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BY MARK POUGATCH
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Russ Cook is running the entire length of Africa – and, he tells Lola Katz Roberts, it’s even more demanding and chaotic than you’d imagine…
W
HILE YOU’RE EATING, sleeping, working, meeting up with friends and living your life, somewhere in Africa’s vast midst, Russ Cook is running. He has been running ultramarathons for over 200 days – in the heat, in the rain, in the dark – and he won’t stop until he reaches the northernmost tip of Cape Angela in Tunisia. His face has grown gaunt and lean, his ginger beard now swamping his shrinking features. But he will not allow himself to contemplate failure, for the simple reason that it would require him to get on a plane and fly home. He will use his own two legs and, as he puts it, “run the length of Africa or die trying”.
“There was no doubt in my mind that I could do it,” he says. “I didn’t know what was coming. But what I did know in my heart, my mind and my soul that there was no way I’d be giving up.” He hopes to become the first person to run the length of Africa – almost 15,000km across 16 countries, 360 marathons in 250 days – and aims to finish before Christmas. We caught up with him on day 194 from a sweltering hotel room in Nigeria. “It’s about 40 degrees and I’m sweating my nuts off,” he says. “I’ve eaten nothing but biscuits for like three weeks straight. So, still got a few hills to climb.” A sentence like this pretty much sums up his mentality. Insurmountable problems for most are simply hills to
climb for the man from Worthing who calls himself ‘Hardest Geezer’. Of course, the mission hasn’t been plain sailing. Cook and his team have been robbed at gunpoint and have suffered from the bureaucratic grind of visa issues and health scares – including a flirtation with kidney failure. “It’s an interesting one when someone sticks a gun in your face. My initial reaction was just to try and control
‘We’re out here, boys and girls, and when a gun gets pointed in your face that’s a bit of a get real moment.’
the moment. I remember vividly the guy cracking open the door and the gun coming up, and I just tried to start a dialogue and delay his action as much as possible. My thoughts were just about damage limitation: try to keep everyone safe and try to keep as much of our stuff. “That was the first real disaster we’d had, and that was a bit of a moment where I thought, ‘This ain’t the seaside town of Worthing any more.’ We are out here, boys and girls, and when a gun gets pointed in your face that’s a bit of a get real moment.” In a world of gimmicky influencers, Cook is its antithesis. What he’s doing is extremely hard, and he’s not afraid to share that with his audience. For context, one →