Russell Cook, the man nicknamed “Hardest Geezer” revealed the true cost of running the length of Africa.
In April Cook successfully ran the full length of Africa, crossing the finish line in Tunisia after 352 days.
Before he set off on the challenge, Cook admitted to having struggled with his mental health, gambling and drinking, and was keen to “make a difference”.
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Upon running through 16 countries, he raised over £1million for charity.
Cook has since admitted that he had initially anticipated the entire run to set him back around £20,000, only for it to cost over ten times that amount.
Speaking on The Fellas Studios podcast, Cook said: “At the very start - the conception of the idea - I always did things pretty cowboy, like back to basics, I was like, ‘Look, 20 bags and I’ll get it done’.
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“And then, I don’t know the exact final number but it was more like 250,000 or 300,000. And we still did it pretty cowboy. We weren’t splashing [the cash].
“What actually happened was, I met a mate of a mate who made a tonne of money in crypto, and I persuaded him to give me 50 bags to get the thing going.
“I was like, 50 bags, that’s more than enough. That’s sweet. We’re going to be good.
“But what happened is we had this other production team that was working with us, and they were like, ‘We’re going to sell the documentary first and that will give you all the funds that you need for it, bla bla bla.’
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“It didn’t work out how we initially thought but because of that, we delayed the mission by about five or six months. We burned through a s*** tonne of money and ended up at the start with about 10 bags.
“I just got to the point where I was like, ‘I'm, starting, I don’t care.’”
Chris Byfield