Moment 184: I Was Kidnapped Whilst Running The Entire Length Of Africa: Russ Cook

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Moment 184: I Was Kidnapped Whilst Running The Entire Length Of Africa: Russ Cook"

Introduction

In this gripping episode of The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, host Steven Bartlett engages in an intense and candid conversation with Russ Cook, also known as the "hardest geezer." Russ shares his extraordinary journey of running across Africa, detailing the physical and emotional challenges he faced, including a harrowing experience of being threatened and nearly kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This episode offers listeners an unfiltered glimpse into Russ's resilience, mental fortitude, and the profound insights he gained from his adventure.

Russ Cook: The Hardest Geezer's Journey

Russ Cook begins by introducing himself and his monumental achievements in long-distance running. At 22, Russ became the first person to run from Asia to London. Later, at 27, he resigned as CEO of his industry-leading social media marketing company. At 28, he co-founded Flight Story, a marketing and communications firm, and thirdweb, a software platform simplifying web3 application development. He also launched Flight Fund, a private equity fund aimed at accelerating the next generation of European unicorns. Amid these ventures, Russ launched The Diary Of A CEO podcast to share the unfiltered journeys of influential individuals.

The Beginnings of a Challenging Expedition

At the onset, Russ describes his motivation behind running the entire length of Africa—a 10,000-mile trek across 16 countries over 352 days. This feat involved completing 386 consecutive marathons through diverse terrains, including mountains and deserts. The journey was fraught with dangers, including armed robberies and kidnapping attempts. Russ reflects, “After all those miles, I realized what I'd been running from and had to face it head on” (00:03).

A Glimpse into the Kidnapping Incident

The core of the episode delves deep into Russ's terrifying experience in the DRC. On Day 102 of his expedition, Russ recounts how he encountered extreme hostility upon entering the country. Despite warnings about the DRC’s reputation for corruption and violence, the reality surpassed his darkest fears. He explains, “It was the hardest part of my whole life, really” (01:10).

Upon crossing into a chaotic border town, Russ and his team faced relentless harassment. Locals demanded money, with threatening behavior escalating to physical intimidation. Russ shares a particularly frightening moment: “The day before day 102 we had a guy come up to me with a rock, spikes in the rock and he was like I'm gonna like smash your head in with this” (01:17). Despite the threat, Russ managed to de-escalate the situation by offering a small sum, refusing to give in to extortion.

The Flight into the Jungle

On Day 102, Russ's anxiety peaked as he embarked on a 100-kilometer run. His usual routine was disrupted when his team’s support van failed to reach him, sending a motorbike to guide him to a new meeting point deep within the jungle. The path was treacherous, with dense vegetation and no clear trails. As Russ navigated through the wilderness, he became increasingly isolated, dehydrated, and panicked.

“I'm running along this dirt park and this guy on a motorbike keeps trying to stop me and I was so like scatty already” (02:35). The situation deteriorated when he entered a village, where misunderstandings led to a terrifying confrontation with the village chief and his men. Russ describes the fear vividly: “I was absolutely bricking it. Thinking, like, what? Like, what is going on here?” (06:15).

Seven Hours of Terror

Russ recounts the agonizing seven hours he spent on a motorbike, venturing deeper into the jungle under the watch of unfamiliar men. The language barrier compounded his fear, leaving him unable to communicate or understand the intentions of his captors. “They were trying to communicate to me, like, oh, we're going to take you to your friends, blah, blah, blah” (10:00). The uncertainty of his fate weighed heavily on him, oscillating between fears of being robbed or worse.

Resolution and Aftermath

After enduring seven grueling hours, Russ was taken to a remote hut in the jungle, where the local men argued over his fate. The intervention of the second chief of the village provided a semblance of hope. Through limited English and the assistance of his teammate Harry, Russ negotiated his release by offering biscuits and some money. The resolution was slow, taking approximately 36 to 48 hours due to the area's remoteness and lack of infrastructure. Eventually, the team arrived, settled the tensions with monetary compensation, and Russ was free to continue his journey.

Russ reflects on the incident’s emotional toll: “I was petrified, man. I was absolutely petrified” (09:04). This experience not only tested his physical limits but also his mental resilience, highlighting the profound psychological impacts of extreme adversity.

Emotional Impact and Mental Fortitude

Throughout the episode, Russ candidly discusses the emotional aftermath of his ordeal. He acknowledges the anxiety and fear he endured, emphasizing the importance of mental strength in overcoming such challenges. “If this is the way that God wants it, then I guess it is. That's it, you know, and there's more for me elsewhere” (17:01). This perspective underscores Russ's ability to find meaning and purpose even in the darkest moments, inspiring listeners to confront their own fears and setbacks.

Collaborating on "Hardest Geezer: Mind Over Miles"

Russ shares exciting news about his collaboration with Steven Bartlett and Flight Books to pen his first book, Hardest Geezer: Mind Over Miles. The book aims to inspire individuals facing fears, questioning their paths, or striving to break free from inhibiting barriers. Russ states, “It's for anyone facing their fears, questioning their path, or trying to break free from what's been holding them back” (00:03).

Insights and Conclusions

The episode offers profound insights into the human spirit's capacity to endure and triumph over adversity. Russ’s story is a testament to resilience, highlighting the significance of mental toughness and the ability to remain composed under extreme pressure. His journey serves as a powerful metaphor for personal growth, encouraging listeners to embrace discomfort and persist through their own challenges.

Notable Quotes

• Russ Cook (00:03): “After all those miles, I realized what I'd been running from and had to face it head on.”
• Russ Cook (01:10): “It was the hardest part of my whole life, really.”
• Russ Cook (06:15): “I was absolutely bricking it. Thinking, like, what? Like, what is going on here?”
• Russ Cook (09:04): “I was petrified, man. I was absolutely petrified.”
• Russ Cook (17:01): “If this is the way that God wants it, then I guess it is. That's it, you know, and there's more for me elsewhere.”

Conclusion

In this episode of The Diary Of A CEO, Steven Bartlett and Russ Cook engage in a raw and honest dialogue about the extreme challenges faced during Russ's African marathon. Russ's narrative is not just a tale of physical endurance but a deep exploration of fear, anxiety, and the power of the human spirit to overcome unimaginable obstacles. Listeners are left inspired by Russ’s unwavering determination and his ability to transform a life-threatening experience into a source of strength and motivation for others.

For more insights and to follow Russ Cook's journey, listeners are encouraged to check out his upcoming book here and connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Transcript

[Russ Cook]

Hi there. No, it's not Stephen. So who is it? Well, I'm pretty into running and I've just come back from a little jog across Africa. Yep, it's me, Russ Cook, aka the hardest geezer. At 22, I became the first person to run from Asia to London. And earlier this year, I became the first person to run the length of Africa, 10,000 miles across 16 countries in 352 days. I ran 386 consecutive marathons through mountains and deserted, survived armed robberies and even escaped kidnap. But the craziest part, after all those miles, I realized what I'd been running from and had to face it head on. Now I'm buzzing to say I've teamed up with Stephen and Flight Books to turn all of that into my first book, Hardest Geezer, Mind Over Miles. It's for anyone facing their fears, questioning their path, or trying to break free from what's been holding them back.

[Harry]

Cause that was me, too.

[Russ Cook]

If you're ready to embrace discomfort, grab your copy at the link below.

[Stephen]

Day 102. When I say day 102, does it bring back any memories?

[Harry]

Need a couple.

[Stephen]

Congo.

[Harry]

Congo, drc. Yeah, that was one hell of an.

[Stephen]

Experience that you described this as probably the hardest part of the whole trip.

[Harry]

Probably the hardest part of my whole life, really.

[Stephen]

You've not talked about this much in detail either, for some reason.

[Harry]

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 there was a lot of arguments, a lot of fallouts around that. And I didn't think that the video that we made was really what.

[Russ Cook]

Told.

[Harry]

The story, how I wanted it to be told, what happened. So, yeah.

[Stephen]

You're emotional about this.

[Harry]

Yeah, I mean, it. Yeah, that whole thing was. Was mad. The. So we got to DRC, I think. Day 100, we got to DRC. It was hostile from the start. We'd. 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've been sent the videos of the craziest things happening there, and I think we're all a bit apprehensive.

[Stephen]

You've been sent what kind of videos?

[Harry]

The craziest. 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 DRC is that we spent a few days there. My experience was very subjective. It's a massive country, loads of people, loads of great people. But my personal experience of the small amount of time I spent there was. Was a bit rough. But yeah, I mean we landed in the country, crossed 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 whilst I was running, trying to like exploit us for money, officials, all this kind of stuff, get Trying to get money out of us. And we'd 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 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 like smash your head in with this. I mean he was speaking French so I didn't really get it. But Harry spoke French so he's basically threatening us with this big spiky rock that he had in his hand saying like give me three quid, the equivalent of three quid or I'm gonna like start smashing you all up. And like. So we, I gave, I think gave 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 like get word around that there was a bunch of people just throwing 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 finding it difficult. Already ran left my. Left the boys in the morning like I Normally do around 20k. Then ran another 20k start. We took a turn off onto a dirt road to the boys are playing. This route took to. Went down this dirt road. Then the van, basically the sport van couldn't get to me. So the boys sent a guy on a motorbike. And so I'm running along this dirt park and this guy on a motorbike keeps trying to stop me and I was so like scatty already that I was. I didn't want to stop for. He was trying to get me to stop and I was like nah, I'd had it the day before, people trying to stop me on motorbikes and it was all a bit Didn't. Didn't feel great. Like, I was. 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 was about 20k through the jungle, no roads, that barely even a path. I was just kind of like whacking my way through bushes to get to this meeting point where I was going to try and find the boys, run out of water, phone's got no signal, and I'm going through these, These bushes, stumbling into this village. And because I think because of the experience that I'd already had in the first couple days of drc, 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 running through this village and, like, people shouting at me and stuff, and I'm like, hey, this is happening all the time now. Like, just carry on going, carry on going. But I think I 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're all, 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, like, 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 blokes, took me out into the bush with machetes and I was bricking it. Yeah, I was absolutely bricking it. Thinking, like, every. All my mind's totally racing at this point. I'm like, what? Like, what is going on here? Why. Why am I going out to the bush? Like, this doesn't make any sense. Like, is this a shakedown? 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 darted. And then I was just like, right, beeline for this meeting spot and mine's totally frazzled at this point. I've got. I'm hearing motorbikes coming, I'm hearing people, I'm jumping in bushes, like, totally just kind of off it here, kind of get through this jungle bit, get to this meeting spot, the boys aren't there now. I'm really like, oh, this is 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 upset a lot of people in the local area and I've just ran away from them all. I'm like, ah, like, this is bad, this is bad news. Anyway, I figured out that the tarmac, the last known bit of tarmac was, I think about 15 or 20k away. And I was like, I reckon I can just about make it there. And if I make it there, then that, that makes sense that the boys, that's the last bit they could get to.

[Stephen]

So had you just sprinted away from the guys with the machetes?

[Harry]

Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, like, it was. I, 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. Gave him biscuits and just died. And then like, I've, 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 quite, it's. Yeah, I mean, it's all quite mad. I'm like, adrenaline going through the roof. I was like, oh, yeah?

[Stephen]

Were you scared?

[Harry]

Yeah, I was petrified, man. I was absolutely petrified. I think what didn't help is that I didn't understand any of the languages, like local, like Lingala, local language. I didn't know any French either, which would have helped. And I didn't understand. I didn't have a very good understanding of the culture or anything. So I think if I went through it again, a lot of these things would have been rationalized in my mind easier. But 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 DRC was quite rough and I was just like in this spot where it didn't take much for me to kind of just assume the worst of everything. So it really just got me into a place where I was like, quite scatty. But yeah, I mean, I find, I find this. I go see the bit of tarmac. I'm like, 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 blokes on a motorbike pull up. And, you know, I'm, I, I was like this, I just don't want any part of this. They're trying to stop me, you know, I'm. Mine's totally gone. And they, they were trying to, 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, I'm thinking about, I'm like, are these guys, who are these guys sent from? They sent from this village or that village. Is there like a bush telegraph of a white guy running around here? He's upset, like, go and get him kind of thing. So I'm like, nah, not doing it, blah, blah, blah, thinking, you know, the boys, they send a note with the driver if it's from, if it's from them. And these guys had no note. And I was like, but he was, you know, getting later and later I was like, I've got no water, I've got no signal, I've got no way of knowing where the boys are. They're probably no further than 10 or 20k away. So 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.

[Stephen]

How long were those two men on the bike following you and asking you to get on the bike?

[Harry]

A while, like probably. We probably about 20 minutes. So, yeah, got on the bike, half an hour went by. Then now went by. I start like kicking off, I'm getting off the bike, I'm having a go at them. But like the language barriers, just when no one understands a word anyone's saying. And then, yeah, ended up spending seven hours on that motorbike going into the jungle, which was like, terrible.

[Stephen]

Seven hours.

[Harry]

Seven hours, yeah.

[Stephen]

What goes through your mind in those seven hours?

[Harry]

I thought, well, I assumed after about an hour and a half that I was like, okay, well I am getting kidnapped then. Like, we're, this is it, you know. And then I was thinking rationally, I was like, had such limited knowledge about DRC or any of this kind of stuff. I was like, they're probably just going to, they'd probably just want money. But then you also start think, well, maybe they're just going to kill you. And the stories that I'd heard about DRC and that wasn't the craziest thing, you know, you, like, people get stabbed for fiver, literally Like a couple of quid. People get stabbed, people get killed for the, you know, a watch. So I was really trying to work, like, I was really trying to be rational about the situation, but just like very, quite, quite 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 asked 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. But it was very scary. I was, like, so nervous, like, just shaking. They took me to this village in the jungle, late at night, no electricity. It's like wooden little shacks with tin corrugated roofs and stuff. And got me off the bike, took me into this little hut. Then loads of the men of the village came into the hut. They were arguing about money and this kind of stuff. 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. And I said to him, like, this is big mistake, you know, like, call my friend. HE SPEAKS FRENCH and like. And then he can come and, like, we've got money and we can sort it out. And then they spoke on the phone and then basically we agreed, like, the boys would come, we've got the money. And then it took the boys, like, I think about 36, 48 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 motorbikes, got scammed, then they. Then they ended up trying to borrow the police, a police chief's 4x4 who also scammed us. So ba. Yeah, so then, I mean, the boys got there eventually, we gave everyone some money and then I was free to go.

[Stephen]

I was just looking as you were talking about how fast seven hours is. And for people in the uk, seven hours is London to Edinburgh.

[Harry]

Yeah. It's not in drc.

[Stephen]

So if I go from London to Edinburgh in a car.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

That's seven hours. Just to give people an idea of, like, how long that is on the back of a motorbike with strange men going through the middle of the.

[Harry]

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

[Stephen]

And you got to that village, they wanted. They wanted money. Did they explain anything? Did they say anything to you about who they were? And I think.

[Harry]

I think they were. I think they were actually just. They were more scared about who I was and 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, the. They. They were pretty all right with me. And they. I think they. You know, it was. I was. I was just in a state of, like, totally, totally whacked.

[Stephen]

What do you mean?

[Harry]

Just exhausted, but, like, petrified. And I was just very nervous around everything twitchy, you know? Yeah.

[Stephen]

Have you suffered with anxiety?

[Harry]

I don't know. I think. I don't think so, but, like, I do. Obviously, I'm a human. I do know what anxiety feels like, and I do get it sometimes, but I was. I was anxious then, for sure.

[Stephen]

You're speaking to Emily back home, your partner, throughout the journey on most days, but for this period of time, sounds like you were out of communication with her. She seems like she was very, very worried about you.

[Harry]

She was, yeah.

[Stephen]

In fact, she told. She told us on a research call that she thought you had died.

[Harry]

Yeah. I mean, I thought I was gonna die as well.

[Stephen]

Did you actually.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

Genuinely thought you were gonna die?

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Stephen]

And how did you. How do you sort of rationalize that thought? How do you deal with that thought when you. What comes to mind? Like, what are you thinking if you really believe. You know, I think I'm gonna die here.

[Harry]

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