Ultra-marathon runner Russ Cook, known as ‘Hardest Geezer,’ has embarked on a new adventure after completing a grueling 9,940-mile run across South Africa, where he encountered harrowing experiences such as being mugged at gunpoint and kidnapped by machete-wielding criminals.
Russ, hailing from Worthing, West Sussex, is now taking on the challenge of running the 3000km (1864 miles) Te Araroa trail in New Zealand, a rugged route that stretches the entire length of Aotearoa and is akin to conquering approximately 60 ultramarathons.
The intrepid runner kicked off his latest feat at Stirling Point in Bluff, located at the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island. From there, he will run northbound for an estimated 60 days until he reaches the finish line at Cape Rēinga in Northland.
Russ said he expected to climb the equivalent of approximately 10 Mount Everest’s in elevation over approximately the next 10 weeks.
During the challenge, he is also due to bungee jump off Auckland Harbour Bridge, canyon swing in Queenstown and sky dive in Abel Tasman.
Speaking from the start line, he said: ‘I can’t wait to set off on this challenge and begin to explore Aotearoa New Zealand.
‘I’ve always wanted to see the country’s incredible landscapes, experience its unique culture, and meet the hospitable local people.
‘The incredible, warm, welcome I’ve received so far has already given me a glimpse of how special the journey ahead of me will be.’
Russ began his journey with a warm welcome from Māori group Ko Tane at New Zealand’s Christchurch Airport, who greeted the runner with a traditional Māori welcome – a chance to experience New Zealand’s indigenous culture first hand.
Russ raised more than £1 million for charity during his previous challenge in Africa, despite complications with visas, health scares, geopolitical issues and an armed robbery.
The then 27-year-old started in the continent’s most southern point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa, on April 22 2023 and crossed the finish line in Ras Angela, Tunisia, the most northern point, April 7 2024.
During his 352 days of running, Cook crossed 16 countries, covered around 10,000 miles and completed the equivalent of 386 marathons.
It marked a sensational turnaround for the ‘Hardest Geezer’, who describes his former self as a ‘fat lad’ and a ‘mess of a bloke’ with drinking and betting issues who ‘didn’t have any zest for life left’ until he found his calling.
As a troubled young man in his early 20s, Cook had an epiphany in a Brighton nightclub at 3am which resulted in him walking out the venue and running 12 miles home to Worthing, West Sussex.
And with the help of a mate ‘twisting his arm’ to run a half marathon when he was 21, the foundations for Cook’s African odyssey dream were built.
In an interview with The Times – just 11 days after he had set off on his challenge – Cook revealed: ‘I am actually not anything special. If you put me in a lab, I’m not genetically anything unusual. I used to be a fat lad.
‘I was drinking a lot. I was quite overweight, struggling with gambling and working lonely, miserable jobs that I really hated. I didn’t have any zest of life left,’ he added. ‘I just accepted the reality that was handed to me.’
Cook embarked on series of challenges. He completed 71 marathons in 66 days when he ran from Asia to London in 2019 and broke the world record for the fastest car-pulling marathon when he dragged a 730kg Suzuki Alto 26 miles along the Worthing seafront.
In 2021, he was also buried alive for a week with nothing but water and a camera which was streaming his challenge on YouTube.
Russ had initially planned to end his challenge by Christmas – but the red-headed extreme marathon runner was forced to take on Bear Grylls’ own mantra of ‘improvise, adapt, overcome’ as he faced numerous dramatic twists.
The ‘Hardest Geezer’ survived being robbed at gunpoint and kidnapped in the jungle – but his sensational effort was also nearly thwarted by frustrating border delays and visa issues.
When he was kidnapped by a gang of men armed with machetes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August, he described the nightmare few days as ‘the toughest of my life’.
‘In an attempt to find the boys at a village on the plan B route, I stumbled into a rural settlement where the chief told me I must give him money. I had none,’ the runner wrote on day 107.
He added: ‘So that went down well. Pretty soon I found myself surrounded by lots of game blokes with machetes. Was escorted out the village into the bush.
‘Emptied my bag to show I had nothing but a half eaten biscuit. Gave it to them, and ran. Spent the next few hours bushwhacking through overgrown jungle paths. Trying to stay off any tracks until I was far away.
‘Made it to the village on the plan B route to find the road was also impassable for the support van again. Exhausted and dehydrated, I started heading back to the last known place with passable roads when two blokes pulled up on a bike.
‘They spoke no English but tried to communicate I must come with them to get back to my friends.
‘What happened next was a seven-hour motorbike ride deeper into the jungle. In my head I thought this was it. Me. The self proclaimed hardest geezer. About to get held in a Congo gulag before being ripped apart limb by limb and eaten.’
Fortunately, Mr Cook was driven into a village and moved into a hut where he recalled a group of men clashing over what to do with him and discussing how much money he owed them.
After some back and forth negotiations, he was able to contact his team who spent the next few days formulating a rescue plan.
Cook ultimately managed to escape and returned back to his start point that day, running another 60km on a new route. He admitted that his head wasn’t ‘fully there’ but vowed to ‘move forward’.
This would surely be enough to send most people back on the first flight home. But this was not even the first time that Cook cheated death while attempting to create history.
Just two months prior, he was set upon by gun-toting thugs in rural Angola.
Cook claimed his support van was raided by ‘desperate blokes with guns’ and that the armed men stole his team’s cameras, mobile phones, some passports, and money they had.
‘Infamously bad situation to find yourself on the end of. Proper spot of bother,’he quipped in late June.
He added that nobody on his crew was hurt in the armed hold-up and thanked his hundreds of thousands of followers for their messages of support.
Sharing an update the day after, Cook said said: ‘Vibes took a bit of a beat down from yesterday’s antics but the only way to get out of this is to keep going.
‘Hard times? Yes sir. Back for more? Absolutely.’
If being robbed at gunpoint and kidnapped by thugs with machetes wasn’t enough, Cook has also had to battle with his own body letting him down at times.
He also battled with multiple illnesses, endured crippling back pain and found urine in his blood while navigating from one end of Africa to the other on foot.
Cook knew of the risks when he set out on his challenge, but it didn’t appear to phase him one bit.
He told his followers: ‘The risks are obvious to see. Worst case I snuff it or end up in some prison eating dust till the end of time. Best case I do some irreversible damage to my body. Sometimes you gotta risk it for a chocolate biscuit.’
Cook celebrated his mammoth run by taking a dip in the Mediterranean Sea where he candidly told reporters: ‘I’m really tired.’
As one man joked ‘let’s get you a strawberry daiquiri, Cook replied: ‘Yeah, let’s f*** off’.
The runner has often joked about having the cocktail as a reward for his epic effort.
The extreme athlete was pictured slurping down on a pink-coloured cocktail while sat on a white and golden throne with his girlfriend.
