JACK PITCHER – Running across Australia – Runner’s World, July 2025 issue

Before you get too impressed by Jack Pitcher’s recent achievement – a new British record for running across Australia from Perth to Sydney, covering 2,684 miles (4,320 km) in 61 days – you should know that this was the short version.

The original plan conceived by the 29-year-old from Bracknell in Berkshire was to run around Australia’s entire coastline, which would have involved roughly a marathon a day for nine months. Everything was set up, and he and two companions were driving north from Melbourne to Darwin to begin the challenge. But not far out of Adelaide, they swerved suddenly to avoid an obstacle in the road and flipped their car and caravan multiple times.

Amazingly, although the caravan and most of their belongings were destroyed, they were able to walk away from the accident. All their 4×4 needed was a new front tire. A policeman told them that as he approached and saw them standing near such a horrific wreck, he assumed they must have been witnesses, not participants, in a deadly tragedy. ‘It was incredible that none of us even had to go to hospital,’ Jack says. ‘Looking back on it, we definitely should have died.’

They had to buy new gear and a new trailer, but a few more days down the road, the car belatedly gave up the ghost. ‘We were running out of funds to get us round the country. Losing money, losing time, losing morale. So we decided to play the cards we’d been dealt, rented a motorhome, drove 33 hours straight to get to Perth and began planning to run across the country instead.’

It’s fair to say there was an element of winging it to this whole endeavour. Jack, who gave up a job as a roofer to undertake this run, had only done three ultra-length runs before, and has still never run an official marathon. His CV includes the 100 mile Chester Ultra, going five times up and down Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon in 24 hours, and the David Goggins 4x4x48 – a challenge conceived by the former US Navy SEAL and all-round hard nut that involves running four miles every four hours for two days – none of which truly prepared him for two months slogging through Australian wilderness including the arid, epically empty Nullarbor Plain. As well as the limited physical preparation, he had never visited Australia before.

‘I’ve always dreamed big,’ he says. ‘Whenever I’ve told people I’m going to do something, they might look at me with an eyebrow raised, but I feed off that. I like to do things that no one would imagine doing, and so far, it’s always paid off.’

Not that it was a breeze. ‘Both the physical and mental aspects were so tough. I was running until my pelvis seized up, running til I collapsed. Mentally, I almost had to become robotic – just brush the pain away and run for another 15 hours, again and again.’

At least he had company. Joshua Smith, a 21-year-old friend from Sunday League football who is in officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, was also meant to run the whole distance, but had to retire after 45 days. ‘His body just gave up. He had such intense cramp in his legs that he couldn’t walk.’

The pair, together with driver and film maker Alaric Storer, lost three days in a campsite waiting for Josh to recover, before deciding that Jack should continue the run alone with Josh accompanying him on a bicycle. A self-imposed deadline – to reach Sydney’s Bondi Beach in the nice round number of 60 days and to meet Jack’s mum and sister before they had to fly home – was looming. For the final 12 days, he ran over 70 miles every day, pushing himself dangerously close to physical and mental collapse. He admits that if he’d had proper medical attention, he probably would have been ordered to stop.

‘I was on a huge calorie deficit, sleeping four hours a night, dehydrated and hallucinating. I was at the point of collapsing. Those 12 days will be the hardest days of my life,’ he says.

Ultrarunners often talk about needing a powerful ‘why’ to keep them going. Jack, whose late father volunteered with the Territorial Army and whose grandfather served in the army, was raising money for the armed forces charity SSAFA and ARC Youth Counselling in Wokingham. Having suffered from depression himself, he now has a powerful desire to inspire others who are struggling.

‘For about a year I felt like my life was too much to cope with. I wasn’t suicidal, but put it this way: I also wasn’t scared of anything like that happening.’ he says. ‘But I told myself that if I wasn’t scared of dying, then why should I be scared of failure? That’s when I started thinking about taking on big runs. I wanted to push myself to my limit and find my breaking point.’

When he arrived on the beach on 5 December 2024, he hugged his mum and sister and simply said: ‘Get me home.’ His feet were so swollen he couldn’t even wear sliders. And what about that breaking point – does he think he found it?

‘I think I can go a bit more.’ Watch this space. Iceland, you’re next.

Instagram: @jack_pitcher_

Charity page: https://givestar.io/gs/project-perimeter