WILL ROBINSON – running across India – Runner’s World, May 2025 issue
If you’re one of the legions of people who hated doing cross country at school, try doing it Will Robinson style. The 28-year-old investment surveyor from Dorset ran across Ireland from Galway to Dublin in December 2023, and a year later he traversed India, covering the roughly 750km between Chennai on the east coast and Mangaluru on the west in just seven days and 11 hours.
He certainly likes to approach his challenges fresh. When we speak he is not long back from India, where he had never set foot before he ran between its coasts, and about to take on all 431km of the Montane Winter Spine Race without previously taking a single step on the Pennine Way. India was a Google Maps-based decision. ‘I love the idea of getting from one side of a country to another on foot and seeing both coasts,’ he says. ‘I opened Maps and India was staring straight at me.’
The country’s triangular shape meant he could have made the journey much longer if he wanted, but he was limited by the amount of time he was permitted to take off work. Additionally, as a personal challenge, he was curious to find out whether he was capable of running 100km every day for a week. India’s cheapness was another factor in planning the trip, but temperatures in the 40s, the chaos of its cities, and a large number of aggressive stray dogs, made it less than ideal in other ways.
‘I got overwhelmed in Chennai at the beginning,’ he admits. ‘We were meant to have two days to acclimatise but there was so much traffic, cows in the middle of the road, and some of the worst smells I’ve ever smelled. I’m a Dorset boy, very happy in the countryside, so after a day I said to the team: “Let’s just get out of here.” It was 45k to run straight out of the city, take a left and we were on country roads with rice paddy fields.’
Halfway through he also had to negotiate Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), the third biggest city in India, with a population similar to London’s. He was travelling with his fellow ultrarunner James Poole, who was filming and photographing the adventure for Will’s sponsors, as well as his nutritionist Rachel White and a local driver who handled the logistics. Will’s job was to keep putting one foot in front of the other in blazing heat and to look highly out of place as a tall white man jogging with an umbrella. ‘I crossed a paddy field where all these children were working. They looked up at me and literally all ran away,’ he says.
Generally his experiences with the people were hugely positive. ‘Everyone was so welcoming. They blew me away. If we stopped for five minutes we’d get 20 people around the car talking to us. They’ll give you anything and expect nothing in return.’ He tried to get together with local runners along the way as well. ‘Mangaluru Running Club at the end were epic. They put on an amazing curry breakfast for us.’
If it sounds like he just decided to use his annual leave to do a huge foreign run on a whim, this is far from his first major challenge. ‘It keeps getting bigger and bigger,’ he says. He’s completed a few 100 mile ultra races, finished the 1900km Silk Road cycle race in Kyrgyzstan, and covered the eight days of the 400km Cape Wrath Ultra in Scotland in the company of his dad. In hindsight, Galway to Dublin wasn’t his best idea. It was largely along a canal, making the glorious Emerald Isle, as he puts it, unbelievably boring’.
He first got some attention from the media in October 2023 when he ran 200 miles much closer to home – round and round the 480 metres of Queen Square in Bristol. A short film about the challenge shows him in pure agony, giving his all to raise enough money to buy a hand bike for a friend who had to have both legs amputated after a climbing accident.
The India run raised money for three different charities, two in the UK: the Running Charity for young people at risk of homelessness, and Mind Over Mountains, which provides mental health support through outdoor experiences. The third is the Indian charity Future Hope, which helps the street and slum children of Kolkata (Calcutta). Will wants to support organisations that help other people to get outside and move. Though he has the backing of some big brands including The North Face, he says he has no plans to become a competitive trail runner.
‘The professional side of things just doesn’t interest me, all those marginal gains and pushing yourself to get a little bit quicker,’ he says. ‘For me the best things about running are exploring yourself – I’ve learned so much about myself doing these cross country runs – and helping to get other people active too. I want to show people that you can do much, much bigger things than you might think.’
