A man is just days away from completing one of the greatest physical achievements in human history.
No, it’s not opening a can with a broken tin opener or drinking a mammoth number of pints; it’s the bloke running the length of Africa.
After well over 300 days, Russ Crook is nearly at the end of his ‘Project Africa’.
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Also known as ‘The Hardest Geezer’ on social media, he’s essentially running the equivalent of over 360 marathons by going from the south of the continent all the way up to north.
The man from Worthing has had his fair few setbacks along the long, long way with the goal of doing it in 240 days having been adjusted.
But Russ reckons, and it’s looking pretty likely, that he’s going to finish his mega mission this Sunday (7 April).
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He shared a snap from day 349 yesterday, claiming he had clocked a whopping ’19 million steps’ ahead of the ‘finish line this Sunday’.
The geezer has been raising money for The Running Charity and Sandblast during his project, racking up over £500k so far – over half of his target goal.
Starting off in South Africa, if all goes to plan he’ll be reaching the tip top of Algeria by the end of this weekend.
Although Russ did have quite the issue getting himself into Algeria earlier this year.
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He took to social media that while he would be running through the absolute sweaty heat of the Sahara Desert, he needed to cross the border from Mauritania into the final country on his route.
The bloke already predicted he’d face a problem with this as he told the BBC he reckons getting over that border on foot hadn’t ‘been done by foreigners in a very long time’.
But causing that ‘bit of a problem’ he and those travelling with him hadn’t managed to get visas for Algeria – which would be ‘game over’ for his attempt.
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However, thanks to a lot of appeals he wrote on X, he was ‘delighted to finally be in’ the country where he was ‘getting kings treatment’.
Russ had his fair share of safety warnings from those following him along the way, and even ended up with a police escort at one point following getting robbed at gunpoint.
Oh, and he said one time he got lost he ended up surrounded by ‘blokes with machetes’. Well, that would get you running faster.
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When he does complete his mission this weekend, Russ will celebrate with punk band Soft Play and a party at a hotel in Tunisia. "Get your daiquiris ready girls and boys. This is going to be mega," he wrote on X.
“Cannot quite believe it but we've managed to pull off Soft Play playing the finish line party in Tunisia. Anyone that can get themselves there is welcome.”
Go on lad.
Topics: Charity, Travel, Viral, Social Media
Jess Battison