Goodge Sub-23 Days for a Marathon in All 50 States

William Goodge crossed the Central Park finish line at the New York City Marathon on Sunday and stepped straight into the record books, earning the Guinness World Records title for the fastest time to run a marathon in all 50 US states.

Honolulu to New York in under 23 days

The British ultramarathoner completed his 50th marathon in 23 days, an effort officially measured at 22 days, 17 hours, 16 minutes and 34 seconds. His final leg was the 2026 TCS New York City Marathon, which he finished in 4:05:01 alongside a record field of 61,146 runners.

The challenge, named Mission America, began in Honolulu on 9 October. Private aviation shuttled Goodge between states on a schedule that demanded each 26.2-mile run be finished in five hours or less. That meant running between one and three marathons every day, with some stretches averaging more than two.

A finish among 61,000

His Central Park finish placed him 31 seconds ahead of NBC News correspondent Brian Cheung, who recorded 4:05:32. The 2026 edition was the 50th anniversary of New York's five-borough course, first run in 1976, and runners were still streaming through the park well into the evening.

While Goodge closed out his fifty-state run, elite racing unfolded at the front. Andreas Almgren broke from a lead group of ten at 35 kilometres and won the men's race on debut in 2:06:01, 13 seconds ahead of Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy, with a final mile of 4:30.

The record was confirmed live on CBS Mornings the day after the race. The logistics partner Goodwin kept the back-end systems running, but the legs belonged to one man and a cause larger than himself.

The fiftieth made him a world-record holder.