Nedd Brockmann cheered on by thousands as he completes epic 3,800 kilometre run from Cottesloe to Bondi

After 3,800 kilometres in 46 days, and well over a million dollars raised for the charity We Are Mobilise, the 23-year-old had earned every drop.

Brockmann, an electrician from Forbes, took the agonising final few steps of his cross-country run from Perth to Sydney on Monday afternoon as thousands cheered him on along the boardwalk at Bondi Beach.

The throngs of supporters, the television cameras, the 40,000 people tuning in to his Instagram live video, and the helicopter capturing images from above was a testament to how Brockmann’s epic adventure has captured the nation over the past six-and-a-half weeks.

“I’m absolutely blown away. I’m speechless,” an emotional Brockmann said after completing the journey. “It’s taken a lot – a lot – to get to here. I don’t think I can explain the depths I’ve had to go through to get from Cottesloe to Bondi in 46 and a half days.

“Just to be here and have this support is absolutely mind-blowing. I’m just speechless.”

Brockmann’s journey began on September 1 on the sands of Cottesloe Beach. He planned to run an average of 100 kilometres a day across the Nullabor to Sydney, while raising money to combat homelessness.

He’d start running before sunrise – usually between 4am and 5am – and trundle along the side of the highway, navigating headwinds, sun and road trains along the way.

He’d be on his feet for anywhere between eight and 11 hours every day, and would try sleeping in a campervan with his support crew. He struggled to get to sleep most nights because of the intense pain, and soon began suffering from severe sleep deprivation.

But, by documenting his journey on social media, his infectious personality saw him gain legions of fans, followers, admirers and, most importantly, money for charity.

Hamish Blake donated a dollar for every kilometre he ran.

Josh Addo-Carr was an early follower, donning a blond mullet wig in support.

Jimmy Barnes gave him a shout out on Instagram. So did Israel Adesanya.

The Parramatta Eels sent him messages of support as they prepared for the NRL grand final a few weeks ago.

If his hobbled walk up the stairs to the balcony at North Bondi looked painful, it only told half the story. After 11 days and a little over 1,000 kilometres, his ambitious adventure looked doomed. His ankle had swollen, he couldn’t lift his foot and couldn’t move his toes.

“We strapped it like buggery and I banged out the 100 km pretty late into the night,” he wrote on Instagram.

Reduced to little more than a walk, his team convinced him to get scans which showed severe extensor tenosynovitis in his tibialis anterior, which is basically a very, very bad overuse injury. Go figure.

The recommended course of action, he was told, was to immobilise the injury for six weeks until it healed. Brockmann decided to get cortisone injections and keep running instead.

His next 100 kilometre effort was the quickest run of the trip to that point, but he still had three quarters of the journey ahead of him. And it only got harder from there. At one point his feet became so battered and beaten, his blisters pussed up and he had maggots living in his toe.

His biceps can’t straighten because they’ve been flexed in the running position for 100,000 steps a day. At a certain point, it became more mental than physical. His body simply couldn’t break down any more.

Despite the pain, he maintained a relentlessly positive outlook, often belting out tunes as he ran, dropping inspirational quotes, leaving a “song of the day” and signing off with his now famous phrase: “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

Part of his appeal was that he kept his own suffering in perspective.

His own pain was intense, but he knew it would end.

Those “living rough” as he put it, don’t have that finish line in sight.

All the while, the donations kept rolling in. With the finish line in sight last week, he passed the one million dollar mark. That figure now stands at $1.5 million, with plans to get to $2 million over the coming days.

The money raised is invaluable to We Are Mobilise, who work to provide hands-on care to the homeless and to raise awareness by “creating change through connection.”

Brockmann has already set his sights on another challenge, but first he’ll relax with his mates and family and soak up every drop of that champagne shoey at Bondi – just hopefully not with a sneaker that had maggots living in it.