Australian dad runs over 3,800 km from Perth to Sydney in record-breaking journey

An Australian dad took on an epic journey across his homeland to break a world record that had stood for more than 20 years.

Chris Turnbull set the fastest journey on foot across Australia (Perth to Sydney) in 39 days 8 hrs 1 min.

He’d set off from Cottesloe Beach in Perth at 5 a.m. local time on 8 August 2023 and crossed the finish line at Manly Beach, Sydney, at 3:01 p.m. local time on 16 September.

He completely obliterated the previous record of 67 days 2 hours 57 mins that had stood since 2002.

Chris ran around 100 km (62.13 mi) every single day to cover the entire distance of 3,864 km (2,400.97 mi).

“I ran every step and touched the ocean water at both ends of the run,” he said.

Chris, a 40-year-old dad-of-two, decided to take on the challenge because he “wanted a big adventure” and said he thought this would be a great way to see the country.

With the help of a support team, Chris, who was 39 at the time of his run, saw lots of amazing sights and met plenty of friendly people along the way.

The engineer spent three months planning and intensively training for his epic challenge.

He’s been running long distances for much of his life, but of course nothing could have completely prepared him for this gigantic journey across the country.

He told us: “Much of the run was through extremely remote parts of Australia and so, support crew, supplies and contingency plans were critical.”

Chris had between two and four people with him, across two vehicles, at any time.

And he’s grateful to all the people, including his mum Pauline Markwell and friend Jack Bullen, who were there with him every step of the way.

This isn’t the first mega challenge Chris has taken on.

He’s previously run from Sydney to Melbourne, completed a number of ultramarathons, and kayaked from Tasmania to Victoria via King Island.

Looking back on his record-breaking journey, Chris said: “Before the run, I thought that if everything went perfectly, I could possibly do it one day faster.

“Lots of things didn’t go to plan, which is highly likely for such a long, remote and extreme adventure and so I was very happy with the time it ended up taking.”

He added: “Halfway through day four, the gravel road I was running on was closed by the local council. Recent rain had turned the road to slippery mud.

“That afternoon, we negotiated approval with the council to proceed along the road but it was too slippery for the RV support vehicle with most of my supplies and so just two crew in the small support vehicle continued with me along the slippery road for three days with very limited supplies.

“This meant camping with no showers and only dozens of sandwiches to eat all day for three days.”

Along the way, Chris said people often stopped him to ask what he was doing and why he was running along such remote roads.

He was also offered free accommodation at some roadhouses and caravan parks throughout the journey.

Despite the bumps in the road, Chris has lots of fond memories of his run, like running through the Nullarbor Plain.

But the best thing of all was crossing the finish line at Manly Beach, where his wife and kids were waiting to give him an “almighty hug”.

He said it was “complete relief, like I had stepped out of the fire”.

“I was completely exhausted and wanted to celebrate but also needed to lie down,” he added. “I then had a swim and beer to help relax. The extreme exhaustion lasted one week after finishing and some of the injuries persisted for three months.

“The hardest thing was the time pressure I put on myself. To try and run 100 km each day I had to spend as much time as possible on the road running for very long days, limiting all rests.

“The next hardest part was pain. My daily run targets meant a lot of time running and little time recovering, leading to constant aches, injuries and fatigue.”

For now at least, Chris doesn’t have plans to break any more records, but teased: “I love big adventures and challenges, so it's possible that future adventures will align with records.”

Read more about Chris’s adventures on his website.

All pictures courtesy of Jack Bullen.