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An amazing feat of human endurance. Russ has run 385 marathons over 351 days, traversing 16 countries, and is hopefully well on his raising to reach his charity target of £1m.
EDIT: adding his donation link in here - https://givestar.io/gs/PROJECTAFRICA
In the process he has dealt with severe injury and illness and was robbed at gunpoint.
Yep, following the route in the second pic. He averaged about 75km a day. The only days he took off were due to logistical issues (e.g. visas) or doctors forcing him to (he was pissing blood a couple of times).
I recently saw/heard about someone hiking from Mexico to Canada in about 4 months and that, along with your post, got me pondering the initial human diaspora and the great distances it was possible to travel in a relatively short period of time. Obviously much different situations between then and now but the ability remains
The slowness of humanity’s dispora is mostly driven by the previous harshness of life and the relative comfort and security of civilization/one’s home/tribe.
Venturing into the unknown was incredibly dangerous for a number of reasons, and people just didn’t do it until the HAD to.
Even look at more modern diasporas. Europeans going to America did so often because of famine or war or marginalization at home. Relatively rich northern Italians didn’t come over; poor southern ones did. Irish after famine. Africans not by choice. Etc.
The Jewish diaspora was largely not by their choice. Over and over again.
And look at how early European settlers faired. Rough stuff for the pioneers. Now imagine doing that even further in the past. Crossing into a new biome with no established humans to teach you anything about the local flora and fauna. Hard as hell. Death would be much more likely than survival. Yet at the same time, nothing is too too far away on foot, which is kinda crazy
I've always wanted to go on one of these extra long foot adventures through the country or cross continent. I feel like with modern technology and amenities, survival now would be much easier than a few hundreds years ago. The risk is still present for sure but Im inclined to believe it wouldn't be nearly as perilous now.
I recently watched a video of a guy and his girlfriend make a trip from the farthest northern part of Alaska all the way down through Canada and the US into Mexico. They didnt do it on foot but by bicycle which helped but that's still an absurdly long journey to take without a car. Took them over a year to make the trip and reach her home town in Mexico. Their ultimate goal was the farthest tip of Argentina. Cover the entirety of the Americas. They stopped on Mexico to recover for a few months but as of typing this comment, they're still set to continue.
This goes to say that they managed to survive winter in Canada, maintain charge on their cameras and phones and find enough shelter and help for the entire duration of North America. That would be a death sentence 200 years ago but they made it through with minimal health hazards. Of course there were risks but it's much less dangerous to do now. Makes the idea of it very appealing. I never could because unfortunately I have a job and bills and rent and responsibility but damn would I love to some day.
>you can live off the wilderness and you can move through the wilderness, but you can't do both
I read it more to mean that surviving off the wilderness alone takes all your effort. If you try to move through it as well you will fail to survive. The corollary being that you can only move through it if you bring your own means of survival./
I want to through hike the Appalachian one day, I know it’s insane and hiking the full trail takes months but I want to feel what it was like to be a settler
As someone who's hiked from Mexico to Canada your body adapts surprisingly quickly. Humans were built to travel great distances, it's how we hunted since over distance we are incredibly fast due to our bipedal walking and water cooling.
You would be shocked at how far you can walk in a relatively short amount of time.
Think about old armies, they walked everywhere. When Ceaser wanted to conquer Gual he took his army from Rome and walked over to central France. Napoleons troops walked from France to Russia and then walked back.
I have personally walked the width of Spain in a month and I really wasn't even pushing it, I was done most days by 2pm, the record on my route was 6.5 days.
What always impressed me with Roman legions is that they essentially built a new fort each night they were on the march. Not just a simple matter of pitching tents, but they'd actually dig a ditch along the outer perimeter, using that soil to then build a rampart on the inner side of said ditch, capped off with palisades. All this was done upwards of ~200 feet away from their tents, in order to limit the effectiveness of opposing archers/artillery. These outer perimeters could be up to 2 miles in total length. And all that after marching some 20 miles in a day!
The fastest known time to travel from Mexico to Canada on foot is [46 days 12 hours and 50 minutes by Karen Sabbe](https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/karel-sabbe-pacific-crest-trail-ca-or-wa-2023-08-26)
That's the Pacific Crest trail and is pretty popular hiking feat. Humans are cool, the ability to walk on 2 legs and sweat is what separated us from all other animals and why we became super efficient at hunting
Look up the great divide bike race. People bike and camp from mexico to canada in less than 20 days and average 3-4 hours of sleep. Some people are crazy.
I was wondering what the pathophysiology of that would be but so far I only got that its called “marathoner’s hematuria,”. From what I can interpret its [not too bad](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2184253/) and is probably the result of the stress causing excessive excretion of erythocytes through blood vessels that have become more permeable around the kidneys due to changes in circulatory dynamics.
You’re evidently ahead of me on this topic. I have a family member who is a physician who said it’s not a big deal. Like you said, the kidneys being irritated. Hurt to pee tho.
Well your urine is filtered blood, so you're not so much as "pissing" blood as maybe what more likely happened is that his kidneys weren't filtering out what they needed to from blood. Maybe the extreme exercise he was doing caused damage or swelling in his kidneys and so they weren't functioning properly, not that he had a bleed anywhere in his urinary system. I don't know enough about extreme exercise and the kidneys to know why this might have happened though specifically
I don't want to draw away from Russ Cook's amazing feat, but it's worth noting there's a guy who ran from the [north pole to the south pole](https://www.patfarmer.com/pole-to-pole) via the Americas (with air lifts over bodies of water), covering 21,000km over 10 months - averaging something like 50 marathons per month over the duration.
All these major journeys are worth celebrating and noting how they're unique from each other. There's also a man who previously ran from ~~Cape Town to the Suez Canal~~ the Cape of Good Hope to Israel, that's why Russ' claim has always specifically been about the entire length of Africa.
I was curious about the journey you linked so I read through his route. It seems he skipped 3300 km of the Canadian arctic between the northern tip of North America and Radisson Quebec and his Antarctic leg was 900km rather than starting further north on Antarctica. I think he represents it honestly as several different journeys of different natures on the website, with the road runs being comparable to what Russ did. Thanks for linking, it's neat to read
I think they mean he ran the equivalent of, not that he was actually running in an official marathon and then heading to another. As in he ran on average about ~28.7 miles a day. Still insane
Ah gotcha! Yeah that's still wild lol. I have a mental image of him finishing a marathon and simply literally running into the next one lol. Just a non-stop video of dude running.
I have driven a route similar to this several times. The fact that he’s done it on foot is amazing, never mind doing it in under a year. That’s fcukin unbelievable
That was my dream too.. I was fortunate enough to get a job with a company that did that kind of thing, back in the 90’s. Crazy times on the road with insurrectionists, corrupt officials, broken bridges etc., but wonderful people and breathtaking scenery mostly.
have you ever driven in africa? you should start with a smaller trip. and the motorbike idea sounds good at first but if you're white you're going to get harassed a lot unfortunately.
He was also kidnapped on another occasion. He’s kept a lot of things on the down low understandably - mostly for his own safety and I’m sure also partly as they will be hoping to make a documentary.
When I watch videos of solo travellers crossing Africa, the thing that always strikes me are the bribes. Constant road checks where the police will ask for a bribe of some sort ("the paperwork is incorrect... You must give me money!")
I wonder how much of that they came across.
When I traveled through Egypt with a large group and a tour guide part of the cost of the agency's cost went to a cash kitty for bribe money, and the most essential part of our guide being there was theat for the dozen or so bribe checkpoints we encountered, he knew exactly how much was reasonable and what to refuse. A solo traveler would have been over a barrel and unable to realistically resist a corrupt law enforcement agent, but our guy was just like "60? That's too much, it should be 50" and the cop was like "okay you got me, 40 it is"
Had to google to refresh my memory - sorry for the shitty tabloid link but this tells the full story
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-hardest-geezer-kidnapped-months-30654760.amp
Dude has some stories to tell.
Damn. That's wild. It's always fascinated me how I could be so petty about dumb shit while stuff like this is a Tuesday in another country. I've got friend from some pretty fucked up countries that take the small stuff in stride so much better than I do. I have a friend from Serbia that never stops smiling, ever. I've heard some stories from him about what his young life was like and it's pretty fucking brutal. Meanwhile I can't get past something stupid like traffic, or just having a bad day or something equally ridiculous. Perspective truly is everything.
>Is that on YouTube?
I was following his videos on Youtube, only the aftermath was covered as his support van / crew wasn't able to follow him through the jungle paths he was running on at the time.
The time he got fucking kidnapped was crazy. Another is One of his first videos where he kept running despite having diarrhea dripping down his leg and the doctors telling him he would die if he continued
That was the craziest part for me. Literally couldn’t keep any food down for over a day and was on no sleep and when asked if he would still run said “I gotta do at least a marathon”
Oooh, I got questions.
1. Where did he get kidnapped and did he get rescued or ransomed out?
1. Why did he skip the more direct coastal route through Gabon and Equatorial Guinea?
He avoided a handful of smaller coastal countries. Maybe less visas to coordinate.
He ran the route he did because it was the safest for two reasons. One, most the routes he skipped contained terrorist run countries where he would’ve been in danger. Two, the Sahara desert is a brutal place to run. Little to no roads and hot af.
He did run through the desert for a bit. But those are the main two reasons he ran the route he did.
IKR? Amazing journey. Geezer rocks - and for charity no less.
The only other person I follow is Paul Solapek - 24000 mile journey
https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/
You mean the DRC because he went thru the Republic of the Congo 🇨🇬,just not democratic republic of the Congo 🇨🇩
Edit: ops sorry,didn’t see that tiny part where he went thru the DRC too
I mean the obvious point here being he added a shitload of miles going to the absolute edge to cut through as little as possible on the extreme border. But it’s Reddit so gotta jerk ourselves off.
I think the main confusion is that there are 2 countries called Congo, DRC & RC (aka Congo-Kinchasa and Congo-Brazzaville). and he took a route that took him through loads of the second one, instead avoiding Gabon and Guinea.
But yeah, on the DRC, he got into it and it's like he went "fuck me am I going to Kinshasa city, fuck that", and bolted for the coast to Cabinda lol
What I can't quite work out is why he went so far into the DRC in the first place. Purely looking at the map it's like he gets _way_ more than halfway to the nothern border then goes "actually no, you know what, fuck it", and starts doubling back and heading for the coast lol
They actually tried. The initial plan was to run from Tunisia to South Africa, but due to the length of time it was taking and their finite window of opportunity, they decided to flip the plan and run from South Africa to Tunisia instead, with the hope of having more time to secure the visas.
Easier said than done. Impossible to know the exact dates you’d be arriving and a lot of places require you to enter within a certain time period after the visa is granted, so you can’t do it a year in advance. I’m not sure you’d be able to get visas to all the countries they went to whilst still in the UK (or at least not without going to the embassy). In the end doing it while they were out there eventually worked in their favour as he had the profile to challenge the decision.
They probably would have rejected them without the massive social media campaign, it sounds like Algeria does not grant visas very often...
And at the start of the run, they had barely any social media presence. I remember his first few videos just having a few hundred views.
It's not just an ordinary Algerian visa either which is already difficult, it's an Algerian visa to run through the dangerous Sahara desert through a border that is rarely open, with multiple escort police vehicles, they don't let people do things like that lightly.
Many countries have a minimum time to apply for a visa. For my country you can't apply to visit more than three months before you do - in case the diplomatic situation changes.
Additionally, they offer a specific time box - miss your window and you have to start all over again.
Guys. Give him a sponsor.
https://givestar.io/gs/PROJECTAFRICA?utm_source=Linktree&utm_medium=Russ_Cook_Linktree
And upvote this comment for visibility
Kudos to him indeed. Reminds me of Eddie Izzard, out of shape stand up comedian doing [27 marathons in 27 days](https://www.comicrelief.com/news/eddie-izzard-completes-27-marathons-27-days-challenge-sport-relief/#:~:text=Comedian%20Eddie%20Izzard%20has%20completed,South%20Africa%20for%20Sport%20Relief.&text=Exhausted%20but%20ecstatic%2C%20he%20ran,UK%20and%20around%20the%20world) for charity in SA. We’re capable of amazing feats. Don’t know until you try it for yourself. Be safe, but rock on!
The route he took probably is the safest possible, but still dangerous.
He chose a route around the west of Africa - it's *mostly* safe in West Africa these days. Countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia have a pretty war-torn past but have been peaceful for the last few decades. Nigeria and Burkina Faso would be the most dangerous countries in west Africa to travel to/through, and he didn't go through Burkina Faso.
An easten or central route would have been far more dangerous - with the DRC (especially the east) and Central African Republic being exceptionally dangerous, Sudan currently involved in a civil war and Somalia genrally being one of the most dangerous countries in Africa. Eritrea and Ethiopia would also be very difficult to navigate through safely. There would probably be no safe way to progress up through east Africa.
I highly recommend watching the YouTube episodes of the Mauritania Sahara part if you haven’t seen it. He was running through sandstorms, and the only people he encountered for hundreds of miles seemed to be the most nice and generous people on the planet
Been following his youtube since day 1 of his run thanks to Geowizard. As someone his age, for whom running is not easy.... I am constantly in awe. I was sure he'd have to stop the run at some point, either due to political/logistical reasons or his death... but dammit, Russ is truly the Hardest Geezer. Couldn't be more stoked for him. Hope he's got all the strawberry daiquiris!
For a small island, Britain has produced some really tenacious individuals isn't it? British people are always marked as having a great sense of humour or ability for optimism but I think theirs a better way to describe that disposition
That actually was his original plan, but he couldn’t get a visa to cross from Tunisia to Algeria. So he decided to go south to north, figuring that if he made it as far as Algeria from the other end, he’d be famous enough that people would help him get the visa. And they did
I’m familiar with the location of countries in Africa but less so the topography or infrastructure
Just curious if there’s a reason he specifically took that route? Does it have the best roads? I’m aware of a girl that’s biking the length of Africa who recently passed through Burundi & Rwanda so obv a different route with the same goal. With such a long distance I imagine a lot of thought must have gone into it, but they’ve obviously chosen very differently.
Safest route with best infrastructure. Congo is unsafe right now, and so is the other Congo and Central African Republic. The coast also has the most and the best roads, which were needed, as his crew travelled in a van beside him. Moreover they needed contact with the world, which is easier to get near the coasts.
And I suspect he also thought about the fact that there are fewer infectious diseases outside of the jungles.
Central africa very bad. East africa you'll definitely need to cross sudan - bad again, and if you stick to the coast - somalia, even worse.
West it is.
Then avoid the worst of the sahara, and the kalahari, and you end up with this
"This fucking fuck ran all the fucking way across fucking Africa and you can't get your fucking ass off the couch you lazy fucking fuck."
is probably what he would say
As someone born and raised in Africa. I'm genuinely surprised he made it all the way, not because of endurance. But because many of us are too afraid to walk down the street we live in.
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An amazing feat of human endurance. Russ has run 385 marathons over 351 days, traversing 16 countries, and is hopefully well on his raising to reach his charity target of £1m. EDIT: adding his donation link in here - https://givestar.io/gs/PROJECTAFRICA In the process he has dealt with severe injury and illness and was robbed at gunpoint.
He traveled the African continent by foot in less than a calendar year?
Yep, following the route in the second pic. He averaged about 75km a day. The only days he took off were due to logistical issues (e.g. visas) or doctors forcing him to (he was pissing blood a couple of times).
I recently saw/heard about someone hiking from Mexico to Canada in about 4 months and that, along with your post, got me pondering the initial human diaspora and the great distances it was possible to travel in a relatively short period of time. Obviously much different situations between then and now but the ability remains
The slowness of humanity’s dispora is mostly driven by the previous harshness of life and the relative comfort and security of civilization/one’s home/tribe. Venturing into the unknown was incredibly dangerous for a number of reasons, and people just didn’t do it until the HAD to. Even look at more modern diasporas. Europeans going to America did so often because of famine or war or marginalization at home. Relatively rich northern Italians didn’t come over; poor southern ones did. Irish after famine. Africans not by choice. Etc. The Jewish diaspora was largely not by their choice. Over and over again. And look at how early European settlers faired. Rough stuff for the pioneers. Now imagine doing that even further in the past. Crossing into a new biome with no established humans to teach you anything about the local flora and fauna. Hard as hell. Death would be much more likely than survival. Yet at the same time, nothing is too too far away on foot, which is kinda crazy
I've always wanted to go on one of these extra long foot adventures through the country or cross continent. I feel like with modern technology and amenities, survival now would be much easier than a few hundreds years ago. The risk is still present for sure but Im inclined to believe it wouldn't be nearly as perilous now. I recently watched a video of a guy and his girlfriend make a trip from the farthest northern part of Alaska all the way down through Canada and the US into Mexico. They didnt do it on foot but by bicycle which helped but that's still an absurdly long journey to take without a car. Took them over a year to make the trip and reach her home town in Mexico. Their ultimate goal was the farthest tip of Argentina. Cover the entirety of the Americas. They stopped on Mexico to recover for a few months but as of typing this comment, they're still set to continue. This goes to say that they managed to survive winter in Canada, maintain charge on their cameras and phones and find enough shelter and help for the entire duration of North America. That would be a death sentence 200 years ago but they made it through with minimal health hazards. Of course there were risks but it's much less dangerous to do now. Makes the idea of it very appealing. I never could because unfortunately I have a job and bills and rent and responsibility but damn would I love to some day.
There's a saying that you can live off the wilderness and you can move through the wilderness, but you can't do both.
Meaning, survival strategies vary so much depending on your surroundings that you're unlikely to survive all the environments you face?
>you can live off the wilderness and you can move through the wilderness, but you can't do both I read it more to mean that surviving off the wilderness alone takes all your effort. If you try to move through it as well you will fail to survive. The corollary being that you can only move through it if you bring your own means of survival./
essentially you just wont get very far if you have to figure out food/shelter/fire every single night from scratch
I want to through hike the Appalachian one day, I know it’s insane and hiking the full trail takes months but I want to feel what it was like to be a settler
This is in my bucket list
As someone who's hiked from Mexico to Canada your body adapts surprisingly quickly. Humans were built to travel great distances, it's how we hunted since over distance we are incredibly fast due to our bipedal walking and water cooling.
You would be shocked at how far you can walk in a relatively short amount of time. Think about old armies, they walked everywhere. When Ceaser wanted to conquer Gual he took his army from Rome and walked over to central France. Napoleons troops walked from France to Russia and then walked back. I have personally walked the width of Spain in a month and I really wasn't even pushing it, I was done most days by 2pm, the record on my route was 6.5 days.
Buen Camino
What always impressed me with Roman legions is that they essentially built a new fort each night they were on the march. Not just a simple matter of pitching tents, but they'd actually dig a ditch along the outer perimeter, using that soil to then build a rampart on the inner side of said ditch, capped off with palisades. All this was done upwards of ~200 feet away from their tents, in order to limit the effectiveness of opposing archers/artillery. These outer perimeters could be up to 2 miles in total length. And all that after marching some 20 miles in a day!
The fastest known time to travel from Mexico to Canada on foot is [46 days 12 hours and 50 minutes by Karen Sabbe](https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/karel-sabbe-pacific-crest-trail-ca-or-wa-2023-08-26)
Mexico to Canada is a whole hiking trail, there are also a few others on that level in terms of length
That's the Pacific Crest trail and is pretty popular hiking feat. Humans are cool, the ability to walk on 2 legs and sweat is what separated us from all other animals and why we became super efficient at hunting
Look up the great divide bike race. People bike and camp from mexico to canada in less than 20 days and average 3-4 hours of sleep. Some people are crazy.
These are pretty amazing feats, but still easier than travelling without roads or trails, not knowing where water or food will be coming from next.
Lol the current Mexico to Canada pct record is 46ish days
Hardest Geezer in that Several folks who would take this on would probably call it quits when pissing blood
I pissed blood a few times after a tough run. Kinda weird. First time I thought I was about to die.
I was wondering what the pathophysiology of that would be but so far I only got that its called “marathoner’s hematuria,”. From what I can interpret its [not too bad](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2184253/) and is probably the result of the stress causing excessive excretion of erythocytes through blood vessels that have become more permeable around the kidneys due to changes in circulatory dynamics.
You’re evidently ahead of me on this topic. I have a family member who is a physician who said it’s not a big deal. Like you said, the kidneys being irritated. Hurt to pee tho.
Why did he skip around Gabon?
There was a coup shorty before.
Do you know why he avoided Gabon ?
What would cause him to piss blood?
Well your urine is filtered blood, so you're not so much as "pissing" blood as maybe what more likely happened is that his kidneys weren't filtering out what they needed to from blood. Maybe the extreme exercise he was doing caused damage or swelling in his kidneys and so they weren't functioning properly, not that he had a bleed anywhere in his urinary system. I don't know enough about extreme exercise and the kidneys to know why this might have happened though specifically
I thought it'd be what remains of shredded muscles, something akin to when people are crushed.
Check out his insta, the hardest geezer or something, daily uploads of his run. Was pretty interesting following him
In his early videos he was targeting 200-something days. But ran into health issues and had to add in more off days
My child is also named Bort
I don't want to draw away from Russ Cook's amazing feat, but it's worth noting there's a guy who ran from the [north pole to the south pole](https://www.patfarmer.com/pole-to-pole) via the Americas (with air lifts over bodies of water), covering 21,000km over 10 months - averaging something like 50 marathons per month over the duration.
All these major journeys are worth celebrating and noting how they're unique from each other. There's also a man who previously ran from ~~Cape Town to the Suez Canal~~ the Cape of Good Hope to Israel, that's why Russ' claim has always specifically been about the entire length of Africa. I was curious about the journey you linked so I read through his route. It seems he skipped 3300 km of the Canadian arctic between the northern tip of North America and Radisson Quebec and his Antarctic leg was 900km rather than starting further north on Antarctica. I think he represents it honestly as several different journeys of different natures on the website, with the road runs being comparable to what Russ did. Thanks for linking, it's neat to read
of course it had to be an aussie. always amazed by how crazy some people are.
I reckon being from the Land Down Under has got something to do with this.
He trained by involuntarily running away from funnel web spiders.
>Russ has run 385 marathons over 351 days, That's insane
The idea that he doubled down on a few of those days makes it seem even crazier to me.
I think they mean he ran the equivalent of, not that he was actually running in an official marathon and then heading to another. As in he ran on average about ~28.7 miles a day. Still insane
Ah gotcha! Yeah that's still wild lol. I have a mental image of him finishing a marathon and simply literally running into the next one lol. Just a non-stop video of dude running.
When you consider how many days he didn't run, due to logistical issues, illness, injury etc. the numbers get even more wild
He was consistently hitting 70km days in the later part
Indeed
I have driven a route similar to this several times. The fact that he’s done it on foot is amazing, never mind doing it in under a year. That’s fcukin unbelievable
How come may I ask? I sometimes dream of getting a vehicle or motorbike and driving from London to South Africa.
That was my dream too.. I was fortunate enough to get a job with a company that did that kind of thing, back in the 90’s. Crazy times on the road with insurrectionists, corrupt officials, broken bridges etc., but wonderful people and breathtaking scenery mostly.
have you ever driven in africa? you should start with a smaller trip. and the motorbike idea sounds good at first but if you're white you're going to get harassed a lot unfortunately.
I’m sorry, but 1M for charity? That’s not enough! He deserves way more for that awful sounding experience!
Well, now that it's on national news and all over the internet, I expect he will be getting a lot more donations.
He ran the entire African continent and was only robbed once?! That’s the impressive part.
He was also kidnapped on another occasion. He’s kept a lot of things on the down low understandably - mostly for his own safety and I’m sure also partly as they will be hoping to make a documentary.
When I watch videos of solo travellers crossing Africa, the thing that always strikes me are the bribes. Constant road checks where the police will ask for a bribe of some sort ("the paperwork is incorrect... You must give me money!") I wonder how much of that they came across.
They actually mention in a couple episodes that they have a bribe budget.
When I traveled through Egypt with a large group and a tour guide part of the cost of the agency's cost went to a cash kitty for bribe money, and the most essential part of our guide being there was theat for the dozen or so bribe checkpoints we encountered, he knew exactly how much was reasonable and what to refuse. A solo traveler would have been over a barrel and unable to realistically resist a corrupt law enforcement agent, but our guy was just like "60? That's too much, it should be 50" and the cop was like "okay you got me, 40 it is"
That's why he's raising money. Owes a million
I remember the gunpoint robbing but must have missed the kidnapping part? Is that on YouTube?
Had to google to refresh my memory - sorry for the shitty tabloid link but this tells the full story https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-hardest-geezer-kidnapped-months-30654760.amp Dude has some stories to tell.
Damn. That's wild. It's always fascinated me how I could be so petty about dumb shit while stuff like this is a Tuesday in another country. I've got friend from some pretty fucked up countries that take the small stuff in stride so much better than I do. I have a friend from Serbia that never stops smiling, ever. I've heard some stories from him about what his young life was like and it's pretty fucking brutal. Meanwhile I can't get past something stupid like traffic, or just having a bad day or something equally ridiculous. Perspective truly is everything.
That story is missing a good chunk. He was driven 7 hours into the jungle and pulled into a hut. Next paragraph starts with 'We made it out'.
>Is that on YouTube? I was following his videos on Youtube, only the aftermath was covered as his support van / crew wasn't able to follow him through the jungle paths he was running on at the time.
That's great and all but I think the real story of this was Guus
Heroic 1s and 2s from this man. The tarmac didn't know what hit it
The lad was absolutely STOMPIN
powered by Perfect Ted, Huel and Sweeties
Ferocious ones and twos
bang bang
And then one day, for no particular reason, I started runninG.
That's pretty much what his final run today looked like lol
Lol the G Nice
amusingly, and definitely deliberately, his first three words given to reporters after finishing were "i'm pretty tired"
Rain, forest, rain!
This is one of the rare times in my life i can say i followed something since its start. I starting following during the first week
Highlights from your perspective?
The time he got fucking kidnapped was crazy. Another is One of his first videos where he kept running despite having diarrhea dripping down his leg and the doctors telling him he would die if he continued
Dude was pissing blood and ran a marathon while puking every 30 minutes. This dude is fucking insane
That was the craziest part for me. Literally couldn’t keep any food down for over a day and was on no sleep and when asked if he would still run said “I gotta do at least a marathon”
Where did you follow his journey? Does he have a vlog or something?
The entire thing is documented on YouTube. Just search "hardest geezer"
It’s very bold to call yourself the ‘hardest geezer’ But he’s backed it up
Lol I just learned that geezer means something different in the UK. I was expecting him to be an old man at first but he's only 26.
Insta
Whats insane is how early on all those health concerns kicked in. I really thought he would have to quit due to health concerns.
Talk about beating his body into submission. The human body is incredible.
On top of this, he is also a really funny chap
Oooh, I got questions. 1. Where did he get kidnapped and did he get rescued or ransomed out? 1. Why did he skip the more direct coastal route through Gabon and Equatorial Guinea? He avoided a handful of smaller coastal countries. Maybe less visas to coordinate.
https://x.com/hardestgeezer/status/1688280312441102337?s=46 he’s quite the storyteller
He ran the route he did because it was the safest for two reasons. One, most the routes he skipped contained terrorist run countries where he would’ve been in danger. Two, the Sahara desert is a brutal place to run. Little to no roads and hot af. He did run through the desert for a bit. But those are the main two reasons he ran the route he did.
times? with an s? how often did he get kidnapped?
Twice in one day. Also a robbery at gunpoint (on a different day).
Every time Guus was on camera
Since he did Hadrian’s Wall with Geowizard for me
IKR? Amazing journey. Geezer rocks - and for charity no less. The only other person I follow is Paul Solapek - 24000 mile journey https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/
He’s like “no fucking way I’m going thru the Congo”
I mean would you want to? Lol
I dunno, could be a fun time.
famous last words
I’ll let you know, if you don’t hear back fr…..,,,,,,
r/redditsniper
Nothing can go wrongo when I'm in the Congo.
You mean the DRC because he went thru the Republic of the Congo 🇨🇬,just not democratic republic of the Congo 🇨🇩 Edit: ops sorry,didn’t see that tiny part where he went thru the DRC too
This is one of those things in life I've accepted I'm just never going to learn and remember
It’s ok, countrys and politics can be confusing
Bigger one has the bigger name.
"Are you the Judean People's Front?" "F*ck off. We're the People's Front of Judea!"
"...I thought we were the Popular Front?..."
He definitely went through the DRC though
According to the map, he went trough Congo, he avoided Gabon
That part of Congo is somehow safe, Western part. Eastern part is one with civil wars. Congo is really big.
So bongo, bongo, bongo, I cannot leave the congo, oh no no no no no Bingo, bangle, bungle, I'm a captive in the jungle, they refused to let me go
Fallout 4 memories
Maybe he watched the movie
Got lost and kidnapped there.
STOP EATING MY SESAME CAKE!
?? He went through both the Congo and the e Democratic Republic of the Congo
I mean the obvious point here being he added a shitload of miles going to the absolute edge to cut through as little as possible on the extreme border. But it’s Reddit so gotta jerk ourselves off.
Pretty sure it's because that's where the only bridge is across the Congo river and he wanted to stick to traversing the whole distance purely on foot
I think the main confusion is that there are 2 countries called Congo, DRC & RC (aka Congo-Kinchasa and Congo-Brazzaville). and he took a route that took him through loads of the second one, instead avoiding Gabon and Guinea. But yeah, on the DRC, he got into it and it's like he went "fuck me am I going to Kinshasa city, fuck that", and bolted for the coast to Cabinda lol What I can't quite work out is why he went so far into the DRC in the first place. Purely looking at the map it's like he gets _way_ more than halfway to the nothern border then goes "actually no, you know what, fuck it", and starts doubling back and heading for the coast lol
Earned that strawberry daiquiri Geezer
He probably forgot he also has to run back…
Forgot to have someone drive his car to the finish.
"Shit, I dropped my keys somewhere"
Don’t give him ideas lol. If you’ve seen his vlogs I wouldn’t put it past him
Why the fuck he do it uphill? /s
In all seriousness though, he did South-to-North so that they'd have more time to get their visas for Algeria, which is tough to do
They were actually denied Algerian visas at first and it was only after a big social media campaign that they (thankfully) got them!
You'd think if you were going to undertake something this crazy, you'd get all that stuff in order before you even start
They actually tried. The initial plan was to run from Tunisia to South Africa, but due to the length of time it was taking and their finite window of opportunity, they decided to flip the plan and run from South Africa to Tunisia instead, with the hope of having more time to secure the visas.
Easier said than done. Impossible to know the exact dates you’d be arriving and a lot of places require you to enter within a certain time period after the visa is granted, so you can’t do it a year in advance. I’m not sure you’d be able to get visas to all the countries they went to whilst still in the UK (or at least not without going to the embassy). In the end doing it while they were out there eventually worked in their favour as he had the profile to challenge the decision.
They probably would have rejected them without the massive social media campaign, it sounds like Algeria does not grant visas very often... And at the start of the run, they had barely any social media presence. I remember his first few videos just having a few hundred views.
It's not just an ordinary Algerian visa either which is already difficult, it's an Algerian visa to run through the dangerous Sahara desert through a border that is rarely open, with multiple escort police vehicles, they don't let people do things like that lightly.
Many countries have a minimum time to apply for a visa. For my country you can't apply to visit more than three months before you do - in case the diplomatic situation changes. Additionally, they offer a specific time box - miss your window and you have to start all over again.
He ran the leeennnggtthhh of Aaaafffrrica
I hear what you did there.
It's gonna take some time to heal the knees he used to haaaa aaa a aaa aa a ave Oooo ooo Do do dodo do Ooo
Dude is a beast! Congratulations to him.
Let Russ Cook
Just had to stop by and make sure someone commented this. Very good, carry on.
Guys. Give him a sponsor. https://givestar.io/gs/PROJECTAFRICA?utm_source=Linktree&utm_medium=Russ_Cook_Linktree And upvote this comment for visibility
Thank you, yes you’re right to share this. I’ve added to my top comment too. Really hoping he gets to his £1m.
That is such a small amount for a feat like this 😒 can you imagine being Elon and not just throwing money at people/causes like this
Tried three times and it kept breaking. Shame if that’s a wide spread issue at this time.
Ran uphill the whole way as well.
That’s not how it works, it’s only up hill until he gets to the equator. It’s all down hill after that.
this is fake news bullshit. he had to do a handstand walk until the equator and after crossing he could run on his feet
Why the detour round the coast could have just headed straight north /s
And he would have been motivated to run faster.
That African tarmac has been STOMPED. Watched his mission since day 1 and had no doubt.
Whole length of Africa and not a single square centimeter of his skin is tanned. Doing the redheads out there proud.
He ain't EVER GONNA STOP RUNNING!
And then there’s me who while in shape still gets winded eating a sandwich sometimes. Kudos to this man.
Kudos to him indeed. Reminds me of Eddie Izzard, out of shape stand up comedian doing [27 marathons in 27 days](https://www.comicrelief.com/news/eddie-izzard-completes-27-marathons-27-days-challenge-sport-relief/#:~:text=Comedian%20Eddie%20Izzard%20has%20completed,South%20Africa%20for%20Sport%20Relief.&text=Exhausted%20but%20ecstatic%2C%20he%20ran,UK%20and%20around%20the%20world) for charity in SA. We’re capable of amazing feats. Don’t know until you try it for yourself. Be safe, but rock on!
Do you have a flag????
I don’t need one. I’ve made a country with these rules I’ve just made up.
😂
How dangerous is this given the route he ran?
He had a gun pointed in his face. Wallet and passport stolen. He was later abducted and had to pay a ransom I believe.
Yeah VERY dangerous. Plus the long term physical impact on his body is still to be seen.
The route he took probably is the safest possible, but still dangerous. He chose a route around the west of Africa - it's *mostly* safe in West Africa these days. Countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia have a pretty war-torn past but have been peaceful for the last few decades. Nigeria and Burkina Faso would be the most dangerous countries in west Africa to travel to/through, and he didn't go through Burkina Faso. An easten or central route would have been far more dangerous - with the DRC (especially the east) and Central African Republic being exceptionally dangerous, Sudan currently involved in a civil war and Somalia genrally being one of the most dangerous countries in Africa. Eritrea and Ethiopia would also be very difficult to navigate through safely. There would probably be no safe way to progress up through east Africa.
Damn this mf ran through the Sahara, that’s insane lol
I highly recommend watching the YouTube episodes of the Mauritania Sahara part if you haven’t seen it. He was running through sandstorms, and the only people he encountered for hundreds of miles seemed to be the most nice and generous people on the planet
Been following his youtube since day 1 of his run thanks to Geowizard. As someone his age, for whom running is not easy.... I am constantly in awe. I was sure he'd have to stop the run at some point, either due to political/logistical reasons or his death... but dammit, Russ is truly the Hardest Geezer. Couldn't be more stoked for him. Hope he's got all the strawberry daiquiris!
I ran 6 miles this morning and was feeing pretty good about myself. Not any more, thanks Russ Cook 😫
I'm proud of you, bub 🦵
Deserves a knighthood
Thats what that tarmac gets for looking smug.
Can't what for his first podcast. My money is on Dodge Woodall
Wonder if he'll go on JRE and then have to listen to Joe mention Goggins incessantly. I'd love to hear Russ talk to Eddie Lizzard.
Off Menu. "All of it. Poppadoms and bread, fuck the rules I'm in deficit".
He’s 27.
He’s also British, and geezer in Britain is slang for a dude
For a small island, Britain has produced some really tenacious individuals isn't it? British people are always marked as having a great sense of humour or ability for optimism but I think theirs a better way to describe that disposition
Astounding. That's insane, Jesus Christ.
Curious why he avoided Gabon . . .
The coup maybe?
He should have ran from north to south that way he’d be going downhill the whole time.
That actually was his original plan, but he couldn’t get a visa to cross from Tunisia to Algeria. So he decided to go south to north, figuring that if he made it as far as Algeria from the other end, he’d be famous enough that people would help him get the visa. And they did
I’m familiar with the location of countries in Africa but less so the topography or infrastructure Just curious if there’s a reason he specifically took that route? Does it have the best roads? I’m aware of a girl that’s biking the length of Africa who recently passed through Burundi & Rwanda so obv a different route with the same goal. With such a long distance I imagine a lot of thought must have gone into it, but they’ve obviously chosen very differently.
Safest route with best infrastructure. Congo is unsafe right now, and so is the other Congo and Central African Republic. The coast also has the most and the best roads, which were needed, as his crew travelled in a van beside him. Moreover they needed contact with the world, which is easier to get near the coasts. And I suspect he also thought about the fact that there are fewer infectious diseases outside of the jungles.
Central africa very bad. East africa you'll definitely need to cross sudan - bad again, and if you stick to the coast - somalia, even worse. West it is. Then avoid the worst of the sahara, and the kalahari, and you end up with this
Can you imagine how demotivating it would be to get to Kenya and then just get outrun every day? I'd avoid it too
Does he have a vlog or something about this I can watch?
He’s @hardestgeezer on YouTube. Lots of individual vlogs on there. A lot of people are hoping someone will pick it up and make a documentary
Someone contact David Goggins
"This fucking fuck ran all the fucking way across fucking Africa and you can't get your fucking ass off the couch you lazy fucking fuck." is probably what he would say
All I want to know is what shoes did he use.
Russ you magnificent lunatic
“My name is Russ cook and I’ve just become the first person EVER to run the entire length of Africa”
As someone born and raised in Africa. I'm genuinely surprised he made it all the way, not because of endurance. But because many of us are too afraid to walk down the street we live in.
A hell of an achievement.
Looks like he went out of his way to minimize the number of border crossings
As a fellow ginger, I want to know what sunscreen he is using