Transcript for Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me!

Does it bring back any memories? Yeah. It's the only YouTube video that I didn't release.

So, I'm going down this dirt park and two blocks on the mountain bike plan. I knew that it was one of the fights for a long, long, half an hour. It's bad news. And it was when you're seven hours and I'm about to go into the jungles. I was setting kick notes.

What were you looking for? Class one hell of a question man. Things have got pretty bad. I wasn't speaking to my family. I was drinking and gambling. I would wake up throughout the week and just burst into tears crying.

Yeah. But, ultimately, you know, no one was going to come and save you, you just had to be. And I thought Africa would be the best adventure ever.

I knew it was bad, it would probably end. You get rubbed the gun point. They got past sports, my name.

I just blew up, shone everyone, thrown chair. What happened? Well,

When does it start? class one hell of a question man. I think really I had quite a normal upbringing and maybe that's like the basis for why I ended up doing all this kind of stuff. Yeah, like my early memories of my dad were, he was a very hardworking man. He cut metal for a living and didn't really see that much of him when I was young. He would be out work in 14 hours a day, coming home, metal dust all over him, mum would look after me and my brothers. And I think he kind of instilled the like that hard work in mentality in me. And, you know, a lot of the, a lot of the dominoes fell from that really.

My mum was very, what I always remember about a mother. She really enforced it in us to be like polite. That was like a big thing for, so always like, yes, yes, please, thank yous. Whenever we'd go around to people's houses, she was like, make sure that we behaved well and all of this kind of stuff. And her dad is like military man. So 18 to 65 always in RAF like very well respected. So I think she got that from him and that's what she passed down to us. But she was like very caring. Her whole life was her kids really. So yeah, like a lot of respect for my mom.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I think my, now I'm now I'm older. I just look at it like my dad was doing everything he could to provide for his family. You know, I think he took that responsibility really seriously. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to really contemplate how that affected me. But the few things I did see at my daddy was just always, he ran a marathon when I was a kid. And I remember that being like a big, you know, he'd always talk about willpower. And he didn't say much, but like he was more of a man of he did things rather than spoke about him. So he got out and worked really hard. And when you go and run a marathon and I'd see these things happening, you know, he'd come home from work and he'd be knackered and he'd be on the sofa and like he kind of just, that was the way he led, you know.

Um, not really, he was, he was working pretty much all the time. So he do, he ran two math and one when he was 41 when he was 40. But he used to take me out on runs when I was quite young and, you know, he didn't want to really say anything, but it was more just me seeing it that I think was important for me. That's how he operated, you know?

Yeah, no, my dad's, my dad or my mom aren't very affectionate people. I don't think of... I don't think I've ever seen them like, even kiss, maybe once or twice and I was young. But like, you know, I love using... I love using stuff like this for us and words that got thrown around in our family. Not that they didn't mean it. I just think that like, we're our families if it's stiff like that.

No, I think that's exactly it. You know, and I think when as I've got older and I've understood like where they've come from and their parents and their upbringing is then it's like makes sense.

It didn't make sense at the time. It's hard to like when you were young. It's for me. I find it really hard to make sense with a lot of things. I was wondering then like had a lot of questions. Hard to find the answers, but I kept digging.

I guess it was more stuff like I was finding it hard to find my way in the world and especially when I got to like teenage years and I'd be like, how do I do this? How do I, how do I build a career? How do I make money? How do I do all of these things? How do I navigate friendships and relationships and all these kind of complex? How do I find meaning in my life? Not that I was directly asking those questions for those kinds of things I'm prodding at at age and I think from our parents. It was quite hard to find those answers just because I think that we'll struggle with communicating like that.

I looked at people and I was like, like, teachers, for example, any kind of authority figures in my life. And if I sense that they weren't very happy in their lives, they were a bit miserable. I would kind of discard a lot of what they were trying to tell me that I found a lot at that age. Had a lot of people trying to tell me what to do or do this, do that, behave like this. And I was like, If I do what you say, then I'm gonna end up like you, and I don't want that. So I'm doing my thing. And I think that kind of started a journey of trying to find my own answers and stumbling, of course, a lot of different things to try and find that.

I kind of feel bad for set. I want to do them a service when I'm talking about them because I do respect them a lot now, especially now I'm older and I understand things, but I don't think at the time. I think they've had their struggles like a lot of us have our struggles, you know.

No idea, I'd agree. I'd agree with that. Yeah, I mean, I think it wasn't for the lack of trying, but if it's like you said they didn't have the tools and, you know, ultimately that is what kind of pushed me to go and try and find my own things, which is what it's out for the best.

Well, things, things have got quite bad with family stuff. I was a piece of his shit. On this of your very rebellious, very disrespectful. We didn't listen to anything that they were saying and very intent on doing my own thing. And I think that kind of took a big toll on everyone in the family because I was, you know, I was stressing everyone out.

I think like deep down. I was just like looking for something more in my life. I was looking at what You know, the life that the adults around me were living and I was like, I don't want that. I want, I want more than that. I want to go and see, want to go and live, you know. And, you know, that's kind of when, you know, you've got a kid that's 16 hasn't done anything with his life and he's just kind of disrespecting you with nor in everything you're saying and doing his own thing coming on whenever.

I think that's maybe it, you know, like, It's probably part that I'm not exactly sure why. But that's kind of what happened. And I think I've had a lot of energy, a lot of motivation, viciously ambitious, but didn't really know how to apply it, where to apply it, to get what I wanted. and I was looking around me for, I think I was looking around searching for the guidance that would help me, but I wasn't really finding it so I was just trying to make. I was just basically discarding things that I thought weren't important. I wasn't going to get me where I wanted and I was just looking for looking for it. And yeah, that's kind of how things started unraveling and ended up moving out. And that induced the quite tasty few years in itself.

Ah, it was quite a messy, it was quite messy for a couple of years in there. Like, I remember my parents sent me up to my granddad in Scotland. One summer when I was like 15, and this was kind of the start of when things were going quite bad.

My parents were doing okay. Yeah. But then, and then I remember one night, they moved all my stuff to my other granddad's house and changed the lock on the door. They were like, you're not kind of backing up, kick the door in. and bold in. So it was kind of happening for a while and then it got to the point where I remember my mom being like, yeah, you need to go. And I was like, it wasn't like a out the door with tell between my legs or anything. It was like, I don't need to see that.

Yeah. And then I organized the flat, which is the cheapest flat I could rent in Wervin. And I was still, I was at college. So I was working about four or five part time jobs just like cleaning. I was up on my bike going to wait for I was cleaning toilet in a morning for college. And then finished that. And I went into sales at first.

They would have said like, this guy needs humbling. He doesn't know anything about the world. He's very arrogant, very disrespectful.

Yeah. Well, I get it from, I think now I'm all right, just get it from both sides. Like, it's really difficult. It was really difficult for them to manage that, like, complex kind of personality. And it was also really hard for me to express or communicate my in a way that was, I was going to get myself listened to. I wasn't doing that. I was just like, totally trying to run everyone over, you know.

I guess I just wanted to piece someone to like understand and I just I think I just wanted the guidance like if someone I wanted guidance but from someone that I, someone that I looked at and was like, I want what they've got, you know, or like, they've done life in a way that I want to do life. And they could teach me the lessons, but I didn't, I was struggling to kind of find that age.

Yeah, like so much energy, which is in a lot of ways, I think, a positive thing. But just without those guidelines to actually get you somewhere, it just kind of comes chaos.

Really? Yeah, didn't speak to them for a long time. Even up until I would say up until probably the last year, it's, it's, it's a couple of years. It's been pretty sure. But you're 27 now.

Yeah, yeah. Well, there's, there's moments in there where it's got better and then got worse and got better. But for, for whilst, yeah, it was, tough.

Oh, yeah. You know, certainly, it cuts me with 100% man like. And I think the hardest gear is a kind of aggressive approach to it is just like a way of coping with it. But every now and again, you know, like the emotions we roll out. And I'm not the night for a second. I remember seeing I moved out and then I think I saw my dad maybe. I can't remember how long after it was a few, a few, a few months, maybe a year or so. And it just made me cry just seeing him. So like, the emotions were always there. But to kind of get through it, it was like, right, you know, fuck everyone.

Just because I think there's always a part of me that understands that my parents, there's no one else in the world that loves me, but I don't know what my parents do. No matter what they do or how badly I've felt I've been wronged, which I wasn't really, they were just trying their best. I always knew that way of happens, these are two people actually care about me the most. And I think that just makes like, when things aren't going well, I make sure emotional because it's like, these are the people I'm supposed to be close with, things real bad, right now.

Yeah, I think like a big part of that for me in building that bridge was actually my girlfriend when I was away because she She went over and she went around their house and spoke to them loads and she's Because even before I left like I went around to see both my parents before I left it was the first time I see them in life Maybe like a year and a half, two years? Yeah, yes, before I left Africa. We'd spoken, me and my girlfriend spoke a lot about these kind of things and how like important we want families to be. And she, but I felt like at a loss, making that step, I just didn't really know how to do it. What's said, blah, blah, blah, but she kind of over this year is really like done a lot in that sense.

My girlfriend's the same.

Oh mate, I couldn't agree more. Especially with me and my girlfriend's dynamic. Anyway, like that's really... I look at her like a wizard in that sense. I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. She's got the under control, which is amazing.

Yeah, wow. Yeah, so I remember I had this flat in work and it was the cheapest flat available on right move. 455 to quit a month. I'm just more than I could afford, but I was like, right, let's do it. It was working a bunch of different jobs trying to finish college kind of scraped through. And then I actually was watching This is so cringe-free. It's funny. I was like, one of them lads that watched Wolf Wolf Street and was like, this is it for me. This is the game. I'm going to become a millionaire doing sales stuff. So I went and got a few sales jobs. Made some actually not bad money for my age, but really didn't enjoy it. you know ended up with that kind of lack of guidance I ended up just doing the things that felt to me like the most fun or the most like they would bring in my naivety day would bring me the most meaningful experiences at time which ended up being going out a lot with the boys and drinking and gambling and that's kind of what my life was for the next kind of two, three years after that.

It's embarrassing to even talk about like I remember You know, I didn't have much money, but I'd done one night on Roulette. I'd done about two, I think it was over two grand. On line Roulette just sitting there on my phone late at night, just tapping away. And that was kind of everything I had at the time. I'd plus the overdraft, plus all the rest of it. And I had to, I was too embarrassed to say anything. So I told my misses like, I think I just made up some bullshit lies about what this XYZ and said, I need to borrow money for rent and stuff this month. There was a moment there where I was okay. This really stuff. And I just went on every single gambling website I could find and did the self-bound thing. Never gambled since. I mean, I think the alcohol stuff was just like binge drinking culture. I wouldn't say how like I was at alcoholic or anything like this. That was just The only way I could really, the only thing I look forward to, I'd hate my job, so I'd hate work all throughout the week, but I'd be like, all right, Saturday with the boys, or Saturday drinking this, whatever, going out here, was like the thing that I look forward to, that was the only thing I was really living for.

Yeah. Definitely. I was so miserable man. So, so miserable. At that time, I really struggled. I remember I would like wake up throughout the week, just like crying. Just so miserable.

Just like, like, wake up, like, space to go work. I should be glad I should be like, so upset. Just be like, the worst, so miserable. Couldn't just fathom, I thought, why is, why is, why have this, why is it suck this much, you know, like, I really had no, felt like I was kind of trapped, lack of connection, I think, was a big part of that.

So, I didn't, I mean, I had, like, a few, a few of my boys, but I wasn't speaking to my family to all this time. I guess I was just doing a lot of things that would make you miserable. I had no control over my finances because I was pissing away from it on roulette. I was the only things I would afford to was going out and getting pissed with shock, which would make me feel like shit as well. And then I would go to work and hate it working every day. So it doesn't take a genius to work out. That's going to be a pretty much resistance, you know.

Then how it didn't have like many deep connections.

So that would be like 18, 17, 18, 19, 20, maybe just about.

Yeah, I mean, I don't remember just

Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. I think what was hard is that I didn't understand anything. I didn't understand why. I mean, I didn't have the tools to really make any sense of the situation. Because, you know, now I'm seven, eight, nine years older. I can look back and go, yeah. Well, this is what happens when you gamble loads and you piss away money away and you drink loads and you don't have anything in your life. It's going to bring you any meaning or fulfillment. It's obvious. At that time, I didn't know that. So that kind of sense of helplessness was a really big weight on me and it just felt like I was now going to be able to shift it. I think that was the most difficult thing. I was like, I don't know how I'm going to get out of this.

Pretty yeah, pretty much.

Yeah. I think there's a few different things that went into that melt import. I think actually a massive thing was things like listening to podcasts. I remember listening to Joe Rogan a lot back in the day. I remember the Jordan Peterson, there was a Jordan Peterson episode as you guys know, it's a classic thing. But that really kind of hit me. And that's what I love listening to him now and I know he's a bit controversial these days and people have actually said so. But for me, like, just having that was like my guidance in a lot of ways. And I think so blessed to have been born in this generation where the guidance can come through all of these online resources, whereas before, you know, like 23 years ago, maybe that would never have come for me, and maybe a 20 years later, I'd still be in the same spot. So I like incredibly grateful for that. But then... Can I ask a question about that?

No, probably not. I reckon like, I don't know, I reckon my mom's from before, but I don't know, they don't know the ins and outs.

Well, just like the day to day, you know, and I and I don't, I don't, I don't, I've get, I'm quite like, I keep a lot of things to myself a lot of time anyway. So like, no, I'm really not.

There is, yeah, I guess.

It makes it like a pressure chamber when you get a little escape.

I guess I do, I do have empty. For that guy, I think the thing The thing that I needed to hear, which was the most, which actually got me forced me into action was like... I need to take responsibility for my institution. So like that version of me at 1980, 1990 was very much one that looked at my outside world and blamed everyone else for my problems. Like I was because my parents did this or my boss did this and all of these other things and I didn't need any more else to come in and say Oh it's not your fault but I need someone to go ask the fucking world mate get used like do something about it or don't get up to you so that's probably the message that I'd give maybe I'd deliver it in a nice little empathetic way but ultimately you know no one was gonna come and save me it's had to be me

Yeah, so I think It had been leading up to this because I've been, I've been finding life really difficult for a while and I was doing all these different things, trying to find something that I could put my energy into that would give me something positive in return. And yeah, I've been in the arch in Brighton and just being like, I need something like that, like what am I doing? You know, prof. one of them like mirror a bit pissed looking mirror moments going. and then ran on about 11-12 miles, took me ages or saw a fit. Sorry, you ran home from the night club. I don't know, really. It was a bit forest-gumpy in the way, it was just like, I just felt like riding kind of vibes.

Yeah, I took me ages drunk. Yeah, yeah, I was totally off it, yeah. Sleep it on the side of the road. Yeah, took a little power and up in short and pavement. But yeah, I mean, so I ran that amount of, well, I've ran that little bit and then a mate of mine that I'd been mates with for a long time had just started getting into running properly and he signed up for a half married and he said to me, like, come and run it, like, let's do it. I'll train with you, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I think that was the moment where I was like, are this might be something that I can do, I've, I'm out of ideas here, you know, I need something. So I literally just, on a whim was like fine, I stood, signed up, and then he took me out training. We did the half marathon, then a few weeks later we saw him up, did the full marathon. And that process was like a huge relief for me. It was just, it made me really like, It hammered in the sense that if I do something positive, it will pay itself back to me. You know, like, that accountability of like, go and do something good. Here we go. And you can see the improvements coming week by week by week. And I think that's why I love running so much like, because that's it, and it's simple as for. It's like, you go out, run. It's really shit. And then you keep going, you keep going. And now a month later, you can run a half marathon, or too much that you can now run a marathon. And it was that process of going from someone that I like, I couldn't even run around the block. And then I could run a marathon. And I was like, shit, this is, this, I've got something here. This is how we progress.

Exactly. That's kind of what happened for me. I managed to, like, save up some money off the back of, run, run these marathons and then, It's like stop drinking as much. It wasn't gambling anymore. And it saves up a bit of money for the first time. And then a few months later, decided, right, it's been awfully least clean in jobs. I'm going to go and travel the world with more. If you grind that, I'd managed to save up.

Did a bit in Europe then went over to Africa, got to Kenya, did some, I was really into my line at this point. So I was training really hard every day. It was like, I'm living and breathing it. Went to the training camp, this village called I10, which is like home to some of the best long distance runners ever. I keep chogies from them, all this kind of stuff. just trained me then, got my ass whipped up pretty good. And that just, I met an Italian guy who'd been cycling around the world for six years, super inspired by a story how he was living, what he was doing, and decided like, I wanna try to do something like that. And I was pretty good at running by now. So then I first kind of conceived the idea of running from Istanbul to London. And that was the next, that's what we're going for.

No, I don't think so. Yeah.

Most of them are like, yeah, you're like, you're going to die. All like, that's not going to happen. I remember pretty much everyone being like that. I probably can't on one hand. You might be like, I was going to do that. What did you parents think? I can't actually remember. I don't know if I was speaking to them very much at this time. I really. Yeah. But I remember my little brother was the only one who's like, yeah, he's the only one who's like, yeah, he's the only one who's been like, yeah, he's deaf. He's going to do it.

What's that like? It was an amazing adventure man. It really was. It was tough though, like really tough being by myself the whole time. I would literally run a marathon. I'd have a little bag with a hammock and two brush, two-faced phone. I just find a couple of trees at the end of the day. It's seen the hammock up and go again the next day.

that a lot of people said this to me that it's not like what you're gonna need this you're gonna need that a lot of why actually why why can't you just sleep in a hammock every day and then go on a mountain map and did you speak he was speaking to anybody and it really back home around that area you must look at that objectively and go that is not normal behavior

That's a good question, man. I'm not really sure. Yeah, it wasn't normal. Yeah, I guess it definitely wasn't normal.

I think, you know, I met this Italian guy and he'd been cycling around the world for six years and he showed me himself. He had nothing on him really. He had like, he had basically nothing, but he just had a coffee kettle. That was his only thing he really cared about. So meeting these kind of people just made me realise like, what is normal? Who even cares about normal? I don't care. I just, like, this is normal. This guy's cycling around six years. Why not, but he seems like he's had a pretty good adventure. I want a bit of that.

Exactly. I think it was just a different way of looking. That's what the, I mean, it is the classic traveling, like, oh, go traveling for yourself, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it does, you know, sometimes meeting these people from doing the crazy stuff and from different cultures will just make you look at things in a different way. You know, even I found that coming back to London now and it's like, all of, I'm, I'm back into the motor. Like, oh, you need to go get a flat and you need to go live somewhere in blah, blah, blah. I'm like, hold on a minute. Like, I don't know what I need to do any of this, you know.

Yeah, and I just, I guess the, uh, the age of the item one was the first time I was just like, just give it a go. What's the worth going on?

Um, yeah, so I'm not, I remember, uh, My dad came up to London and saw me. He said that he was proud of me. I don't remember that hidden. He didn't say it often, but when he says it, you know, it's probably, I can imagine that that'd be in similar, like, kind of thing where, you know what you mean? When he says it, and I think that's one of the most powerful things that that can say to some, like, proud of you. Even makes me emotional just saying it, like thinking about it, I'm like, wow. Yeah, that was nice.

He ran like the last 5k, I think. I don't know. We out. Yeah, and I was 5k and I was actually joined for the last couple days by the mate that got me into running the first place, which was really cool.

Yeah, I remember my body being pretty in a pretty bad way after that. I couldn't even walk like I was really struggling. My body was really hurt and I got back into the country. I was skint, so I was done all my dough on this age's lunch run. I learned my dad was like, I feel he can do that. What are you doing? You're lazy, like, get a job with that. So I was like, all right.

It was hard the time, but I was really struggling because I'd just been away for a whole, you know, for about a year or something, done this big thing, finally finished. And then I was like, oh, that's reality, slapping me in the face again. But yeah, I'm pissed off. Yeah, I was, yeah. When he told you to get a job. Yeah, I was shooting, yeah. Why? Because I was, I was just mentally just absolutely done in and physically done in. And then he'd like, just been like, I'm so proud of you. I'm going to be like, I'm so proud of you. You've achieved more in your life already than I ever have, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, and it really felt like I made a big breakthrough there. Would you mean breakthrough just like I felt like he respected me more like he'd actually seen that I was capable of doing something That he thought was good. Yeah, I felt that before Not in that way not in that way

I like. Probably just disappointed. Yeah, disappointed. Bevelosa.

So that was just working bits and pieces here and there, really. Back to normal. Pretty much. I finished the ages line and run. And in my head from then I was like, I would really love to make this kind of thing a career somehow. Don't know how I'm going to do it, but I would love to do that. And then that kind of started like three or four year process of working out. Okay, you know, if we make content, then maybe brands will sponsor that and then I can go and do adventures with that money. But that it took a long time to kind of put those pieces as the puzzle together like that was never the really what I was thinking of when I did Istanbul to London. I've chucked a few photos up on the Instagram just really for my voice to see be like, I'm out in Serbia, camping or whatever. But yeah, then did the ocean line run, figured out if we make some content and that's how we're going to do it, buried myself alive, pulled a car from my iPhone, then the Africa planning started out.

Well, I knew that Africa hadn't been done before, and it's one of the few things left that hadn't been done. So that was probably one of the big reasons. Also, like, Africa's not very well-traveled. Not many people tourists, not more tourists go there, and I thought it would be like the best adventure ever. So that's what I decided to do.

How long did you think it was going to take? Two. I thought it would take 200 or 40 days. That was my goal. I was going to do French and 60 marathon for 200 or 40 days. I think I like it.

352 days.

I met her. We first met at one of our mutual friends birthday party. Yeah. And I said to my friend, like, why have you never introduced you to her? She's beautiful. And then, then that started like a freem up process of me trying to convince her to go on a date. It took a while. We've got there eventually. We've got there eventually. We had a secret Santa going and I think one of my friends did me a solid and kind of rigged the secret Santa. So I got her and then I got her tickets to go to Comedia, comedy club and Brian. Got a two ticket size. Well, you could take me. And then, yes, then, that's when we first started dating, but this Africa thing was already in the work, so it was quite complicated. But then, before I left, we were like, right, it's the, and we kind of like, we spoke on the phone every day. Mate, I was one of these people, if you'd asked me two years ago, could that have ever worked? Like, 14 months away, we spent from each other. I'd be like, nah, that's never going to work. But I think we spoke pretty much every day for hours whilst I was running, if I had signal. And the kind of stuff that we got to speak about and really go through in depth on is the kind of stuff that I think in a lot of relationships would just get swept away in the rhythm of the day to day life. So I'm actually super grateful for that time and like really proud of her and us for like navigating that kind of weird situation.

Nah, I think it's her credit to her more than me. She kind of bring that out. I don't have a tool to go. To do any of that stuff to be honest. You know, she's just, I think sometimes like, I don't know, I think I just think we fit really well like together. What I can do well, she can't, what she can do well, I can't like, it works.

It's nice, funny, because I've actually listened, I remember the message you actually about, I think, I listened to how to pull costs with some relationship persons. That's the parallel I remember. And yeah, like the way you were talking about, I was like, oh, this is like, This is hit over. And we vote. We do that as a lot. Sometimes we listen to podcasts and talk about it and I do this. I do this.

I think I've definitely become more willing to accept something, I do still struggle with that. But I've definitely tried to do that more. So I think for me, it was like, I really cared about Emily, so I really wanted to be the best that I could for her as well. I just think like the level of desire to make that happen was like really high. So I've just I think before I wasn't very willing to compromise on a lot of stuff. I was like, and I'm doing my thing, you even fit in or you don't see it there, whatever. We're just, we've, it reminds me of me. With Emily, I was like, are like, she special, I really want to make this work. And I'm, I'm gonna have to, there's, it's actually a benefit to me if I can compromise because she, that kind of, having that connection all so I bring a lot to my life and I need, and I need it.

No. Is that how it's been for you as well then?

She is mine. She's great. She's best. I love it a bit.

They denied obvious or already, yeah, and they don't issue visas when you're not in the country or you'd already left.

Thank you. I don't think I was afforded the luxury of being able to, you know, wait, really. We were running out of money. It was, it was now and ever I've, you know, made it work with what you've got or don't do it basically. And I was like, I think we could do it.

Well, we actually got 50K to start with from an investor. That it was a mate of a mate, I'd managed to persuade to give us some money to get things going. What was in it for him? He's got a percentage of, like, everything we make was back in. So he's done it right. It was a risky one. That's one hell of a risky one for sure. I think he, it was more like a, he just wanted to see it happen, you know. He was a fellow wife and boy. Yeah, younger than me. It's made a bunch of money in crypto. And yeah, so he fronted the first bit of money to get us going. And 50k was more than enough to get us going. But what ended up happening is the mission got delayed more and more. We had some people involved at the start that kind of long story they kind of said these things are going to happen blah blah blah brands are going to happen all of this stuff they were trying to make happen nine of their ended up coming to fruition do they take money They didn't take any money now. But we ended up burning for a lot of the money before we were supposed to be on start line with like 50k and we ended up months rolled by. We wasted money on XYZ ideas, didn't come. So basically it got to a point where I kind of got rid of all these people. Start line 10 grand. I was like, if we don't get funding within You know, if we don't get any kind of sponsorship within the first month where this is game over because we run out of money, said to all my team, gonna have to delay your wages, etc. Just really tightened up. And then I got a message from some, some bloke from Dragons then, last two weeks in. No, so I make I mean I don't know I think this is nothing people probably don't know that you're like such a massive part of the story like You know when when you message I've I remember being in South Africa I think it was about 10 days two weeks in or something like this got a message from you There was like are like Just seeing what you're doing something like this love it like if you need any help let me know and I was like You should see, I'll write a round opening up. I was like, you're never going to believe who's just messaged me. It was crazy. Obviously, you all got sorted out perfectly, got sorted out to unbelievable sponsors. And it's just kind of changed the whole mission, man. Like, I can't even put into words how great I am that you messaged me that. It was, that was like, you know, sometimes when you have a moment where you're like, wow, that's, that you were that moment for me. Really? Yeah. Yeah. But you did that.

I guess I'll describe it a lot. I was knocking on the door, but I needed someone to open it and you opened it. It's a kind of a chill thing there.

Yeah, it kind of grew a lot quite quickly. Early doors, but we started, started the mission with, I think, 20k on Instagram, 6k on Twitter, 10k on YouTube.

I knew it was bad.

Well, I just, I knew that, you know, it was a bad situation, but it would probably end eventually.

Yeah, that was two guys came up to me whilst I was running at night. One came in front of me, one came behind me and I kind of instantly knew this was a bit shaky and I just went a bit mad just like weighed up situation to start acting a bit crazy, started beating my chest and shouting and stuff to try and put them off because I got the feeling like okay they're gonna this isn't attempt but they haven't gone straight in with the robbery they're kind of feeling out so as I try and give them enough of reason to think I'm crazy enough this is just not worth it it kind of worked

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I started beating my chest. I started shouting I was they because they just joined though I was mid run and they're joining me running. That's one in front of me. They were running it like that. I think they it was a situation where they were trying to fill me out, you know, like Should we rob this guy?

Yeah. And I just thought if I can put them off enough. So can you describe to me what you, I literally beat in my chest? Yeah. I was just like, we're running, but like, just go ahead and totally a bit, just to make them think like, oh, this guy's a bit, you know, he's a bit of it. Maybe we'll just get the next one.

No, that was just really like. You wrap differently to different situations. We've been robbed at gunpoint where there's a gun in my face and I'm not going to start beating my chest because I don't want to bull it in my head. But then there's other times where you think like you're kind of looking at them going, he's actually a bit nervous to rob me. So if I can put him off enough, then he's just not going to bother, which was that situation.

I luckily and sit the one got the right the guy running behind me ended up dropping off. So then it was just the guy in front of me. He was he was quite a small guy anyway, and I was like, I don't reckon he's about it. And then I'm

I learned we ended up speaking a little bit and he was like my friend was going to rob you but we're not hit but he's gone, we're not going to rob you and I was like your friend was going to rob you with the air like lies and then you know I actually ended up speaking to him and he was saying like he's just he needs some money to like feed his family and stuff he was living in a township next to the road which was like pretty bad conditions And I was like, look, mate, my boy's gonna come pick me up in a couple minutes, like we'll give you some food. And he's like, sweet.

Yeah, so then the boy's coming and then we ended up giving a lift back. Yeah.

Yeah, I've robbed the $1.9 gold out. It was $350. Yeah, I mean, they're a bit more successful that time. They got a lot of stuff.

So, around $30K, I was on a lunch break. We sat in the van. Me, Jarrow, Terry, my sporting team and we were just changing it like usual. Two free guys pull up and I'm out of bite two of them get off. Come up the side of the van, crack door open, gun, and all of our faces. Start speaking Portuguese. Then they took a bunch of stuff. Yeah, that was nightmare. It's been, it's they got passports, money, cameras, drone, phones, it was long.

I don't know, I don't think so. The thing is, these things happen, just you're on the road again the next day.

I don't know, man. I guess it just is what it is. I haven't really, I don't know if I've deep to that much at this point. You know, we're over it. Nothing bad happened in the end. I mean, we got robbed, but no one died.

Yeah, that cost us like at least two or three weeks in terms of going to re-get these isn't things.

Yeah, couple. Congo. Congo. The RC. Yeah, that was one hell of an experience that

So we made a YouTube series online, which kind of followed the whole thing. It's the only YouTube video that I didn't release. Because it was quite. I mean, it was quite. It's a difficult one at the time as well. because it was the hardest time for us as a team. And we there was a lot of arguments, a lot of fallouts around that and I didn't think that the video that we've made was really what told the story how, I want it to be told.

Yeah, I mean, Yeah, that whole thing was was mad. So we got to DRC, I think, 800, we got to DRC. It was hostile from the start. We'd been warned loads about it about the country. It's one of the poorest countries in the world. It's quite known for corruption. And we'd been sent the videos of the craziest things happening there. And I think we were all a bit apprehensive.

The crazy, like, people getting shot, chopped up, all kinds of stuff. Yeah, it was, it definitely, I mean, I don't know how much I can really, what I would say about the RC is that we spent a few days there, my experience with the very subjective is a massive country, loads of people, loads of great people, but my personal experience of the small amount of time I spent there was a bit rough. But yeah, I mean, we landed in the country across the border. It was a very chaotic border town. We had people from the get-go, very not, not very happy to see us at all, shouting at me while I started running, trying to, like, explore us for money, officials, all this kind of stuff, get trying to get money out of us. And we've heard about all of this from people traveling. So we kind of, half knew what we were rolling into, but it was, it really created a, kind of atmosphere that was difficult, challenging. Yeah, I mean, the day before at day 102, we had a guy come up to, guy came up to me with a rock spikes in the rock and he was like, I'm gonna smash your head in with this when you speak French, I don't really get it, but Harry spoke French. So it's basically threatening us with this big spiky rock the add-ins and saying, like, give me free quit, equivalent of free quit, or I'm gonna like, start smashing all up. And I'll give him a quid in the end, because I'm not getting my head smashed in over three quid, but also I didn't want to get word around that there was a bunch of people just frying money around to anyone that would threaten them. So yeah, I mean, woke up day 102, I was running 100K that day, and I felt very anxious from the get go. Really, like, really find it difficult, ready? Run! Left my left the boys in the morning locking normally do round 20k then round another 20k Start we took a turn off onto a dirt road to the boys applying this route to went down this dirt road Then the van basically this port van couldn't get to me so The boys sent a guy on a motorbike and So I'm running along this dirtbuck and this guy on a motorbike keeps trying to stop me and I was so like Scat you already that I was that I didn't want to stop for he was trying to get me to stop and I was like now I'd had it the day before people trying to stop me on motor bikes and it was all a bit didn't didn't feel great like I was quite anxious about the whole thing. Anyway, eventually, I did stop. He gave me a note that basically said, like, the boys can't get round to where we were going to meet, but they're going to go to this other place and meet there. And it's about 20K through the jungle. No roads like barely even a path. I was just kind of like whacking my way through bushes to get to this meat and point where I was going to try and find the boys. Run out of water. phone it's got no signal and I'm going through these these bushes stumbling to this village and because I think because of the experience that I've already had in the first couple days at the RCR I was very much like I just want to get my head down and get through these places as quickly as possible with less fuss as possible so I'm riding through this village a lot of people shout out to me and stuff in the market is happening all the time now like just care I'm going I'm going I think upset quite a lot of the village by doing that and then the chief of the village comes over and then you know before you know I'm like surrounded by half the village they will like very upset they don't get one they don't get who I am what I'm doing why I'm there and they start trying to say that I need to give them money I didn't have anything on me So then like the chief of the village kind of got some people away and he got two blocks took me out into the bush with machetes and I was breaking it. Yeah, I was actually breaking it, thinking like, everyone, my mind's totally racing at this point. I'm like, what is going on here? Why am I going out to the bush? Like, this doesn't make any sense. Like, is this a shake down? Like, what is the worst happening? Don't know. And then, got out into the bush. I basically emptied all my bags, had some biscuits, gave them the biscuits and then just started. And then I was just like, right, be lying for this meeting spot. And mine's totally frozen at this point. I've got, I'm hearing motorbikes coming, I'm hearing people, I'm dropping jumping in bushes, like, totally just at kind of off it here. kind of get through this jungle bit, get to this meat and spot the boys aren't there. Now I'm really like this bad because I'm about 50 something K in, I'm dehydrated, I've got no water, I've got no signal. And I don't know where the boys are, I don't know how to get to them. And I'm in the middle of the jungle. And I know that there's, like, I've set a lot of people in the local area and I've just ran away from all. And like, this, this is bad news. Anyway, I figured out that the tarmac, the last nine bit of tarmac was Think about 15 or 20k away and I reckon I can just about make it there and if I make it there then that makes sense that the boys are the last bit they could get to.

Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. It was, they, they walked me out into the bush and I didn't really, I didn't know what was happening, but I was just so like, like, this is bad. Just gave him basically such a died. And then, like, I've ran off and I can just hear loads of like, commotion going on. And I'm just running through this jungle. It's all quiet. It's there. I mean, it's all quite mad. I'm like adrenaline going through the roof. I was like, yeah. Were you scared? Yeah, I was petrified man. I was absolutely petrified. I think what didn't help is that. I didn't understand any of the language it like local language didn't know any French either which would have helped and I didn't understand I didn't have very good understanding of the culture or anything so I think if I went for it again a lot of these things would have been rationalised in my mind easier because I was so unaware of the situation and I'd had all of these horror stories built up in my head and the first couple of days in DLC was quite rough and I was just like in this spot where it didn't take much for me to just kind of just assume the worst of everything. So it really just got me into a place where I was like quite scary. But yeah, I mean, I find this, I've got, see the bit of time, I'm not right, let's head there, it's about, you know, two hours away, I could probably make it there. And as I'm going there, I'm going down this dirt path, another two blocks on the motor bike, pull out. And, you know, I was like, this, I just don't want any, but part of this, they're trying to stop me, you know, mine's totally gone. They were trying, I think they were trying to communicate to me like, oh, we're going to take you to your friends, blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking about, like, if these guys who, these guys sent from, they sent from this village of that village, is they're like a bush telegraph of, there's a white guy running around here, he's upset, like, don't get him kind of thing. So I'm like, nah, not doing it, blah, blah, blah. thinking, you know, the boys, they send note with the driver if it's from them. And these guys had no note. And I was like, who's, you know, getting later and later, I was like, I've got no war, I've got no signal. I've got no way of no way the boys are. They're probably no further than 10 or 20 care way. So if I'm, if I get on this bike and I'm on the bike for longer than half an hour or an hour, then I know this bad news. So, I just thought, fuck it, get on the bike.

A while, like. Probably about 20 minutes. So yeah, got on the bike half now went by. Then now went by. I stopped like kicking off. I'm getting off the bike. I'm having a garden, but like the language barrier is just, we don't want to just have the word anyone saying. And then yeah, ended up spending seven hours and I'm about going into the jungle, which is like terrible.

I thought, well, I assumed after about an hour and a half that I was like, okay, well, I am getting kidnapped. Then, like, where this is it, you know, and then I was thinking rationally, I was like, I had such limited knowledge about the RC or any of this kind of stuff. I was like, they're probably just going to, they probably just want money. But then you also start thinking, well, maybe they're just going to kill you. The stories that I've heard about, they are seeing that wasn't a crazy thing, you know, like people get stabbed for five or literally like couple of quick people get stabbed. People get killed for the, you know, a watch. So I was really trying to, like, I was really trying to be rational about the situation. but just like very quite an emotional as well. And then I mean, for the last few hours I was just like, you know, what God has for me has he has for me, you know, whatever it is and that's fine. And I was just trying to be like, you know, it's out of my hands. Um, but it was very scary. I was like so nervous, like just shaking. They took me to this village in the jungle. Later night, no electricity. It's like wooden little shacks with tin corrugated ruse and stuff and got me off the bike to get me into this little heart. Then loads of the men of the village came into the hut. They were all arguing about money and this kind of staff. And then the second chief of the village walks in and says to me, like, you speak to me in English very slowly. And he understood a few words. I said to him, like, this is big mistake. You know, like, call my friend. And he speaks French and like, and then he can come and like, we've got money in, we can sort out. And then they spoke on the phone. And then basically we agreed like the boys would come, we got the money. And then it took the boys like, I think about 36 foot hours to get there because it was so rural. There was no roads going there. It was all dirt paths. They tried to rent some motor bikes, got scammed. Then they ended up trying to borrow the police, a police chiefs four by four. Also scammed us. so bait yeah so then I mean the boy's got there eventually we gave everyone some money and then I was free to go.

We're literally going through the jungle. So it's like little tiny paths that are going up and down through rivers through over mountains. For seven hours, yeah, I was like gripping on this. I was absolutely done in by the end of it.

I think they were actually just, they were more scared about who I was, why I was there and all the rest of it. And the, I mean, after the, after the phone call with the team, things seemed quite settled, like they were pretty alright with me. And they, I think they, you know, It was, I was just in a state of like, totally, totally whacked. What do you mean? Just exhausted, but like, petrified and I was just very nervous around everything twitchy, you know?

I don't know. I don't think so, but I do obviously, I'm a human, I do, no way, I think it feels like I'm gonna do get it sometimes, but I was anxious then for sure.

I mean, I thought I was going to die, though.

Like, I mean, it's different. I guess it's different. For me, I was just like, you know, if this is the way the God wants it, then I'll guess it is. That's it. You know, and there's more from the elsewhere. That's how I was, what that's how I was trying to make sense of it in my brain.

Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about I think about like all the things that I wish I had the chance to repair that I haven't really shoot my parents. I was thinking about all the things that You know, I wanted to do my life that I wouldn't be able to do. But I was thinking about what it would do to, you know, everyone that got myself killed in the Congo for just trying to run the next Africa. I felt stupid because I was like you know this was these were like mistakes that have been made that were like quite it should have been quite easily preventable that we didn't do and you know that's how many more responsibilities as well so it was yeah it was a hard few hours

I don't know, I guess it's like you said it was a moment of clarity where I was like I've probably wasted a lot of years there holding on to things that weren't necessary, you know, for bullshit reasons and like life's too short for that.

like resentment and pride. You know, not trying to understand all that avoiding things and not trying to connect with people that love me and these kind of things.

Yeah, I was thinking of that all the things that we talked about like our future together and everything that we wanted to build and like having kids together and all these things that just felt like they were just and how it like just felt like I was letting it down and you know I wasn't like delivering the things that I was going to run the link for when we're going to do. It's going to everyone's going to be all right. Don't worry about all of these danger nights going to be fine, baby. And yeah, I knew how much, how hard that was, that time was for her as well. But I mean, especially I'm in the thick fit, you know? I'm in the thick fit, she's like at home, just think about it all the time. There was a few moments like that when we didn't have signal and things.

That was I think the hardest point for us as a team of the mission was like the aftermath of that. It's very difficult. Because I think we were all struggling. Everyone was right at their limit. probably because that no one had any spare energy to think of it anyone else in that situation it was all like what I'm struggling so that's it you know and yeah I mean there was a good few arguments

It's difficult to look back, so don't want to throw anyone under the bus or paint anyone in a bad light. Bad light will all... I'll need to try on our best. I think for me... What I recognized that I did wrong in that situation was I set us up in a bad way. Like I'd hired so heavily on content side because I knew that, you know, we stopped with no money, we had to get content out there to get brands to sponsor us that I basically recruited three people that were almost entirely deaf content reasons. Being able to make YouTube videos, tech photos, record documentary, this kind of thing. I completely blindsided the logistics and element and like having knowledge of Africa and all of this kind of stuff. I just thought that's a luxury who can't afford right now. Because of that, I ended up asking a support team that would most of their content, it's basically the logistics experts. And that's put them in a position that's obviously going to be really difficult. So, yeah, I mean, that the whole situation could have been avoided with different plan and I recognised that and I thought, off the back of that, I was like, right, I'm gonna get a full by full because the van can't travel up any of these dirt roads and I'm gonna hire two new people, one of which is gonna be like a proper logistics guy that's gonna get us through all these tough situations.

Yeah, that was a difficult one. We actually, we had a big argument. Me and Harry had a big argument on just after this Congo thing. We were traveling back through these villages. He'd obviously had a rough time as well, trying to be in scam for my bikes, had this dealings with the police chief. And as we're coming back, he was buying like fags and alcohol and stuff in all these little tiny remote villages. And I had an issue with it because we're going for some of the poorest places in the world. There's kids running around with a lot of man, our spedies kind of in feed themselves. And, you know, as your opinions, if we ball through these villages drinking smoke and blah, blah, blah, blah, then it's giving off the sign that we got a lot of money to spare. And that's why we're getting scammed so much for extortionist amounts of money. So I had an issue with it and I told him and I probably didn't say it in a way that was how good leadership would set, you know. So we had a big argument about that. I've obviously just been in this real village for a couple of days. I'm already, I'm, I'm tightly strong already. So it's he. And then we get back to the other, the other boys. These guys had no idea what just happened. And they were all struggling themselves. So they were very much at everyone was just concentrating themselves. And they were all kind of like everyone's bit pissed off for each other. And then we had a meeting. And I'll just blow up, just blow up, start shouting everyone, throwing chairs about, completely lost my call. It's not, obviously not the way to act. And yeah, I mean, it was, it was all good. It's all good few days after that. I was, I just went straight back to running, wanted to get out of the RC as quickly as possible. It was everyone was an egg-shows. We got to Cabinda, which is in it Angola next grave. And then I said to her, I was like, how are you going on holiday? and I said to the other boys you will be going on and let it some point. I think at that point I'd realized that for me I'm running every day. My body's very stressed. I'm very stressed in general. I manage a lot of things and I can't have the people around me also being at the edge of what they can do because then it just leaves me in a totally fucked spot. So I tried to kind of put some reorganized, reshuffle things so that wouldn't happen by sending everyone holiday. Hyde Gus, Hyde Jamie, another editor to take some workload off Stanks, the geese it was working like 18 hours a day trying to get to YouTube videos out a week whilst recording it and producing it as I write. needs to change something there. Thus, X-power from Dutch military, he'd cycle up and down Africa by himself. It's absolutely based on a bloke. He's coming in. He's going to do all logistics and point on the best recruits we've ever made. So that's kind of how the aftermath happened.

But the back was probably the worst injury out. It's not even healed still. But basically, my back starts season up. And I would get like shooting nerve pains coming down my leg. and it would just totally, like, totally jar, and it wouldn't be able to move. Or, yeah, I mean, I've got no job in there.

Probably, I mean, I'll run the marathon and suddenly it was still going a bit, so.

No, but it's basically been on and off, on and off, very painful for the last kind of, well, whenever that was to date on June 5th, so since then,

Um, I was in a lot of pain, like every day. So I really just wanted it to be over at that point. And that was still like five months ago.

The closest, where you thought, do you know what, maybe, the thought, the only time I ever really had the thought was in the conglier? Really? On the, on the motorbike, yeah, like, that was the only time I actually ever actually thought, like, why am I doing this? This is stupid. You know, like, all I'm gonna do is get myself killed by this. And a cat, it was a fleeting fault, came in, then I thought, oh my god, fucking choice got to do it now anyway.

Yeah, it was more peace in that together. They were very confused about how it was, why I was there, why I was running in the middle of the night. And yeah, they made sure they did all their checks for me. So I wasn't any suspect individual.

It was back to base. It's kind of Christmas. We had chickens on the fire. I don't got a bit pissed.

Yeah, Christmas will have been a bit of a weird one for my family anyway. But yeah, like, I mean, it was business as usual. I think it was pretty much focused on the job and had a couple drinks and that was that.

I have to comment a lot of people advice is not to travel.

Yeah, it was bold strategy. We were strategising for a couple weeks before that. We are back against the wall here, what we're going to do. You know, I've gotten Stan had were putting together these kinds of plans to get residency in more attaining here and then potentially, you know, do all of these little things to try and somehow get a visa. And I've just got to a point where I said, like, boys, let's just tell Mary, just get the, just, let's just blast it on socials because it's going to take someone right at the top to say yes. You know, just swing for defenses.

It was mad. It was actually crazy.

Really. Yeah, I remember just thinking that that's a minor we'll figure that out because you had so much evidence that you guys had been able to figure out so many other things. Yeah, and I think like by the end as well, like the team was so it was slick like the way everyone was operating with everyone knew what they had to do. No one needed. You know, no one needed talent. We all just got on with our jobs and the amount of output for four people, which is crazy.

Yeah, I'm not even if you go through some difficult shit and it doesn't work out and you've got a few lessons in there, right?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, even like mainstream media kind of picked up, I think the last few days.

It was so funny, like, um, Tunisia at that time wasn't even that hot. Coming from the UK, everyone's just actually cooked.

Yeah. Yeah. It was emotional day, man. I mean, my dad came and ran, I could equally bang it to a freak out these days, but he came and ran and I put his arm around me and that and, you know, it's special.

throughout the whole mission really, I think, but Emily's definitely a big part of helping that.

On the last day, yeah, we ran a little bit of couple tears just like.

I don't know, like, I guess it was like a signal that it was like, this is actually over now. You know, like, my dad's here. Um, I like, you know, everything. Everything I've been for, but also like everything he'd been through, everything his dad's been through felt like it just felt like a moment, you know.

Yes, nice. It's powerful when he does so, is that it?

Yeah. I mean, that finished line. Honestly, you felt like a fucking mystical thing that was never coming for the longest time. So, the fact that you finally came was just like, wow, it's finally over, you know, like we actually did it. So, yeah, very grateful.

I guess it's just like grateful that it all works out, you know, and that all the hard work paid off and all the hard times paid off.

Yeah, I think so. Hopefully. What have you proven? I guess I'm capable, you know, I can't do it.

It was totally mad. I think the finish line was one of the things that was just so overwhelming. I don't know if you had it like, when there's so much going on and it's so overwhelming, you kind of like, it's almost feels like an out-of-body experience.

I do like being alone. I do like it.

I was just out there for 14 months.

How is that? Still think I'm kind of working that out at the moment. I don't really know. It's definitely different. But everyone's so nice. And I think the stories of people that come up to me and they're like, I was running the marathon on Sunday and people are like, you're the reason I'm here and it's stuff. That's kind of mad, but that's sick as well.

Because I'm trying to distance myself from everyone and everything because my own. I think my social batteries are not quite a quick. And once that happens, I'm just like, well, I need to be alone. Like, immediately. Done. Can't speak.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's just like, well, I think there's a lot of things happening as well that I'm not, that I don't know how to handle properly, like emails and all these other things.

I kind of need a moment to work out what I actually want to do. I think, but it's fine, like, I'm not running an Ultraman Athens story, does anyone? Well, I can't like, it's all right.

Yeah, I didn't quite anticipate that.

Yeah, it was a little bit, there was just a lot of people grabbing it at you and stuff. Yeah, yeah. I mean, People are nice, so like they only had nice things to say to me. It was just like so much like stimulation, you know what I mean? I'm not used to this.

Um, my body needed it. Yes. Absolutely, you know, bashed in. But it is also, it was, it's been quite difficult to, I had like such a solid routine every day for a year. It was like, get up, run, break, eat, run, do the same, you know, every single day. And now the schedule is like wildly different. It's like, okay, wake up, interview here or going to this and then this and, you know, meet this person, chat to that person. And I'm kind of a mission that that routine of exercise and all the time, kind of want to start that back up again pretty soon. Maybe you know, 60 or 70 care a day, but like, I need, I actually need that, you know.

I think it's fine, I just need to get, like, I just need to get a few things sorted, like, I haven't got a place to live yet, or I don't really, I don't know the immediate next step, like, career wise what I'm gonna do. And a lot of things have changed, obviously, so it's just working out a lot of all of this stuff. But I think when there's that many uncertainties in your life, it's always gonna create a certain level of, like, mental challenges, so I just need to figure them out, and then I'll be alright.

I've got a lot of ideas. I think like one of the big things that I'd be really what I really love to do is in some way be part of like the document in other people's journeys when they go on you know they're starting from somewhere and they've got this big thing that they want to do and just like even helping them will be like in some way do it so I'd really love to try and do more of that the last year as well like one of the things that I struggled with is it It is so much everything it was geared towards basically helping me run and I've had enough of that. You know, all of my support team were there basically to facilitate me running as far as I can every day and it would be nice to do things for other people more than just everyone doing things for me.

I think it will, It will die down like eventually. So I think it's gonna be alright. It's just different. Yeah, it's just different.

When I checked yesterday, I think it was 970. I'm not exactly sure what it is now.

I've worked with a charity for like years. I used to, before I left, I was the adventure guide so I take people, take groups of people up, climb the mountains or out into nature, and we do stuff. I did stuff with fundraisers who were raising money for the charity. I did the age of student run for the running charity as well, so I've been involved for four or five years.

I don't even know, I just ended up becoming a thing that I was saying towards, for art admission, I'd be like, get me to Tunisian Beach for a strawberry Daccary, and it was in my head, and then we finally got it down there.

It's a good one.

One of the things that I just love doing the most is mid-run, going into Tesco, getting some snacks, and just sitting outside Tesco on the pavement eating my snacks. Just my favourite place, I love doing that.

Thanks for everything you've done. I can't honestly, I can't thank you enough. You made it happen as well, so amazing.