For most people, being robbed at gunpoint and kidnapped by machete-wielding thugs in the jungle would be enough to make them give up.
But not Russ Cook, the “toughest geezer.”
The ultramarathon runner Yesterday he fulfilled his dream of running the length of Africa, completing his 352-day running odyssey in which he covered more than 10,000 miles and ran the equivalent of some 385 marathons.
Cook, a self-confessed “fat boy” before embarking on a sensational turnaround, began his journey at Africa’s southernmost point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa, on April 22 last year.
He crossed the finish line in Tunisia’s Ras Angela, the continent’s northernmost point, on Sunday, where he was hugged by loved ones and serenaded by fans singing “Geezer, Geezer, Geezer.”
Russ Cook smiles as he crosses the finish line after becoming the first person to run across Africa
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Originally from Worthing, West Sussex, Cook has openly shared his continent’s ordeals, spanning adventures from urinating blood and back pain to kidnappings by armed gangs.
Superhuman achievements like Mr Cook’s are not the norm and Dr Zakariya Waqar-Uddin, a family doctor in the North East, explains there are good reasons for this.
While it is universally accepted that regular exercise is good for your health, taking it to the extreme (as Mr Cook, 27, did) can be detrimental to your health.
Dr Waqar-Uddin said: “It’s like brushing your teeth.”
“Twice a day is healthy, but brushing after every meal, or for too long or too hard, can damage the protective layer.”
He said people who commit to extreme levels of exercise risk damaging aspects of their physical health such as their heart, joints and muscles due to prolonged wear and tear.
Dr. Waqar-Uddin added that while regular levels of exercise are good for these parts of the body, there is a limit, and exceeding it can be potentially harmful.
As such, it recommends that people aim for 30 to 50 minute exercise sessions three to five times a week, similar to what the NHS recommends.
However, he added that any amount of healthy exercise, even a 10-minute walk, is better than nothing and that people starting their fitness journey should not be discouraged from starting small and making smaller, healthier changes to their fitness. life.
In fact, he warned that trying to do too much too soon could harm your long-term health, since regular, sustainable exercise is much better for you.
“Too much exercise will probably discourage you from continuing to do it in the long term; you will feel unattainable and will be abandoned,” he said.
Dr. Waqar-Uddin added that while a healthy amount of exercise is good for our mental health, too much can, like the physical health benefits, have the opposite effect.
“The mental health benefits of moderate exercise can be negated by extreme exercise; it can become addictive,” he said.
Mr Cook’s astonishing achievement marks a sensational change for the ‘Hardest Geezer’, who described his former self as a ‘fat lad’ with drinking and gambling problems who ‘had no zest left for life’ until who found his calling in fitness.
He now claims to be the first person to tour all of Africa.
But the World Runners Association (WRA), which is made up of just seven members, has claimed that one of its founders actually deserved the title over Cook.
The red-haired extreme marathoner overcame multiple obstacles in his almost long journey, and not just physical or mental.
One of his most terrifying experiences was when he was “kidnapped” by a gang of men armed with machetes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August.
He previously described the nightmare days as “the hardest of my life.”
‘In an attempt to find the children in a village on the plan B route, I came across a rural settlement where the chief told me I should give him money. He didn’t have any,” the runner wrote on day 107.
He added: “So it all worked out.” Very soon I found myself surrounded by many guys with machetes. He was escorted out of town into the bush.
‘I emptied my bag to show that I had nothing but a half-eaten biscuit. I gave it to him and he ran away. I spent the next few hours hiking overgrown trails in the jungle. Trying to stay off any trail until I was far away.
‘I arrived at the village via the plan B route and found that the road was also impassable again for the support van. Exhausted and dehydrated, I started heading back to the last known place with passable roads when two guys pulled up on a bike.
‘They didn’t speak English but they tried to communicate. I must go with them to return to my friends.
‘What happened next was a seven-hour motorcycle ride deep into the jungle. In my head I thought this was it. Me. The self-proclaimed toughest geezer. About to be locked up in a Congo gulag before being dismembered limb by limb and devoured.
Fortunately, Mr. Cook was taken to a village and taken to a cabin where he recalled that a group of men were fighting over what to do with him and arguing how much money he owed them.
Cook hugs his fans at the finish line after completing 385 marathons in one year.
After some back and forth negotiations, he was able to contact his team, who spent the next few days formulating a rescue plan.
Cook eventually managed to escape and returned to his starting point that day, running another 60 kilometers on a new route. He admitted his head wasn’t “completely there” but promised to “move on.”
He celebrated the end of his mammoth career by taking a dip in the Mediterranean Sea, where he candidly told reporters: “I’m very tired.”
As one man joked, “Let’s get you a strawberry daiquiri,” Cook responded, “Yeah, let’s fuck off.”
The runner has joked many times about receiving the cocktail as a reward for his epic effort.
The extreme athlete was photographed sipping a pink cocktail while sitting on a white and gold throne with his girlfriend.
It was a moment he had been savoring for many months, having battled one setback after another.
Mr Cook’s career was not only a superhuman feat but also a humanitarian one, raising funds for charities along the way.
Half of the profits will go to The Running Charity, which helps homeless young people, and the other half to WaterAid, which provides clean water and toilets in places like Africa.
At the time of writing, it has raised almost £800,000.
You can donate to their fundraising page at https://givestar.io/gs/PROJECTAFRICA