THE HARDEST GEEZER

THE CONTINENT-CONQUERING TRAILBLAZER ON VALUING FREEDOM, SEARCHING FOR MEANING AND HAVING FAITH.

- Interview by Ben Hobson and Rick Pearson

Ras Angela By the time he took his final step on 7 April last year, there was no quibbling over the ‘Hardest Geezer’ moniker; but the 27-year-old from West Sussex is much more than an endurance hard man. His 352-day African ultramarathon raised over R20 million for The Running Charity, which supports young people experiencing homelessness, and Sandblast, which supports Sahrawi refugees, while his current projects are motivated by altruism over self-promotion. As you'll discover over the following pages, Cook is a deep thinker, spiritual soul and truly inspiring human being.

Runner's World: In your new book, you talk about being a rebellious teenager. Looking back, do you get a sense of what you were searching for, and perhaps how running helped give you direction?

Russ Cook: “I think during those years of my life I was searching for meaning quite intensely, and not really knowing where to find it. So I was trying a bunch of different stuff - partying, binge-drinking, gambling, kind of distancing myself from family - on a path to try to find meaning, but putting my energy into a lot of things that weren't really giving me positive outcomes. Then I found running, so I finally found something that did. And I've just been rolling on that crazy train ever since.”

RW: You got into running after running back home to Worthing from Brighton following a night out. Did you wake up the next day and think, ‘The journey home was fun?’