(Courtesy: Russ Cook/Instagram)
A U.K. man took on an epic quest running across the continent, and being held at gunpoint and kidnapped didn’t stop him from completing his goal.
The runner’s name is Russ Cook a.k.a “Hardest Geezer,” who began his journey on April 22, 2023 in South Africa.
He completed a 16,000 km run across 16 countries within nearly a year because he wanted to raise money for a fundraiser that he started.
He’s raising donations for two charities, The Running Charity, which helps people experiencing homelessness and Sandblast, which helps displaced people from Western Sahara.
According to the fundraising website, Russ has raised 876,231.24 pounds (5.1 million CDN) and he hopes to raise up to a million pounds.
Cook also documented his entire journey on social media.
In a social media post, he explained some of the dangers he endured such as being held at gunpoint.
“Nothing like a gun being pointed at your face to let you know you’re alive. Lively one today,” he said on X.
He finally completed his last run on Sunday in Tunisia and his supporters joined him crossing the finish line.
He captioned his Instagram photo, “The first person ever to run the entire length of Africa.”
He also said in another Instagram post that he got to celebrate the big accomplishment with a strawberry daiquiri and giving a big kiss to his girlfriend.
