Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me!

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2024

⏱️ 125 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does it take to become the Hardest Geezer and run 9,940-miles in 352 days? Russ Cook, also known as the ‘Hardest Geezer’, is an ultra-endurance athlete and the first person to run the entire length of Africa, raising over £1 million for charity. He is also the first person to run from Asia to London. In this conversation Russ and Steven discuss topics such as, his childhood and difficult teenage years, hitting rock bottom, wanting more from life, being robbed at gun point, and the struggles of being the first man to run across the length Africa. 00:00 Intro 02:00 Russ' Childhood & Being Rebellious 05:50 Relationship With My Parents 12:00 Trying To Get People’s Attention 16:42 Distancing Himself from Family 16:22 The Impact of Russ' Girlfriend 19:11 Moving Out as a Teenager 21:02 Going Down the Wrong Path 25:10 Russ' Mental Health 26:18 What Would Russ Say to His Younger Self 30:52 Russ' Epiphany 32:09 The Feeling of Progressing in Life 35:07 Travelling the World Running 35:53 First Challenges 36:51 Doing Things That Aren’t Considered Normal 39:03 Returning from the First Trip 42:26 Relationship with His Dad 44:09 Burying Himself Alive 44:33 Russ DM’d Steven Before Going To Africa 46:40 Why Africa? 48:40 Meeting His Girlfriend Before Leaving to Africa 52:41 How Have You Changed 54:52 Preparations to Run the Entire Length of Africa 01:03:25 Getting Robbed 01:03:26 Being Kidnapped 01:10:05 Facing Death 01:24:14 Team Struggles 01:31:52 Was Quitting an Option? 01:36:18 Visa Issues 01:37:59 Nearing the End 01:45:12 Crossing the Line 01:45:44 What’s Next? 01:50:41 What Was the Goal? 01:55:36 Russ Inspiring Others 01:59:20 The Last Guest Question You can donate to Russ’s charity fundraiser here: https://bit.ly/3Wr2WJR Follow Russ: Instagram - https://bit.ly/4djAL5I Twitter - https://bit.ly/3UFqZmV YouTube - https://bit.ly/3Up8YYH Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/3kxINCANKsb My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo Sponsors: PerfectTed: bit.ly/PerfectTed-DOAC with an exclusive code DIARY10 for 10% off PerfectTed x Hardest Geezer - Strawberry Daiquiri Flavour: bit.ly/PerfectTed-HardestGeezer-Daiquiri-DOAC (all profits to charity) Uber: https://p.uber.com/creditsterms Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When I say they 102 does it bring back any memories?
0:03.0	Yeah, it's the only YouTube video that I didn't release.
0:05.0	My name is Russ Cook and I'm attempting to become the first person ever to run the entire length of Africa.
0:11.0	It was probably the highest part in my whole life.
0:14.4	What happened? So going down this dirt path and two blokes on a motorbike puller, I knew that
0:20.8	I'm on the bike for longer than half an hour.
0:23.0	It's bad news.
0:24.0	I ended up spending seven hours on my bike
0:26.0	going into the jungle.
0:28.0	I was getting kidnaps.
0:29.0	Your partner told us that she thought you had died.
0:32.0	I mean I thought I was going to die as well. Were you thinking
0:34.7	about people back home? Russ I don't think many people know that you did all this stuff before Africa.
0:46.5	Twenty-two years old, you become the first person to run from Asia to London.
0:49.6	Bowed yourself for life for seven days.
0:51.2	You pulled the car as well, which is pretty crazy.
0:54.0	What were you looking for?
0:55.0	Well, that's one hell of a question, man. Things have got pretty bad. I wasn't speaking
1:00.0	and gambling. I would wake up throughout the week just burst into tears crying.
1:04.4	You had dark thoughts. Yeah. But only you know no one was going to come and save you.
1:10.0	It's had to be and I thought Africa would be the best adventure ever.
1:15.0	But day 30, you start pissing blood.
	...

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