Russ Cook, better known as the Hardest Geezer, became famous for running the length of Africa. 352 days. 10,000 miles. The first person ever to do it. But before all of that, he was a teenager scrubbing a Waitrose toilet at 4am, opening a cupboard to find a single tin of new potatoes, and hiding a gambling debt from his girlfriend.
In this conversation, Jake goes back to before Africa - to the years of directionlessness, the arrogance that masked insecurity, the run home from a nightclub in Brighton, and the chance encounter with a cyclist in Kenya that changed everything.
They also get into the question that sits beneath all of it: is Russ running towards something great, or away from something painful? And now he's a new father - how does that shift what he's willing to risk?
Plus: why he won't take the Leeds Ironman lightly despite barely managing three lengths of a pool.
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