William Goodge ran 3800 kilometres across Australia in 35 days, becoming the fastest man to cross the continent on foot, but his triumphant arrival in Sydney on Monday afternoon didn’t bring the relief he imagined. Instead, he says, he feels like an “alien”.

Completing the equivalent of two-and-a-half marathons per day, the English ultra-endurance athlete suffered pain felt deep in his bones, a torn Achilles tendon and insomnia brought on by an inability to find a sleeping position that did not aggravate the aches that racked every part of his body.

“It was like a revolving nightmare that wouldn’t end,” Goodge said. “The first nine days were extremely challenging … but you have to tell your body and mind that even though you’re struggling, you’re going to persevere, and you’re going to get through it,” he said.

Goodge crossed the finish line at Bondi Beach on Monday afternoon, 35 days after setting off from Perth’s Cottesloe Beach, completing the fastest ever crossing of Australia by foot.

The journey required a gruelling 100-kilometre per day average, and equates to 90 consecutive marathons. The 30-year-old smashed the previous record set by Australian Chris Turnbull in 2023, who finished the run in 39 days.

Goodge, who is the fastest British person to run the nearly 5,000 kilometres across the US from Los Angeles to New York (55 days) and has completed a marathon in all 48 English counties, says his motivation to pursue such extreme feats came after he lost his mother, Amanda, to cancer.

“Seeing someone fight for their life in that way just gives me a lot of ignorance to my own self-suffering,” he said. “I feel like it’s nowhere near. So in the moments where it’s tough, I’ll think back to those times, I think about the woman she was, and how she handled herself, and how she supported me.

“I feel like she’s there with me a lot of the time … I can go through old memories, I can have my own conversations with her in my head.”