How I went from cleaner to world record breaking athlete

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My name is Russ Cook and I’m attempting to become the first person ever to run the entire length of Africa this is where I started this is where I’m heading and this is where I am now I’ve run 6,15 km so far and I’ve got

10,495 left to go so far on the mission I’ve survived alone in the desert pissed blood been robbed at gunpoint thought I was going to be killed in the jungle had my support van smashed to bits and in this episode we sneak past the police I push the boundaries of fashion we forage

For our dinner and discuss how it all began how does it feel to be in your natural habitat as a lion in the jungle don’t think there’s many lions knocking around here lad do you feel any shame or any Pride do you do what you need to to

Stay strong and to survive uh wait wait what song is that hold on don’t tell me what is it oh slaves yeah what do you need to do to stay stronger to survive at the moment oh I just need to keep running just keep running get out of the Jungle

Be a good one yeah it would be how are you finding it so far yes all f a lot of bugs lots of bugs very hot we heard some banging from within the van last night was there anything good I was going to murder bre silence for all the Fallen higher Heroes

[ __ ] all every single one of them this is a war criminal right now the great war crimes of 2023 against moths see if I didn’t know any better knowing that you’re the hardest Geer in all I’d think that you’re a little bit a little bit booed out by certain insects I just

Don’t like it when I’m sleeping there’s insects fire around what about when you’re awake are you enjoying the food situation out here in the jungle how are you enjoying it we pretty much just eat evening meals at the moment you obviously have the biggest calorie need so it’s most worry

In PE but there’s just not that much out here I wouldn’t mind just a big fat juicy burger right made from Monkey right cuz that’s what you have on order I think it would taste more like a burger but made of human M so sweety apparently humans taste like sweet beef

According to scientists what do you think Russ would taste like he runs a lot so I I imagine he would taste kind of like a decrepit cow do you remember when we went to Namibia and they fed us that chicken and they like oh yeah this

Is a runner chicken and it was already tight oh yeah the meat would be all stringing on you won’t be able to eat me as well cuz I beat right have a good one I will enjoy this massive start a little baby I need a little baby

H once again I smashed out into the jungle on another beautiful scorcher of a day the rainforest was getting thicker every day and I took in the beauty of this incredible Place everything in the jungle is alive even though we hadn’t seen much large Wildlife every inch of

The place was full of Critters most of which wanted a bite of my Ginger flesh I stomped the tarmac hard to get away from the bugs and into the safety of the van going with a Barefoot life now G when uh when it’s possible I always try to to be

Barefoot it’s hard to keep doing it continuously because like often life just doesn’t allow us to be barefoot so I tried to do the whole Barefoot thing for a while think you go climbed the mountain Barefoot CAU up on my feet the tricky thing is like you know bacteria

Here infections it’s like so risky I’ve seen the weirdest infections of people like I met one time this guy he was like laying next to me like in the in hospital bed he just craped his knuckles with a motorbike accident and that way bacterias were able to enter and they

Were eating up the skin of his whole arm from the inside Jesus just because he has a few little scrapes here so we’ve discovered that those massive cough FES also massive bodyy flies did you say that they kill people as well especially a few decades back there was a really

Big problem here in Africa with like horsefly type of flies they would carry insomnia disease oh sleeping sickness yeah Good Vibes Good Vibes yeah so I’ll continue murdering everything I see in this van that’s flying yeah I hate to say it but I’m with Russ the once wow

That’s actually cut you bro yeah man it’s excessive really all right he’s going to hit the road Russ Cook lining up and he’s gone okay look I was aiming for a bit of better drama but he’s not really want he’s not really the drama he’s not shoes

Firmly on I hit the road I was starting to get a bit tired of this life hot weather used to be the dream but now all I wanted was to sit in an ice bath in the middle of Antarctica eating a Ben and Jerry’s unfortunately this wasn’t

Going to be a reality for a long time suck it up and crack on tough one noral it’s hot though to 36° Peak was we clocked to 37 that’s 1° off your hottest day ever good good what’s the hottest day everyone’s ever been in I’ve been in a 42 in the kak I

Ran a marathan in 40 months yeah mate 41 in New York was the hottest day I’ve ever had 41 in York yeah man global warming yeah that was do you not remember that heat wave we had a heat wve where almost everywhere in the UK went over 40 the north is actually

Hotter than the South for the first time there was like 42 in Donas mate oh I don’t know I remember that I don’t know maybe you were asleep or something why did you put the sodas underneath the left bed and not underneath the right bed y stand you try to make us lose

Everything say it to the camera guys if you really mean it Stanley you motherucker stop unorganized my stuff when I put all the sodas underneath the ride bed you’re also going to put the [ __ ] sodas underneath the right bat and not underneath the left bat I fed up

With his world you got that man yeah yeah we’re going to go ahead cuz me and G technically aren’t allowed to be here at all so we’re going to try and smuggle ourselves through this stop which could be nothing but it sounds like they’re quite a bit more thorough than most

Let’s have a practice I’m the Border guard go on in your best French all right ke uh how many of you in a van um three I mean one you got valid passports yeah no I mean yes understand training done God is that a French Aristocrat God [ __ ] the sng

Glasses go out [ __ ] devil we’s PR I’m a Gangster and a fashion icon there’s just nothing anyone can do can you just give a little look to Cameron D maybe keep the glasses on you look a little bit unhinged under the glasses just a couple bimp no house

Right then garage sell water Raleigh let’s go you look like you’ve been told that there’s a fancy dress party and you need to dress as an Explorer but you had about 5 minutes and one charity shop to do in all I’m hearing is I look fantastic and I know fabulous is the

Road the other ter we used sh you going to go a full pirate that son ain’t getting me today boy is this a look is this as much of a look as it feels this is the hardest look I’ve ever seen you in go then let’s have a look oh yeah Bo good

Ding an absolute gold out here bro mug blow up gave me the confidence I needed to smash up the tarmac harder than ever before I was an icon a Pioneer a Maverick and I felt fabulous everybody passing by turned to stare at my incredible looks and even the time I

Gave way out of sheer respect Louis Vuitton was about to get stomped on as I passed the checkpoint the guards were so dazzled by my drip that they let me straight through as I needed the finish line but I wasn’t sure my support van full of ugly sweaty men would have as much Luck but somehow they got through no questions asked bang bang how are you doing it you itchy interesting it’s a new one w w w I think it’s the combination of like swea and and water good evening girls and boys you join me for this session this session of uh glass p with

Russ today I’ll got a bucket like always I was actually going to go to the river but looked a bit mean big 60k in today it also rain lows which is good because kind of starts the bath off for me proper in the jungle mate me I’m basically fing car on

Now hit those vitals bro Rogue looking individual these days what a humbling experience the bucket bath just crouched over a small bucket of soapy water in the Congo rainforest and I’ve still got about 11,000 case to run right think it’s time to get me c

Out girls and boys so I’m going to turn the camera off cuz this is a PG Channel gangsters it’s being a pleasure we’ve just been having debate boys and girls about what country is the best in the world I’ve been pitching the UK hard out here uh Gus is bit well to

Be fair Gus has not really been pitching Netherlands too much I don’t like Netherlands that much but I think it’s just much better than UK been like hilariously trying to pitch not even trying to pitch it just accepting that it’s not true but we are still probably

Better than the UK I really like South Africa I love South Africa if you would to see the Midlands and you need to experience the drinking tent in the Tiny Town while the Mist is settling in the valley that sound pretty good it’s a fuing Vibe yeah I mean we got Gregs

Though we do have Greg n your Pi your pies are [ __ ] SP pies are excellent but seven out of 10 I was a 10 have you ever been to Gregs before to Gregs the bakery well your Pi might they don’t even know what they’re missing out on

Man your might be 10 out 10 actually upsets how can you even debate me on what the best countes have you never been to Gregs bro I think this conversation’s over should we go do you want to go and run go what a bunch of Muppet e they don’t know what they’re

Talking about I’m the least patriotic person in the world I think the UK sh but I’m I’m angry I’m angry about this it’s my [ __ ] though shout something aggressive into the camera you’re man dreaming of a Greg sausage roll not sponsored I hit the early morning tarmac

Once again and just the thought of the golden buttery pastry was enough to Spur me forward I felt good this morning enjoying the call before the sun took hold and taken in the sights the first stop was in a studing village nestled within the rainforest I run past tens of

These every day without ever appreciating them but they really are beautiful full of life and incredible handiwork in the depths of such harsh [Laughter] climate wasn’t expecting the hero to welome but here we go M it’s actually making me so sad that near ran out of

Perfect got a lot on the way got about 40 kilos yeah can’t come see enough that that bad this thing just has aing flower on its [ __ ] look at it wa what the it [ __ ] like opens into a flower look at that that’s wild oh I bet that stinks

Though you look really [ __ ] me I can’t lie yeah always less and perfect head in my hand nice one Ro back we go some boys have come over um one of them’s charging his laptop with our solo uh we thought he was going to do some work but they’ve just been sat there

Listening to music and watching conal’s memes the last hour and a Half hard Vibe got any struts for the upcoming Hills I ain’t got any new tactics guys can’t lie what are your old tactics just keep I like you need to diversify a bit yeah what maybe like just not keep going yeah oh the it’s coming back out

Yesterday was more of like a like charity shop Explorer now it’s more like a charity shop Jesus maybe a charity shop Mary actually stinks might have to take it off to First you ever seen anyone more swoll I’m not even going to flex itone f in the cameras sorry I was talking about

GS you got a black I’ve got three black we got a world championship yeah I do anyway I can’t believe you baited him man right come on all right all right go go go Oh e always takes me by surprise he just goes there’s no like buildup

Anymore what I know this stretch was unreasonably hilly my elevation for the last few days have been steadily increasing and this was no exception I thought it was pretty harsh to be honest mother knew I was doing 60k a day and she’d already thrown me deadly insects

In the heat of nuclear explosion so adding an entire Mountain every day was just a bit Overkill but ladies and gents the game is the game and I pushed on through up and down rolling slopes to the Jungle to my next stop bjoo how we doing on them hilly

Roads how them leggy doing they’re looking pretty aggressive today they’re just like Angry San bony this is fre foot content for all of you guys when was the last on new shower bro it’s been a while bro I thought I was thinking about a n bucket

Bath time actually do it it’s great I my first bucket bath the other night and never looked back I would would mind a nice little river to be fair the bucket a little full dip would be nice yeah River you could get full and clean expain has the tactic of the tuck

Shirt look smart I think don’t it see I was expecting like a well creates like makes you more lean and less baggy less wind resistance you know I just think it looks smarter in it enjoy your run bye-bye look at that in the middle of the

Road the middle of the road ooh stand walking behind you no car on walking it just feels very dramatic at this point like everything is soft focus you’re really close don’t don’t who are we going to hit go hit guys hit him make the make the action movie

Work where is he where is he ready that rap scallion blissfully unaware of Gus’s mortal wound and motored on at more brutal heels towards the end I was moving slow now determined not to break my streak of 60k days so I powered through meanwhile the boys visited the

River to gather water gos is off to get us some water for washing it’s really nice it’s really really clear the water we were just talking about like the red in the water it’s tannin that stained from something so we were saying this is probably like it could be the trees and

Stuff like over there probably we won’t drink it but we use it to wash and whatnot but um local Village yeah the local Village would be drinking it I’m sure ask the low drinking water oh yeah yo how’s it going what’s this c not sure I think it’s said like an

Abandoned police stuff or something but nice works it’s a cool little campsite we got a roof with a humongous spider but there’s a roof yeah a snake head a b that’s been lobbed off I’m pretty sure oh yeah have a b ASAP yeah sticky one oh yeah good good right enjoy your Bath so Russ so 3 days left in the Republic of Congo uh I don’t think much is going to change to be honest especially for the first bit anyway cuz we’re still in the jungle apparently the street food changes quite a lot yeah g record is good like chocolate pancakes

On every corner which is a Vibe I’m liking the new style today R mate is this a new style or an old style it’s a new style with the the tassel through your glasses innovator M what can I try it’s like it’s like impressions of an

Eye patch with no eye patch you know what I mean it’s cool all right season up 20K oh look at that nice fat he Joy all hope of things getting flatter went out the window fast this was the first big hill but certainly not the last as the elevation got more and

More intense I was growing used to it and powered on indiff but it still sa my energy and took a huge toll of my body come on in the most shots I have of R is just bending into the cooler box got get those calories in bro getting calories

In what’s been a really big like learning curve on this mission for you in regards to like content there’s I think there’s lessons in like every area of making content probably one of the things about YouTube is that like it’s definitely evolved in the last decade whereas like before the standard on

YouTube was one guy running vlogging editing it editing himself and just uploading it and that was like that was like the bang of content on YouTube whereas now it’s more like know the standard for YouTube content is is [ __ ] like close to TV standard really

In a lot of ways if not better like to make really really high level YouTube content you probably you need like a whole production team really it’s hard to do that when there’s only like a couple of you in it you I mean I don’t know I’d say probably the one of the

Biggest overall lessons is that if you want people to click on your content and you’ve got to provide them something that’s worth clicking on you have to be humble in that way like like it has to be worthwhile and that’s like quite a lot of pressure really when you think

About it talk to me about the import importance of content creation for this mission do you think you would still be doing this if it wasn’t for Content creation you know people say a lot of [ __ ] about social media these days and and you know there is some bad points

About it but ultimately one of the key benefits is that it’s given people like me social mobility in the way that I didn’t need to go and get a TV deal to come and do project Africa I could take a lot ofing risks you know riddle myself

With thatt I convince a few people to come along and do it with me but it’s possible to do it from scratch basically this is possible for people like me cuz it wasn’t before that’s why like every Explorer Adventurer blah blah blah you’ve ever seen that’s done anything

Like this with a team and a van and of cameras and [ __ ] has always been like from money or middle class or you know it’s possible in 2023 to do it with none of that CLA of content which is cool I’m living in a flat with my mate and we’re

Just scheming I think doing running the entire Africa would would be sick like I’d love to do it but like don’t know how I’m going to do it and then I was like you know maybe I’ll get an investor maybe this maybe that blah blah blah at

That point basically there was like so many hurdles to overcome to even get to a point where this felt like a realistic idea instead of one that was just aing pipe dream I was just like floating floating some messages out of there and I thought Steven B said g I’m going to

Message him and see if uh see if I can get a reply obviously didn’t get a reply you know people were busy and also a lot of people do this a lot of people talk but action is more important which is why getting to the start line and

Getting started was so important so that people like Steven were like oh he’s actually doing it you know like he’s actually legit yeah I messaged him trying to just floa in aing Rogue message to see if I get an investment out of it but you know like it was it was a

Stupid message it was filled of sh But ultimately like it a year later it came back around sometimes you just got to shoot some [ __ ] at the wall and see what sticks man like make it happen you know what I mean any which way possible just

Get just make it happen if anyone does want to support us as well and help us a little bit where can they do that how can they do that so the number one thing you can do is just keep supporting the YouTube channel if you want to support

Even more then we do have patreon we upload like behind the scenes stuff on patreon and we’re also going to fly one of you someone out who whoever is a patreon member we’re going to fly a patreon member out to the finish line so that’ll be sick beyond that you know

Like we’ve got great sponsors we got perfect Ted we got hu hoker as well so like if you going and support them that also helps you mate above all of that it can’t be forgotten that we are raising money for charity we’ve got with over 55k raise for charity now which is

Unreal but if you want to support charity then we’ll chut the link to our giar page down below 100% of the money goes to charity cut pint is a fer okay so if you if you give up one pint you donate a fer the government donate some

Extra as well I think it’s 20% so they 25525 as well so let’s Go fleece the UK government and run up the uh the gift star page and if every single person watching this video gives up a pint which you know it’s October so stoptober give up your pint if every single person

Watching this video did that we’d raise half a million P of Charity in a day that’s pretty lit I’m going to eat a donut now what you playing there I was just saying to jar I was just listening to this playlist called the most beautiful songs in the world it’s not

One of my playlists just a VI playlist and I was just listening to it for the entire two hours and it put me in a trance like St forgot I was running it was great so go shed the rain okay bye-bye the rain was coming down hard now completely changing the

Landscape when it rains in the rainforest it it rains it’s like nowhere else in the world the falling water is so thick you can barely see in front of you but for me running it’s a Gods end instantly cooling the air and allowing me to move more freely and save my

Energy even if I do get a bit moist that said it was worrying for our Crossing into Nigeria when I got to the next stop we discussed if there was any alternative route so there’s definitely no way we can cross that b there no no I

Think it will be a bit foolish to go for it because nobody has done it the only one person I know of going to that border that’s also myself so I have some experience on the border the last time I was there about year ago police wasn’t

Too happy that I was driving straight into a war zone as a tourist really like I heard the stories of locals really sketchy stuff had happened at the time I was there it was pretty stable but yeah it could be even like even the police they’re like also very suspicious aren’t

You like a a spy like like why are you driving as only tourist in this Zone there’s a lot of this checkpoint after checkpoint after checkpoint after checkpoint because no other person has report successfully about Crossing this border maybe it’s not the most wise thing okay

Right the reason we had to take such a diversion to cross a tricky border was due to a conflict surrounding the easiest border that made it close for tourists during colonial times most of Cameroon was a French colony but a small pocket of the country was a British

Colony what that leaves behind today is two areas with huge cultural differences and a language barrier a group of angones felt that their people were being neglected and having their unique culture destroyed by the cameroonian government and so want independence which led to a long period of intense

Conflict which still goes on today this makes that border a very difficult very dangerous option that we want to avoid at all costs look at this beautiful produce that Gus has brought back for us what have you brought us sir I just went into the forest we got some leaves some

Something that I’ve been taught is obene I don’t know about you but that doesn’t look like an eggplant to me well it’s going to be nice we’re going to make like a uh kind of a fried rice kind of thing I think that’ll be tasty Hunter

Gather a gus how are you feeling about everything at the moment like there’s a lot of moving Parts going on at the moment um I mean the landscape is forever changing G coming in has helped a lot it’s good energy to have for me there’s just a few

Things that he’s come in and done and like it’s reminded me of the standard that I need to be I think he’s done that for all of us to be honest yeah partly him being brilliant and also partly just having someone completely fresh faed he a very impressive way is extremely

Disciplined he has those values instilled in him very naturally I think it’s just reminded me that there’s always levels to go up got to keep trying to find a level basically when the 4×4 is here I think things are going to be a lot easier so I’m kind of

Like fuing want it it’s just been too long man it’s taken too long like it’s like the final final little hurdle of being a fourman operation which we never really should have been well we had to be a fourman operation but I think it’s it’s just moving on to the next level of

How we can operate really yeah but we’ve operated as a four man at an unsustainable capacity yeah for a long time and this will just give us the room to push harder and I think every front when you ask yourself and the people around you to operate at an

Unsustainable capacity things are going to go wrong you know what I mean like things are just going to go wrong and like well you’re just not going to operate at an optimal level or like at optimal level of Happiness satisfaction you know there’s always a cost there’s

Always always always a cost we’ve done pretty good as a four and it was probably naive to think that anything was going to go better than it did I think but I just as a six we’re just going to be it’s going to be better Unstoppable M I’ve been able to

Handle the workload that we’ve set the bar at but it’s taken every like ounce of mental energy which leaves you at a point where when there’s room to like push further Beyond where you’re working the motivation to do that is I think also like what happens is cuz it’s

Unsustainable like you can make like you can get to that level other things get sacrificed whether that’s me starting getting injured more or you not cutting your hair legit like you just don’t look after yourself the same do you mean like it’s like all personal cares going out

Window yeah but like you know and that’s fine for a bit but you do that for a while and then other things start like just basically the longer it goes on the more things will start slipping it doesn’t take long for S prettying catastrophic to happen a lot of learning

Learning curvs for all of us I think sometimes a really have a hard time but that’s what I signed up for so like get on with it you know what I mean I think it’s just harder in ways that I didn’t expect you know what I mean it’s hard in

All the ways I thought it was going to be hard but then there was ways where I didn’t realize and then I but they they’re the ones where you learn the most is it like just from a managing a business point of view and Leadership point of view that’s been one of the

Biggest struggles for me like really like really really I found that difficult and a lot of hills in the last few days so Hills man 758 M of elevation today [ __ ] off with that Jo mean just [ __ ] off okay right we’re going to make some food all right sleep

Tight in the next episode we meet cocoa Farmers I meet another Ginge and we finally cross the cameroonian border