When Georgie Baker decided to run more than 2,700 miles from London to Asia, she knew it would be the toughest thing she’d ever done.
What she did not expect was crying her way through forests, facing down bears in Romania, battling illness and reaching a point where she felt confined by her own dream.
The 29-year-old first came up with the idea at the start of this year, in a bid to help raise awareness for ocean conservation, after watching a David Attenborough documentary.
She’d been inspired after she watched ultra-runner Russ Cook, known as the Hardest Geezer, complete his own incredible running challenges, including making history by running the entire length of Africa.
Sitting in her bedroom at her parents’ house, where she moved back at the start of 2026 to save money for her trip, Georgie explains over Zoom: ‘I justloved that running could get you across a continent.’
Having already completed solo hiking trips and taken on Ironman challenges despite barely knowing how to swim or cycle beforehand, her friends and family were used to her ambitious ideas.
‘I think everyone just thought: “Are you actually going to do that?”’,’ she remembers. But this was different, says Georgie.
Her plan involved quitting her job as a data engineer for Ordnance Survey, and converting a van with her partner, Ben, so they could travel together as she ran across 10 countries, from the UK through mainland Europe and eventually into Turkey.
‘I loved my job, so it was a difficult decision. I knew it was a massive risk, but I also knew I would probably regret it if I didn’t try,’ she explains.
Georgie also used savings she had originally planned to put towards buying a house, to make the trip possible. ‘I just asked myself the question, “Do I actually want to buy a house right now?”’ ‘I decided, let’s just spend the money,’ she says. ‘You can always make more.’
10 days later and I still can’t believe what I’ve achieved… Looking back at day 1 me, full of doubts, so nervous that an injury would come back and destroy this dream. Fast forward to now, and I’m still full of doubts, did I really do that? It doesn’t feel real, I just feel like I’ve slipped back to “normal” and come back from a holiday. I don’t want to forget the pain and emotion I felt through these 99 days because this is what I should be proudest of. Not the achievement but what I overcame to get there. It’s so strange how it still hasn’t sunk in, hopefully seeing more friends and family over the next few weeks, now that we’re back in the UK, will help me process it 💫 #running #endurance #ultramarathon #adventure #challengeyourself
Thankfully, Ben agreed, and the couple bought a van for around £12,000, spending another £3000 to convert it into a home on wheels.
Finally, on April 25 this year, a nervous Georgie set off from London’s iconic Tower Bridge. She had not long recovered from a tear in her left leg, which had left her only a couple weeks to train.
After running over three days to Harwich, she got the ferry across to the Netherlands and soon establisher a daily routine.
Waking at 6am, Georgie would prepare food and the head out by 8am. As she ran, Ben drove the van ahead, working on his PhD in chemistry and preparing their campsite for Georgie’s return.
Some days Georgie would run until 6pm through remote mountain trails. At the end of each day, she would eat with Ben, make a video documenting the journey, and the couple would plan her next route.
‘The van became our little home. It wasn’t luxurious, but after a long day running, it was the best feeling in the world to come back and have somewhere that was ours,’ says Georgie.
‘There were definitely moments where I thought, “This is not what normal people do,”’ she laughs. ‘You’d wake up, and your legs would hurt, but then you’d look outside and remember why you’re doing it.’
However, behind the scenic landscapes was a challenge that tested her mentally and physically like never before.
‘We actually had a crying streak,’ she remembers.
‘It became a bit of a joke because it would be three days without crying and then I’d completely break down again.
‘Looking back, I think crying was actually a really important part of it. It was just releasing everything that was building up.’
Georgie’s major tearfest was during Germany. ‘I’d not seen anyone for ages. It was this massive forest, and I got to this river, and there was meant to be like a bridge, but I couldn’t find it.
‘It was really cold and I had to just wade across the river. I was already at breaking point – so this just pushed me over the edge and I spent the rest of the day crying my way through this forest.’
One of the hardest moments came around day 36, when Georgie became ill with a bacterial infection and sunstroke while in Slovakia.
‘I just couldn’t keep anything down,’ she recalls.
‘The hardest thing wasn’t the physical pain; it was the mental side of feeling like I was failing because I couldn’t stick to the plan I’d made.’
Day 28 of running from London to Asia and I’m pretty proud of this one, felt good all day (for someone that’s been running ultras for 28 days) 🤩🌞 Sunny day, the lizards were out in full force 🦎 We go again tomorrow 🙌 #running #fyp #adventure #travel ldn2asia
After taking two rest days, Georgie returned to running – but shortly afterwards suffered another setback when she fell on a trail and injured herself badly in Hungary.
‘I’m pretty sure I cracked a rib. It was the worst pain I’ve ever had. That was the biggest test of mental strength I’ve ever had,’ she says.
The combination of illness, injury and exhaustion left Georgie questioning whether she could continue – but stopping was something she never seriously considered.
Instead, she changed the way she approached the challenge.
‘I had this spreadsheet keeping track of my miles and whether I was ahead or behind schedule. I realised that being so obsessed with that wasn’t going to get me to the end,’ she explains.
Instead, Georgie ditched the spreadsheet and decided not push herself further than her body could take.
Her plan worked and when she arrived in Romania on day 45, she had an unforgettable encounter in the Carpathian Mountains when she spotted a baby bear crossing the trail. Then she realised its mother was nearby.
‘We kind of locked eyes,’ remembers Georgie.
At first the bear stood on its hind legs – then, thankfully, it ran away. After giving it a moment, she continued down the trail – only to discover Ben ‘white in the face,’ after having just encountered the same bear, which had appeared around the corner near the van.
‘It turned out I’d scared this massive bear basically into him,’ she laughs.
For all the hurdles, Georgie’s trip was also filled with moments of incredible beauty.
She was amazed by Bulgaria’s mountains, Slovakia’s forests and the kindness of strangers she met along the way. One person who stayed with her was an elderly farmer in a remote Romanian village.
Although they could not speak the same language, Georgie was struck by his positivity and work ethic.
‘He was so smiley and nice,’ she explains ‘The fact that he still remained so positive and hardworking into those late years, after clearly having had a really tough life, really stuck with me.’
Georgie finally reached her end point in Istanbul on August 1, after 99 days of running.
However, her finish was not the dramatic moment Georgie imagined. There was no official finish line, no crowd waiting – just a point on a map.
‘It felt so strange,’ she recalls. ‘I was so ready for it to end, but, it just didn’t feel like momentous enough.’
Georgie’s parents later met her and Ben in Istanbul, and the family celebrated with a swim in the Bosphorus, a natural strait in Turkey that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and separates Europe from Asia.
Now home after over 14 weeks on the road, Georgie admits it’s still hard to get her head around her achievement.
‘It still hasn’t sunk in,’ she admits. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand – it was such a huge part of my life for so long, and then suddenly it was over.’
Georgie is now preparing for more travel with Ben later this year and taking on the Great Himalaya Trail in Nepal.
‘I definitely will be doing more adventures. That is my thing. I love it,’ she says. ‘The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you’re capable of so much more than you think you are.’
Georgie’s adventure
Georgie ran 2,796km, crossing 10 countries between April 25, 2026 and August 1, 2026.
During this, she climbed 84,752m of elevation and averaged 28 miles per day, taking only three rest days.
Georgie’s route:
- UK – three days
- Netherlands – three days
- Germany – 14 days
- Czech Republic – 13.5 days
- Poland – one and a half days
- Slovakia – 10 days
- Hungary – three days
- Romania – 26 days
- Bulgaria – 16.5 days
- Turkey – eight and a half days
You can donate to Georgie’s fundraiser for the Blue Marine Foundation here.
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