British ultra-marathoner William Goodge is set to run a full 26.2-mile marathon in all 50 US states in just 24 days, launching the attempt, dubbed Mission America, in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi on October 9 and aiming to finish at the New York City Marathon on November 1. The schedule requires him to average more than two full marathons a day while crisscrossing the country by plane and car, a pace that would roughly cut the current record in half.
Goodge announced the challenge as a bid for the Guinness World Record title for the fastest 50-state marathon effort, according to Maui Now. He plans to run through handpicked cities along the way, including landmarks, state capitals, college towns and rural areas, and he's invited members of the public to join him for the first 5K of any leg they can reach. The current benchmark belongs to Polish ultrarunner Tomasz Sobania, who completed 50 marathons in 50 states in 49 days in June 2026, besting the 50-day mark Dean Karnazes set back in 2006, according to TVP World. Sobania reportedly closed out his own effort by running two marathons in his final 24 hours between New Jersey and New York City.
A Grueling Logistical Puzzle
Pulling off more than two marathons a day across every state in roughly three and a half weeks takes more than just legs. Goodge's itinerary involves rapid travel between states and repeated time-zone changes, with the route starting in back-to-back runs across Hawaiʻi and Alaska before swinging into the Pacific Northwest, per the same Maui Now report. Mission America has partnered with Goodwin, a B2B charter-industry technology company founded in 2022 that supports charter brokers and operators with digitized workflows, to manage the rapid-fire travel between states.
Goodwin said its back-end systems and expertise made completing the effort in 24 days possible, while Team Goodwin called partnering with Goodge a no-brainer, the Maui Now article notes. The company's coordination of private charter bookings is designed to minimize ground transit delays that could otherwise sink the tight schedule.
Running Through Grief, and Raising Money for Cancer Research
Goodge has said he'll dedicate the effort to his mother, Amanda “Mandy” Goodge, who died from cancer, running under his long-standing mantra, “Pain with Purpose.” His mother, a former nurse, died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 53 in early 2018, according to the Hereford Times, and Goodge has said he turned to ultra-endurance running as a coping mechanism afterward, beginning long runs near his hometown every Christmas following her death.
Stand Up To Cancer is Goodge's charitable partner for Mission America, with the organization aiming to raise awareness and fund research to detect and treat cancers. Julian Adams, president and CEO of Stand Up To Cancer, said Goodge's commitment to ultra-endurance and cancer research fundraising is remarkable. GoFundMe is powering the Mission America fundraising experience, enabling participants to create their own fundraisers supporting the charity, and the organization separately launched a Mission America 24-Mile Challenge encouraging members of the public to run or walk 24 miles over the 24-day period, according to the GoFundMe campaign page.
A Résumé Built on Extreme Distance
This isn't Goodge's first brush with record-setting distance. In May 2023, he ran 3,175 miles across the United States from Los Angeles to New York City in 55 days, becoming the fastest Briton to complete the crossing, averaging roughly 58 miles per day, according to PA Media. More recently, he completed a run across Australia on May 19, 2025, covering 2,361 miles in 34 days from Cottesloe Beach in Perth to Bondi Beach in Sydney at an average of about 70 miles a day — a crossing for which Keelan Birch, FKT editor for Australia, awarded him the fastest known time in August 2026.
Before any of that, Goodge played semi-professional rugby for Ampthill RUFC in Bedfordshire, England, and worked as a male fashion model, having been scouted by a London modeling agency while playing rugby in his early 20s, per the Socialite Life profile of him. His first major multi-marathon feat came in September 2021, when he ran 48 marathons across all 48 English counties in 30 days to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, a challenge that covered over 1,200 miles and concluded at the London Marathon.
Endorsements and Scrutiny
Goodge's growing profile in the ultrarunning world has drawn attention from the sport's biggest name. Two-time Olympic marathon champion and former marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge sent Goodge a personal video endorsement during his 2025 trans-Australia run, telling him that his efforts prove “no human is limited,” according to RUN247.
That high-profile praise has come alongside pointed questions. Goodge's past transcontinental and Australian runs sparked online debate among ultrarunning analysts over his daily GPS data and heart-rate readings, per Marathon Handbook, with Goodge maintaining that his low heart rates simply reflect Zone 1-2 aerobic conditioning. For Mission America, Goodge says he'll monitor mileage and physical parameters using Strava, two fitness watches and a GPS live tracker, and provide timestamped GPS evidence in KML format along with photographic and video evidence of each run's start and finish, with the full challenge data set to be published after completion.
