or something leftover from the night before. Throughout the rest of the day, he has sandwiches, Cadence fuel bars, cold pasta and tins of fruit. “Dinner will also be something substantial,” he says.
Consuming that many calories throughout the day is an undertaking unto itself. “A big part of the challenge is the love/hate relationship with food,” Goodge admits. “You need it, but a lot of the time you hate that you need it.” But even with all that food, he still expects to drop a good amount of weight over the course of the run. “I will drop some timber during this run,” he says. “I weighed in at 93kg last night, but at the end of the US run I got down to like 79 kilos. I was basically just a big head and jaw on a body. I looked like Quagmire.”
Goodge has recently ramped up his training runs to prepare for his country-crossing effort. In March, he ran across Japan, covering 500km in five days. When he speaks with us, he says he’s currently in his deload phase – but this is not what us regular folk would consider a deload; he’s still smashing out more than 10km per day. Such a heavy workload is necessary to prepare for the enormity of the challenge, as is finding gear that can survive the rigours of the extreme mileage.
To ease the pounding on his legs, Goodge will rotate between a few select pairs of running shoes. “In the Japan run I used the Brooks Glycerin Max, which has quite a high stack,” he says. “I’ll have some Nike Vomero [18]s with me, and the ASICS Novablast [5]. But the Brooks Glycerin Max is the one I’m most comfortable with.”
During his run across the USA, he went through 13 pairs. “They were basically knocking on the door of not being wearable, the soles were eaten away on the side,” he says. For his Australian effort, he’s predicting he’ll chew through eight pairs.
Though Goodge’s resumé now includes thousands of kilometres run across multiple continents, his latest mission feels different. In the past, he’s been guided by a desire to pursue total distance rather than speed; a belief that if he can endure the pain for long enough, it would be enough to override the fact that other people had done the same runs before, in faster times. “I’ve never really seen myself as a brilliant athlete,” he says candidly. “I’m just someone that can grind out and suffer pretty well.”
Now, he wants to change that narrative. “I want to flip that and announce myself as a serious challenger in this transcontinental running space,” he says. “I’d like to hang my hat on something and say that I’m the best.” The ball is in Goodge’s court. We’ll soon see if he has what it takes to be the best.
