Ultramarathon runner Russ Cook, who describes himself as ‘the hardest geezer in Worthing’, plans to run from South Africa to Tunisia over the next eight months and finish before Christmas
The self-described “hardest geezer in Worthing” aims to run the entire length of Africa over the next eight months.
Russ Cook hopes to run the entire length of the continent before Christmas, eating up more than a marathon’s worth of tarmac each day along the way.
In doing so he will likely wear his way through 30 pairs of shoes and sweat unfathomable amounts of sweat in the blistering heat of the world’s hottest continent.
The 26-year-old believes he will be the first to run the length of Africa from “true south to north” as he hopes to, having set off from the bottom of South Africa last week.
Others, including male model Nick Bourne, have run from South Africa to Cairo, heading along the eastern edge of the continent.
Russ will tack out west on a several-month detour instead until, at some point later this year or early next, he should arrive at the top of Tunisia, 15,000km later.
The challenge is the biggest one Russ has ever undertaken, but it’s not the first time he’s pushed his own limits.
The former heavy drinker and gambler, who describes his old self as a “fat lad”, completed 71 marathons in 66 days in a run across Asia and Europe to London, before livestreaming himself being buried alive for a week on Youtube.
So far he is 11 days into his mammoth trip, having eased himself in with 55km of running a day that will be upped to 63km once he’s got past the tricky first month.
“My body is pretty sweet so far, but you’re always going to get the occasional niggle,” Russ told The Mirror. “It’s amazing what eight hours of sleep do to you. I can be pretty bent up at the end of the day, but tomorrow, it’s a new day.
“I’m just attacking the day with relentless positivity.”
The project has taken several years to get off the ground, partly due to the cost of visas and running a three-person support crew.
Russ, a “working class lad without two pennies to scrape together”, had to convince several investors and sponsors to support the trip, but currently doesn’t have enough to go the whole way.
As well as needing the visas, he’s been warned that some countries’ border officials may demand bribes.
He added: “Food costs are more expensive than people think, as I’m eating three humans’ worth of food. We have the van. I’m going to take a nice hot shower every now and again. Our van has already broken down once.”
Russ says he is not worried about the challenges lying ahead, which include the ferociously hot and humid Congo and the great expanse of the Sahara.
“I’ve experienced enough bulls**t, it doesn’t last forever, it’s about getting the job done,” he said.
For the most part Russ is running by himself, meeting up with the support crew once or twice a day for food and water.
To keep himself pounding along the “furnace” like hot tarmac roads Russ listens to an 88hour playlist he has been curating over the past eight years.
While the route so far has been quite isolated, he did have the chance to run and chat for a few kms with a young rugby player he met jogging along the side of the road.
In terms of what comes ahead, he says he isn’t looking forward to anything specific as he wants to “experience it through my own eyes” when he meets it.
“I’m excited to meet some locals and the landscape it is going to be changing so rapidly,” Russ said.
When it comes to the impact he hopes the run will have, Russ is raising money for the Running Charity, which helps homeless people and those at risk of becoming so.
He also wants to spread his message of relentless positivity and seizing the day.
“It is an honour to have the opportunity really, it is kind of crazy to me,” he continued. “I’m just a working class lad from Worthing in the UK. To be out here doing it is wicked. It’s a bit egotistical to talk about legacy, but it is important to me.
“I want to leave things in a better place than when I came in. I can leave a message of ‘we’re lucky, blessed to have this tiny bit of time on this spinning rock in space’.
“The more people I can inspire to use that time to do something worthwhile, or push themselves, and live a fulfilled life…that’s pretty sick.”
