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

25:58So if you had to give me a word to summarize your sort of mental health throughout that period, how would you describe your mental health? Toilet. Yeah, bad. Pretty bad. Was there a worst day that you can recall?

26:26Yeah, I mean, I remember like, I do remember just.

26:41You don't want to talk about it. You don't want to talk about it. Yeah. You don't want to talk about it. Days, like I said, I'd wake up crying to speak to my boss. I remember even one day with my boss speaking to one of the phone just persons to his crying. And I think what was hard is that I didn't understand anything. I didn't understand why. You know, I mean, I didn't have the tools to really make any sense of the situation. Because you know, like now, I'm seven, eight, nine years older. I can look back and go, yeah, well, that's what happens when you gamble. You're a humble loads and you piss away money away and you drink loads.

27:24And you don't have anything in your life. It's going to bring you any mean enough for film and 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 never 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. You had duck thoughts? Yeah. The most dark thoughts. Pretty, yeah, pretty much.

28:02That season of your life, I've heard you kind of describe it as a rock bottom moment. And it's interesting because there's so many people that are somewhere along that journey where they're struggling, they've got that sense of helplessness that you've described. And they're searching for answers. And I think in some respects, thinking about some people I've spoken to recently, they've kind of given up believing that they can solve this because it's gone on for too long. Yeah. And as you said, they don't even know what's causing it. They just feel it. They feel it intensely. I've got a couple of friends that I really go into at the moment.

28:44And I wonder, I always wonder to myself, like, how does someone get from that moment? They're like, personal rock bottom. What does it take to get them starting the climb? Because that's why I'm asking these questions. I see it in your story. I see you go further and further and further and further and further and further down. Yeah. Reaching this rock bottom moment. And then in that rock bottom moment, you have some of the, I think the darkest thoughts that anyone can have. And then something causes you to make a decision. Yeah. I think there's a few different things that went into that melt and pot.

29:21I think actually a massive thing was like things like listening to Pocos. I started to, I remember listening to like Joe Rogan a lot back in the day. And he thought, I remember the Jordan Peterson. There was a Jordan Peterson episode, age, guy. I know it's like a classic thing. But that really kind of hit me. And that's what I like. I love listening to him now. And I know he's been controversial these days and be aware of X, Y, Z, Z, Z, bottom. 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.

30:01Whereas before, you know, like 20, 30 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 like, incredibly grateful for that. But then can I ask a question? Yeah, I've gone. Well, in that moment when you're 19 years old, you're such a figure. Do your parents know what you're going through? No, I don't think so. Do you think today they know what you were going through? And that probably not. No, probably not. I reckon, I don't know. I reckon my mum's probably four birds, but they don't know the insides. What are the ins and outs that they don't know?

30:38Well, just like the day to day, you know. And I, and I don't, I don't, I've get, I'm quite like, I keep a lot of things to myself a lot of the time anyway. So like, no one really knows. There's a real cost to that in there. There is, yeah, I guess. There is this. You know, these things, I always think with these things, keeping them to yourself doesn't mean that they stay inside it means they express themselves in other ways. Yeah, smart. When they're smart. I sit with a lot of people, so I've come to learn about myself. But I've come to one of the things I've definitely come to learn is that keeping it in doesn't actually keep it in.

31:18It just comes out in other ways. It makes it like a pressure chamber and you get the little escape. Someone will say something you can fuck up with. Or some people have expressed themselves in pornography addictions or gambling addictions. They're trying to find other ways to ease the burden of having to hold onto that all that stuff. Or riding the length path.

31:40So they had no idea. Yeah. If you could go back and have a word with him when he's woke up on that morning, when you're at your rock bottom and he's crying and he doesn't want to go to work and he's thinking about dark thoughts. If you could go back and just have a telephone conversation with him now, what would you say to him? Ha.

32:06I guess I do have empty. For that guy, I think the thing that I needed to hear, which was the most, which actually got me to force me into action, was like, I need to take responsibility for my situation here. So that version of me at 1918 -19 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 anyone else to come in and say, oh, it's not your fault. I needed someone to go ask the fucking world mate, get used to like do something about it or don't go up to you.

32:59So that's probably the message that I'd give maybe I'd deliver it in a nice little empathetic way. But ultimately, no one was going to come and say, he's had to be me. When you talk about this, I was reading different sort of seasons of your life. And it's this one moment where you're in a nightclub, but it seems like you haven't been able to. I don't know whether you were on something or you were on something. It seems like you had a little bit of a dance for a piffony moment at two, three of them in the morning. Yeah, so I think it'd been leading up to this because I've been I've been finding life really difficult for a while.

33:41And 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 I've been in the arch in Brighton and just being like, I need I need someone I've had it, like what am I doing? Probably one of them like mirror bit pissed looking at the mirror moments going, fucking. And then ran home, about 11, 12 miles took me ages or something. Sorry, you ran home from the night. Right. 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. And then, at what time?

34:243am, 2pm, 2pm, something like this. You ran 12 miles at 3am? Yeah, I took me ages. Drunk. Yeah, yeah, I was totally off it. Sleeping on the side of the road. Yeah, took a little pile and I'm sure I'm pavement. But yeah, I mean, so I ran that mirror, or I 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 -marion and he said to me, like, come and run it, like, let's do it, I'll train with you, blah, blah, blah. And I think that was the moment where I was like, oh, this might be something that I can do.

35:00I'm out of ideas here. Yeah, I need something. So I literally just, on a whim, was like, fine, let's do it, signed up, and then he took me out training. We did the half -marion, then a few weeks later we signed up, did the full -marion. And that process was like a huge relief for me. It just made it for the, 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 come in week by week by week. And I think that's why I love running so much, because that's it in its simplest form.

35:48It's like, you go out, run, it's really shit. And then you keep going, you keep going, and now a month later you come on a half -marathon, or two months later you can now run a marathon. And it was that process of going from someone that I liked. 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, like this is how we progress. That's really the word in it, progress, that feeling of progress. Like you'd learn, because that becomes a metaphor for life, like I set out to do something, and I got better at it, I progressed, and I accomplished something.

36:24That's a pretty strong, transferable idea for the rest of your, like for everyone's life, to learn that. Exactly. That's kind of what happened for me. I managed to save up some money off the back of, run these marathons, and then it's like stop drinking as much. It wasn't gambling anymore, and saved up a bit of money for the first time. Then a few months later I decided, right, just been off the league to clean the jobs. I'm going to travel the world with more, a few grandad, that I'd manage to save up. And where did you get around the world? Traveling. Did a bit in Europe, then went over to Africa, got to Kenya.

37:08Did some, I was really into my run 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 I -10, which is like home to some of the best long distance runs ever. Like Kipchogies from there, all this kind of stuff. Just trained with them, 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 I wanted to do something like that. And I was pretty good at running by now.

37:48So then I first kind of conceived the idea of running from Istanbul to London. And that was the next, I was like, that's what we're going for. I don't think many people know that you did all this stuff. Before Africa. No, I don't think so, yeah. I don't think they do. I don't think people, I was speaking to my mates, I was like, well, you know, he, he like ran, he was the first person to run from Asia to London. And people like now, you just know that you ran Africa. And then all these other things you did beforehand, but 22 years old, you become the first person to run from Asia to London, because you ran from Istanbul to London.

38:22You completed 71 marathons and 66 days through 11 countries. And you had no team with you. Yeah. You basically just did it on yourself and your phone was dying and all that stuff. Yeah. When you told your family and other people that you were going to run from Asia to London at 22 years old, what was their response? Because that would be the first big... Most of them were like, yeah, you're like, you're going to die. Or like, that's not going to happen. I remember pretty much everyone being like that. I could probably count on one handy man, people actually thought I was going to do that. What did your parents think?

38:59I can't actually remember. I don't know if I was speaking to them very much at this time. Oh, really? Yeah. I remember my little brother was the only one that was like, yeah, he's the only one I remember being like, yeah, he's deaf, he's going to do it. What was that like? You know, because you're on your own. It's different to the Africa run. But this time you're on your own for that whole journey across Asia to Europe. 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 at a little bag with a hammer and toothbrush, toothpaste, phone.

39:41I would find a couple of trees at the end of the day, seeing the hammer cut and go again the next day. So, yeah. Did you not need like friends or something? What? That's what? I think the, a lot of people said this to me that they're like, well, you're going to need this, you're going to need that. Why? Actually, why? Why can't you just sleep in a hammer every day and then go run a marathon? Did you speak, he was speaking to anybody and it bit me back home around that. I don't know. You must look at that objectively and go, that is not normal behavior.

40:23And then from that, I ask, so what is it that's abnormal about you? Because you're performing unnormal behavior. It's super inspiring, but it's not normal. It's not typical. That's a good question, man. I'm not really sure. Yeah, it wasn't normal. Yeah, I guess it definitely wasn't normal. It's not. I thought you just figured that out.

40:50I think, you know, I met this, I met this Italian guy and he'd been cycling around the world for six years. And he showed me his cell, he had nothing on him really. He had like, he had basically nothing, but he just had a coffee kettle. That was the only thing he really cared about. So meeting these kind of people just made me realize like, what is normal? Who even cares about normal? I don't care. I just like, this, this is normal. This guy cycling around six years. Why not? But he seems like he's had a pretty good adventure. I want a bit of that. An Africa specifically, Kenya, I've been there.

41:24Certain parts of Kenya can really teach you that you don't need much. That's a primal. Exactly. I think it was just a different way of looking. That's what the, I mean, it is the classic travelling. I'd go travelling for yourself. But sometimes meeting these people from doing the craziest stuff and from different cultures will just make you look at things in a different way. Even, I found that coming back to London now and it's like, all of, I'm back into the mode. Like, oh, you need to go get a flat and you need to go live somewhere in blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, hold on a minute. Why do I need to do any of this?

42:03You must realise upon returning to the UK how much people are kind of programmed. Yeah. Yeah. And I just, I guess the, the, the age of the only one was the first time I was just like, just give it a go. What's the worst going to happen? And at the end of that run, your father joins you. Um, yeah. So I remember, my dad, my dad came up to London and saw me. He said that he was proud of me. And I remember that hitting because like, he didn't say it often. But when he says it, you know, it's probably, I can imagine if dad being similar, like, kind of thing where you know he means it when he says it.

42:48And I think that's like one of the most powerful things that dad can say to his son, like, proud of you son. Even makes me emotional just saying it, like, thinking about him, like, wow. Um, see, that was nice. I mean, he ran the last day with you. He ran like the last 5k, I think. We had, yeah, the last 5k. And I was actually joined for the last couple of days by the mate that got me into running the first place, which is really cool as well.

43:20Interestingly, there was no followers. No. There was no YouTube views. There was no headlines. There was no BBC articles. There was nothing. Most people don't even know it happened. Yeah. Frankly, because you went on your own and you didn't do all the social media stuff. Yeah. You then get back to the UK to much different fanfare than you got back to this time. You go back to your parents house, a couple of days in. Everyone's looking around, going, yeah. What's that like, a couple of days in? Yeah, I mean, I remember my body being pretty in a pretty bad way after that. I couldn't even walk, like, I was really struggling.

43:55Body was really hurting. And I got back into the country. I was skinned because I'd done all my dough on this aged learning run. I learned my dad was like, I'm really getting my dad's like, what are you doing? You lazy, like, get your job. So I was like, oh, fuck. All right. And then when he got up, how did you feel when you heard that?

44:20It was hard at the time. 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. He slapped me in the face again. But yeah. I pissed off. Yeah, I was. When he told you to get a job. Yeah, I was fuming, yeah. Why? Because 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 remember being like, I'm so proud of you. You've achieved more in your life already than I ever have. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

44:59And it really felt like I made a bit of a breakthrough there. What do 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 hadn't felt that before. Not in that way. Not in that way. What did you think that he thought of you, Grana, when you were sort of 19 years old and you're gambling and doing that? I like probably just disappointed.

45:34Yeah, disappointed. Bit of a loser. You eventually ended up bearing yourself alive. Yeah. So a ton of events I didn't see coming in your story. So you do this run at 22 years old. There's this sort of a two -year gap between then and when you bury yourself alive. What are you doing for those two years? So I was just working bits and pieces here and there really. Back to Malibu. Pretty much. I finished the Asia's Lone & Run. And in my head from then I was like, I would really love to make this kind of thing a career somehow. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I would love to be able to do that.

46:18And then that kind of started like a 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 of 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 Instagram just really from my voice to see be like, I'm out there in Serbia, camping or whatever. But yeah, then you know, if did the Asia's Lone & Run figure out if we make some content and that's how we're going to do it.

46:59If I could just bury myself alive, pull the car from my iPhone, then the Africa plan would start happening. You buried yourself alive, you asked your parents if you could bury yourself in the garden they told you to suck off.

47:12Yeah, yeah, I remember that. You buried yourself alive for seven days in underground. You basically just don't hold anything in the tin can and jumped in the tin can and then they buried you there. And then eventually the plans as you say you pulled the car as well, which is crazy. Do you know when I actually found out all this stuff which was shocked me was, I don't know, a week or so into your run in Africa. I saw you pop up on my feed and then as you know, I clicked on your profile and I clicked on the DM box. Yeah, and you sent me a DM. And the DM you sent me was in May the 5th, I think it was 2022.

47:52So it was a long time ago, it was more than two years ago now and paraphrasing because I just speculated with one. I bet you get these kind of DMs all the time. I missed it, I didn't see it. I didn't see it at all but it's funny because I actually replied to you exactly one year to the day when you sent me a message or replied to me the 5th as well. But you email me on May the 5th, 2022 and in that message you said some nice things and then you said you'll probably get a lot of these DMs. But let me explain why this one is special and exciting. Oh, I'm going to put myself at this. This is your sales background.

48:27Now I've removed some parts. I've removed it because it's bad. No, no, no, no, no. I'm an endurance athlete. In 2019 I was the first person to run from Asia to London in 2020. I pulled a car for a marathon in record time. In 2021 I got buried alive with nothing but water and I live streamed it for an entire week. And in 2022 I'm starting a mission to become the first person to ever run the full length of Africa. You sent me that DM two years ago hoping that I could assist you in some way with the Africa like that. And when I saw that, the most shocking part was that you've done all of these other things and I'd never ever heard about any of them.

49:05And then in that message you explained to me because it was a very long message and you really, it was a really thorough message. You explained that this time would be different. People would actually know because you'd figure out content. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you'd got some good people around you. And you'd spent almost two to three years thinking about this Africa run before you even set off going. Yeah. Why Africa? Why was that the plan? Well, I knew that Africa hadn't been done before and it was one of the few things left that hadn't been done. So that was probably one of the big reasons.

49:36Also like Africa's not very well traveled, not many people tourist, not were in tourist go there. And I thought it would be like the best adventure ever. So that's why the side is there. So you were going to run from the bottom of Africa to the top. Yeah. How long did you think it was going to take? Two. I thought it would take 240 days. That was my goal. It was going to do 360 marathons in 240 days. I didn't quite like it. How long did it take in total in the stick? Three hundred and fifty two days. Long time. But there's lots of hurdles along the way. Before you set off, I think it's four to five months before you set off, maybe six months.

50:15You meet a young lady called Emily Bell. Ah, yeah. Yeah. Um, well, four -girl. What a woman. Was it six months before or something? No, 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 me to her? She's beautiful. And then, um, then that started like a three month process of me trying to convince her to go on a date. Look, it took a while. We got there eventually. We got there eventually. Um, actually, we had a secret Santa going. And I think one of my friends did me a solid and kind of like rigged the secret Santa.

51:00So I got her, and then I got her tickets to go to the community club in Brighton. Got a two ticket and so I said, well, you could take me, okay. And then, um, yes, then that's, when we first started dating about, this Africa thing was already in the work. So it was quite complicated. But then, before I left, we were like, right, just dirt. And we kind of like, we spoke on the phone every day. And, 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. Never going to work.

51:41But 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 room or all 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. Knowing your childhood and knowing the early model of relationships that you experienced to this mother and this father didn't seem like they always had the best time, little bit distant, the affection wasn't there.

52:27When you go into a relationship, there must be a part of your subconscious that still has that model of relationships front of mind. So you must be in some respects, like I am, to be fair. Or at least, like I was until I was about 27, 28, where I had my first relationship. I had my first relationship at your age, and avoidant. Because you hadn't learnt that you don't have the tools to be affectionate and to be open. Totally, but still I am a bit. But when you met her, you hadn't done had those deep conversations. No, I think, it's her, create her more than me. She kind of brought that out. I didn't have the tools to go to do any of that stuff, to be honest.

53:16I think sometimes I think we fit really well together. What I can do well, she can't do well, it works. It's so interesting because we got to have a conversation with Emily. Yeah. And the way she described you sounded very, very much like me. It's nice, funny, because I've actually listened, I remember the message you actually about. I think I listened to you had a podcast with some relationship person. That's the parallel I remember. And yeah, like the way you were talking about it, I was like, this is, this is hit, I'm it. And we do that a lot sometimes when we listen to podcasts and talk about it.

54:03I'm going to do this, I'll do this. I'm going to play this. Oh, God. This is going to be awkward for you, but listen, it's, it's word for word me. He's not the easiest to support and hasn't been the whole time. I've known him because he doesn't accept support very, like he's, he's got so much better at it. But I am very like nurturing. I want to help, I want to make his life easier. What can I do? How can I support you? For him, support looks like space.

54:43That's textbook me. Yeah. Support is leave me alone. It's my love languages just acts of service. That's really what it's about here. We're talking about you have different love languages. And she goes on to explain that this is much because of the way that, like, you're early, early years, you're used to it independence. Gosh, he's smart. Let me just... He's changed so much since I first met him. But when I first met him, I was not thinking, oh, I could actually see that you. Yeah, no, I remember those days. You've, you've changed. You've changed. How have you changed? I think I've definitely become more willing to accept something.

55:29I do still struggle with that. But I've definitely tried to do that more. I think for me, it was... I really cared about Emily, so I really wanted to be the best that I could for her as well. And I just think the level of desire to make that happen was really high. So I've just... I think before, I wasn't very willing to compromise on a lot of stuff. I was like, I'm doing my thing. You either fit in or you don't see a layup or whatever. Whereas with Emily, it reminds me of me. With Emily, I was like, I like... She's special. I really want to make this work. And I'm gonna have to... It's actually a benefit to me if I can compromise because she...

56:21That kind of... having that connection also brings a lot to my life. And I need to. But I need it. She kind of got over the fence. She got over the wall of the castle and managed to invade and change you from inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you didn't want to let anyone over the fence. Is that how it's been for you as well, then? 100%. I met a person who... I cared about so much. Yeah. It's exactly what you said. That I was finally willing to compromise on things. Before then, it was like... As you say, my way or the highway, like... Don't get in the way of my dreams. You're either on the bus or you're off it.

56:55But not like I'm willing to go in a different direction in some areas of my life here. And I think that's good news for a lot of people that are avoidance. Because it offers us all hope that... We'll meet someone and they'll be worth it. And they'll help to rewire some of the evidence we have from our earliest years about what relationships are and aren't. And the freedom they make us compromise. And all of those things. She sounds like a really wonderful person. She is, man. She's great. She's the best. I love her to fit. They always say you strengthen a relationship by going through something difficult together.

57:23And that's exactly what happened as you ran the length of Africa. The really remarkable thing was... I was reading about your preparation for this trip. And to say the least to us, you were ill -prepared. You landed in South Africa with 10K. Which is 4 % of the money that you would need to make it the whole way. I mean, there's so many other things here. You knew that you couldn't get through... I think it was Angola. Algeria. You knew you couldn't get through Algeria because they don't issue visas if you're not in the country. They denied obvious already. And they don't issue visas when you're not in the country.

58:00So you sort of like I'll figure it out when we get there. Pretty much. What is that mentality? Because there's so many people that need everything to figure out. And all the answers. And to feel that psychological feeling of, I'm ready. You don't seem to give a fuck. Frankly. I don't think I was afforded the luxury of being able to, you know, wait. We were running out of money. It was now and ever. You know, make it work with what you've got or don't do it basically. And I was like, I think we could do it. Where did this 10K come from? Well, we actually got 50K to start with from an investor. That he was a mate of a mate.

58:41I 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 off the back end. So he's done all right. He was a risky one. Yeah, risky one for sure. I think it was more like a, he just wanted to see it happen. He was fellow -worth and boy, year younger than me. He'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, the mission got delayed more and more. We had some people involved at the start that kind of long story.

59:20They kind of said that these things were going to happen. Blah, blah, blah. Brands were going to happen. All of this stuff they were trying to make happen. Nine of it ended up coming to fruition. Did they take money? They didn't take any money, no. But we ended up burning through a lot of the money before. We were supposed to be on start line with like 50K. 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, this is game over because we run out of money.

1:00:04Said to all my team, gonna have to delay your wages, etc. Just really tightened up. And then I got a message from some bloke from dragons then like two weeks in. Who turns? No, so I mean, I don't know. I think this is another thing people probably don't know that you're like such a massive part of the story. Like, you know, when you messaged, 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 that was 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've seen I ran em and the other party.

1:00:44I was like, you're never gonna believe who's just messaged me. Like, it was crazy. You know, obviously, you all got sorted out. Perfect tegots sorted out. Two unbelievable sponsors. And it just kind of changed the whole mission man. Like, I can't even put into words how grateful I am that you messaged me that. Like, it was, that was like, you know, sometimes what you have like a moment where you're like, wow, like, that's like that you were that moment for me. Really? Yeah. But you did that. I, no, you didn't. No, but like, no, you did. I'll tell you why you did that because two things. The first thing is you had messaged me a year earlier and I just had totally missed it.

1:01:27Yeah. But the second thing is you went and did something. So you planted a seed there. Then you went and did something. So awesome. That the world brought it to my attention. And when the world brought it to my attention, I looked at what you were doing. Um, I think you were too weak to roughly two weeks in. And I just thought it was awesome. I thought you were a cool guy and I could play out how this mission goes in my head. And I thought this is really fucking cool. I, I, I'm an investor in. I'm a part owner in various companies. And there was two companies that I am very close to. Perfect Ted and he'll who I felt were just perfect because no pun intended because perfect Ted are like an energy drink company that I met on Dragon's Dan.

1:02:05You need energy and they're all about positive energy. And um, the founders are very much like you. And then obviously he'll on the nutrition side of things. I thought they were perfect for you as well. And I messaged both of them. And they were both down instantly. I just sent WhatsApp. So I said, there's this guy who's running the length of Africa. He's so cool. He's really, he's like going to do it. And they both brands were like down in one message. I messaged them both the founders on WhatsApp and they were like, we're in. So and you had done that. You had because you had messaged me. Most people, I say this because sometimes people can see things like pivotal moments in their journey as like.

1:02:40But I think it's important to highlight that you planted a seed a year earlier. When you literally sent me like three pages in a deal. I mean, I guess I'll describe it like I was knocking on the door. But I needed someone to open it and you open it. So it's kind of a tool thing. I think you planted a lot of seeds. I was not going to a few doors. And I'm sure there's lots of messages you said that were never replied to. Yeah. So I'm really glad that I saw it. I'm really glad. But I saw it because you were doing something awesome. And it just popped up in my feed one day. And I went down a rabbit hole and I was like, this is fucking cool.

1:03:10This guy is cool. It'd be dope to do anything we can to see him see this through. So that gives you a little nudge forward. Those two incredible brands. You get going on the mission. You run into a bunch of health issues. I mean, it went around the internet for a while. I think at this time you've got, I don't know, you don't have many followers at the time. You have 20, 30, 40 ,000 followers. Yeah. It kind of grew a lot quite quickly. Early doors. But we started, started the mission of I think 20 K on Insta. Six K on 12, 10 K on YouTube. And you start pissing blood by like day 30. Is that a part of you at day 30 when you're running through Africa and you're pissing blood?

1:03:45And you go, I ain't going to be able to do this. No. I knew it was bad. You're running out of money a couple weeks before. Then you start pissing blood. For most people, either one of those things would be okay. Let's get a flight. Well, I just, I knew that, you know, it was a bad situation. But it would probably end eventually. And then carry on going. You get robbed in South Africa, which is the first sort of minor robbery incident for you to approach you. They try and take your stuff. I think you give them a lift home. Yeah. Yeah. That was two guys came up to me while I was running at night.

1:04:29One came in front of me. One came behind me. And I kind of initially knew this was a bit shaky. And I, I just went a bit mad just like. Wade up situation just started acting a bit crazy. Started like beating my chest and shouting stuff to try and put them off. Because I could, I've got the feeling that like, okay, they're going to, this is an attempt. But they haven't gone straight in with the robbery. They're kind of feeling it out. So I was like, trying to give them enough of a reason to think that I'm crazy enough. It's just not worth it. It kind of worked. Sorry. You started beating your chest.

1:05:02Yeah, yeah, yeah. I started beating my chest. I started shouting. I was, they, because they just joined, they were, I was mid run and they'd join me running. It's like one in front of one of mine. They were running it. I think they, it was a situation where they were trying to fill me out, you know, like. Should we rob this guy? Okay. This kind of thing. 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 I like just go ahead and tightly a bit. Just to make them think like, oh, this guy's a bit, you know, he's a bit off it.

1:05:41Maybe we just get the next one. Did you learn that somewhere or was that like a plan you had in your head? No, that was just really like, you racked differently to different situations. So 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 bullet him ahead. 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. So what happens then you start beating your chest like I can do it.

1:06:11Start beating my chest. I like losing it. The one got the guy running behind me ended up dropping off. So then it was just a 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, Did you tell him you're the hardest key? Exactly. And then we ended up speaking a little bit and he was like, oh, 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, oh, your friend was going to rob you. Yeah, like, nice. 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.

1:06:46He was living in a township next next to the road, which was like pretty bad conditions. And I was like, look mate, my boy's going to come pick me up in a couple of minutes. Like we'll give you some food. And he was like, sweet. You fed the robber. Yeah. So then the boys came and then we ended up giving him a lift back. What a nice story. Yeah. It's going to be a movie one day that the soul thing's going to be a movie. You get to Angola and then you get Rob that gunpoint. Yeah, Rob the gunpoint and Angola that was, um, D50. Yeah, I mean, they're a bit more successful that time. I got a lot of stuff.

1:07:23What happened? So, around 30k, I was on a lunch break. We sat in the van. Me, Jarrow, Terry, my sporting. And we would just chat shit like usual. Two, three guys pull up on a motorbike, two of them get off. Come up the side of the van, crack the open gun. And all of our faces started speaking Portuguese. Um, then they took a bunch of stuff. Yeah, that was nightmare to be honest. They got passports, money, cameras, drone, phones. It was long. Have you processed this stuff? I don't know. I don't think so, man. Like the thing is, is that these things happen. You're on the road again the next day.

1:08:15So, you know, because you say it's such a casual sort of blase way. But if someone had a gun pointed at them, most people would be in therapy trying to resolve this sort of complex psychological implications that causes. And when I asked you the question, I could see, you're demeaning changes a little bit. Because it's not as blase as you sometimes make out. 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. You lost the cashier had the equipment and your passports, which is probably the most annoying thing of all those things.

1:08:57Yeah, that cost us like at least two or three weeks in terms of going to re -get visas and things. Day 50, you get to day 100 and you're day 102. When I say day 102, does it bring back any memories? It's a couple. A couple. Congo. The RC. Yeah, that was one hell of an experience that. You describe this as probably the hardest part of the whole trip. Probably the highest part of my whole life. Really? You've not talked about this much in detail either for some reason. 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...

1:09:37I 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. I told the story how I wanted it to be told. What happened?

1:10:07So... You're emotional about this? Yeah, I mean... Yeah, that whole thing was mad. So we got to DRC. I think day 100, 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. You've been sent what kind of videos? The craziest people getting chopped up, all kinds of stuff.

1:10:54Yeah. It was... I mean, I don't know how much I can read. 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 a bit rough. But yeah, we landed in the country across the border. It was a very chaotic border town. We had people from the get -go, very not very happy to see us at all, shouting at me while I was running, trying to like, explore us for money, officials, all this kind of stuff, trying to get money out of us.

1:11:33And we'd heard about all of this from people travelling. So we kind of half knew what we were going to roll it into. But it really created a kind of atmosphere that was difficult, difficult, challenging.

1:11:49Yeah, I mean, 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 going to like smash your head in with this. And he was speaking for me, so I don't really get it. But Harry spoke for me. So he's basically fretting on us with this big, spiking rock the Addins and saying, like, give me free -quid, the equivalent of free -quid. Or I'm going to like, start smashing all up. And I gave him a quid in the end, because I'm not getting my head smashed in, I have a free -quid, but also I didn't want to get word around that there was a bunch of people just throwing money around to anyone that would fret in them.

1:12:31So 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.

1:12:49Run, left the boys in the morning, like I normally do, run 20k, then run another 20k. Start, we took a turn off onto a dirt road to the boys of plan this route. Took, took, 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 block 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, now I'd had it the day before people trying to stop me on motorbikes and it was all a bit, didn't feel great like.

1:13:32I 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, whack him away through bushes to get to this meeting point where I was going to try and find the boys. Run out of water, phones got no signal. And I'm going through these bushes, stumble into this village. And cause, I think, cause of the experience that I already had in the first couple of days at the RCL 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.

1:14:20So I'm running through this village. I like people shouting at me and stuff and I'm like, okay, this is happening all the time now. I just care, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. 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 it, I'm like surrounded by half the village. They will like very upset. They don't get what I am, what I'm doing, what 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.

1:14:54And then he got two blocs, 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 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 on 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, my mind's totally frasered at this point.

1:15:34I've got, I'm here in motorbikes coming, I'm here in people. I'm jumping in bushes, like, totally just, at kind of off it here.

1:15:46Kind of get through this jungle bit, get to this meeting spot. The boys aren't there. Now I'm really like, 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've done it where the boys are. I've done it where, 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 low -querend. I've just ran away from all. And I'm like, this is bad news. Anyway, I figured out that the tarmac, the last nine -bit of tarmac, was, I think about 15 or 20 K away. And I was like, I reckon I can just about make it there.

1:16:32And if I'll make it there, and that makes sense to the boys that that's the last bit they could get to. So, Hikyu, just sprinting away from the guys with the machetes? Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Like, it was, 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. I just gave them biscuits and just 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 quiet. Man, I'm just like, adrenaline going through the roof.

1:17:11I 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, like, like, like, Lingal and the local language. I didn't know any French either, which would have helped.

1:17:31And 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 rationalised in my mind easier, because I was so unaware of the situation, and I had 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 a 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 skinny.

1:18:02But yeah, I mean, I find, I find this, I go, see the bit of time, I can't write a list head there, it's about, you know, two hours away, I could probably make it there. And as I'm going now, I'm going down this dirt path, another two blocks on the motorbike pillar. And, you know, I was like, this, I just don't want any part of this. They're trying to stop me, you know, my mind's totally gone. And, they, they were trying it, 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, if these guys, who are these guys sent from, they sent from this village of that village, is there like a bush telegraph of, there's a white guy running around here, he's upset, like, don't get in, kind of thing.

1:18:49So I'm like, nah, not doing it blah, blah, blah. I'm thinking, you know, the boys, they send a note with the driver if it's from, if it's from them. And it's got, these guys had no note. And I was like, ah, these, 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 no way the boys are. They're probably no further than 10 or 20 K away. 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. How long will those two men on the bike following you and asking you to get on the bike?

1:19:29A while. Like. Probably, we're probably about 20 minutes.

1:19:39So 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 barrier is just, we know one other time, the word anyone saying. And then, yeah, ended up spending seven hours and I'm like, going into the jungle, which was like, terrible. Seven hours. Yeah. What goes to your mind in those seven hours? I thought, well, I assumed after about an hour and a half, 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.

1:20:22I was like, they're probably just going to, they probably just want money. But then you also think, well, maybe they're just going to kill you. And the stories that I've heard about the RC and that wasn't the craziest thing, you know, you like, people get stabbed for either. Literally, like a couple of quid people get stabbed. People get killed for a watch. So I was really trying to be rational about the situation. But just like very quite emotional as well. And then, I mean, for the last few hours, I was just like, you know, what God has for me, He has for me, you know, whatever it is, and that's fine.

1:21:13And I was just trying to be like, you know, this 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, later night, no electricity, it's like wooden little shacks with tin corrugated roofs and staff 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 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. And I said to him, like, this is big mistake.

1:21:59You know, like, call my friend. He speaks French. And like, and then he can come. And like, we've got money in, 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 scanned. Then they, then they ended up trying to borrow the police, police chiefs 4x4, who also scanned us. So, they, yeah. So then, I mean, the boys got there eventually.

1:22:44We gave everyone some money and then I was free to go. 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. Yeah. It's not in D. I see. So if I go from London to Edinburgh in a car, yeah. 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 road. 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. For seven hours. Yeah.

1:23:22I was like gripping on the spot. I was absolutely done in by the end of it. And you got to that village they wanted money. Did they explain anything? Did they say anything to you about who they were? I think they were, 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, they were pretty alright with me. And they, I think they, you know, it was, I was, I was just in a state of like, totally, totally whacked. What do you mean? Just exhausted, but like petrified.

1:24:10And I was just very nervous around everything. Twitchy, you know. Yeah. Have you suffered with anxiety? I don't know. I think, I don't think so, but like I do, obviously, I'm a human, I do, no way, anxiety feels like I do get it sometimes, but I was, I was anxious then for sure. 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. Yeah. She seems like she was very, very worried about you. She was, yeah. In fact, she told us on a research call that she thought you had died. Yeah. I mean, I thought I was going to die, though.

1:24:57Did you actually? Yeah. Genuinely thought you were going to die. Yeah. 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? What if you, if you really believe you know, I think I'm going to die here? 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 guess it is. That's it. You know, and there's more from me elsewhere. That's how I was. What that's how I was trying to make sense of it in my brain. Were you thinking about people back home?

1:25:54Yeah. 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, that I'm British with my parents. I was thinking about all the things that, you know, I wanted to do in my life, I wouldn't be able to do. I was thinking about what it would do to, you know, everyone that, that got myself killed in the Congo for just trying to run the next Africa.

1:26:35I 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. You know, that's helping in my responsibility as well. So, it was, yeah, it was a hard few hours. You're thinking about things that you should have repaired with your parents. It's interesting in moments like that. People always talk about how, they have a retrospective like clarity on their life and their priorities. That most of us will never understand because we've never been in a situation where we've genuinely believed there was a chance that we weren't going to make it out.

1:27:23When you say you were thinking about how you should have repaired relationships with your parents, what do you mean? 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 all shit reasons. And that life's too short for that.

1:27:56Where'd you been holding on to? Like resentment and pride and...

1:28:06Not trying to understand, avoiding things and not trying to connect with people that love me and these kind of things. You think these are your last hours? You've obviously got a person there in your life who has loved you and has shown you a different way to connect and to be into intimacy and all of those things, which is Emily. Are you thinking about Emily in those moments as well? Yeah, I was...

1:28:40Yeah, I mean, I was thinking of... all the things that we talked about, like our future together and everything that we wanted to build and having kids together and all these things that just felt like they were just...

1:29:08and how it just felt like I was letting it down. And, you know, I wasn't... like delivering the things that I... I was going to run the leg for everyone and it's going to be alright. Like, don't worry about all these dangers. No, it's going to be fine, baby.

1:29:30And, yeah, I knew how much... how hard that was... that time was for her as well.

1:29:45I mean, especially I'm in the thick of it, you know. I'm in the thick of it. She's like at home just thinking about it all the time. There was a few moments like that when we didn't have signal and things. Your boys eventually find you. They pay off the... the guys in that village and they let you go. Doesn't really stop there though, does it? Because there's so much now to process and to figure out and to kind of... 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 and...

1:30:32probably because that no one had any spare energy to think of it, anyone else in that situation. It was all like, well, I'm struggling, so that's it, you know. And, yeah, I mean, there was a good few arguments. People don't really know about this moment. Because people like me that just watch from YouTube and from social media were just like, oh, they're all getting on it. It's all final. It's pissing blood again. But when I did those research calls and spoke to members of your team and spoke to people around you and even members of the team that were out there with you, this was really a falling out amongst the team.

1:31:11No one in the public ever got to see. It's difficult when it's talk about. So don't throw anyone under the bus or paint anyone in a bad light. Like, bad light, we were all, I'll need to try our best. I think for me, what I recognised 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 start with no money. We had to get content out there to get browns to sponsor us that I basically recruited three people that were almost entirely deaf content reasons. Being able to make YouTube videos, take photos for a core documentary, this kind of thing.

1:31:50I 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 we can't afford right now. Because of that, I'd ended up asking a support team that was mostly deaf content to basically be like... Logistics. African logistics experts. And that's put them in a position that's obviously going to be really difficult.

1:32:21So, yeah. I mean, the whole situation could have been avoided with different planning. I recognised that and I thought, off the back of that, I was like, right, I'm going to get a four by four because the van can't travel up any of these dirt roads. And I'm going to hire two new people, one of which is going to be like a proper logistics. Guy that's going to get us through these tough situations. A team member actually departed around this time as well? Yeah, that was a difficult one. We actually had a big argument. Me and Harry had a big argument on just after this Congo thing. We were travelling back through these villages.

1:33:02He'd obviously had a rough time as well, trying to be in scam for motorbikes, had these dealings with the police chief. And as we were 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 like, man, our spellies kind of feed themselves. And as you know, as you were opinions of we bowl through these villages drinking and smoking blah, blah, blah. Then it's giving off the sign and we got a lot of money to spare. And that's why we're getting scammed so much for an extortion of some amounts of money.

1:33:36So 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 say it. So we had a big argument about that. I've obviously just been in this rural village for a couple of days. I'm already, I'm tightly strong already. So it's he. And then we get back to the other boys. These guys had no idea what had just happened. And they were all struggling themselves. So they were very much everyone was just concentrating themselves and they were all kind of like everyone was a little bit pissed off of each other. And then we had a meeting. And I'll just blow up.

1:34:11Just blow up. Just like shout everyone. Throwing chairs about completely lost my call. It's not, not obviously not the way to act.

1:34:23And yeah, I mean, it was, it was all good. It's all good. A few days off that I was, I just went straight back to running, wanted to get out of the RCS quickly as possible. It was everyone was in egg shells. We got to Kabinda, which is an Angola next slave. And then I said to, I was like, how are you going on holiday? And I said to the other boys, you'll all be going on and let it some point. I think at that point I'd realised that for me, I'm running every day. My body's very stressed. I'm very stressed in general, I'm managing a lot of things. And I can't have the people around me also being at the edge of what they can do.

1:35:10Because then it just leaves me in a totally fucked spot. So I tried to kind of put some reorganised, re -shuffle things so that wouldn't happen by sending everyone holiday. Hired Gus, hired Jamie, another editor to take some workload off -stanks. The Geese was working like 18 hours a day trying to get two YouTube videos out of week whilst recording and producing it. I was like, right, we need to change something there. Gus, ex -parah from Dutch military. He'd cycled up and down Africa by himself. It's absolute beast of a bloke. He's coming in. He's going to do our logistics. And one of the best recruits we've ever made.

1:35:49So that's kind of how the aftermath happened. Q1 is often when businesses start implementing new systems and processes in hopes of creating efficiencies for the year ahead. And over the course of my career, I've learnt just how crucial having the right systems in places, one which has helped me across many of my investments is NetSuite. They're also a sponsor of this podcast. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system through their streamlined platform. You'll find all of your accounting financial management inventory and HR in one place. Their technology has been a real game changer, especially for my team at Flight Studio.

1:36:23As over the last year, we've moved out of startup mode and into scale at mode. We no longer have to juggle multiple systems and having everything together has reduced the number of manual tasks and errors. Over 41 ,000 businesses have chosen to future -proof their business with NetSuite. So if you'd like to learn how it can help your business, head to netsuite .com slash Bartlett. And free download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning. That's netsuite .com slash Bartlett. As you continue on, you have all of these issues. You have a bunch more health issues. Your back starts to give out. I think around, around 2 day, 205 and 206, you completely stopped because you had back issues.

1:37:03Yeah, but the back was probably the worst thing to you. It's not even healed still, but basically my back started season up and I would get like shooting nerve pains coming down my leg. And it was just totally, not totally jar. I wouldn't be able to move. Or, yeah, I mean, got no life in there. That means there's a chance that you've done permanent damage to your back? Probably, yeah. I mean, I ran the marathon on Sunday and it was still going a bit, so. Did you have to stop? No, but it's basically been on and off. On and off, very painful for last kind of, well, whenever that was to day 205, so since then.

1:37:44Emily said around that time, that's what of 200 day mark you were, like, you were pretty done. What does she mean by that? Which is pretty done. I was in a lot of pain, like every day. So, I really just wanted it to be over at that point. And that I was still like five months ago. Still have five months to go. Yeah. Yeah. Was that, I've heard you answered this question before, but what day was the closest to quitting? The closest, where you thought, you know, maybe the thought that I only, the only time I ever really had the thought was in the Congo. Really? On the my bike, yeah. Like, that was the only time I actually ever actually thought, like, why am I doing this?

1:38:29This is stupid. You know, like, all we're going to do is get myself killed by this. And it kept it was a fleet and thought came in. And then I thought, well, I ain't got a fucking choice. I got to do it now anyway. December time, which is day two for one. You're in, I think the ivory coast. Mm -hmm. And the ivory coast, think you're a spy. Yeah. So they took you to the local police station because they thought you were a spy. Yeah. They were very confused. Did they tell you that they thought you were a spy? No, they were just going to post that together. Yeah. It was more peace in that together.

1:38:59They were very confused about her. I was, while I was there, while I was running in the middle of the night. And, yeah, they made sure they did all their checks on me. So that wasn't any suspect individual. January comes around the new year. How'd you celebrate Christmas out there and that? All that stuff. Yeah. It was back to basics kind of Christmas. We had chickens on the fire. I got a bit pissed. Missed the family? Yeah, Christmas would 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.

1:39:45One a day shortly after that, that really, I think things took a bit of a turn. In terms of publicity was when you reached Algeria and you had the issues with your visa because Algeria, as we said, as a country that doesn't grant visas unless you're in your home country currently. And so you were advised by the FCO not to travel there. I believe. I had to come in though. A lot of people advised us not to travel to know where they're. And the Algerian authorities were saying absolutely no to you to getting a visa. So you decided to start an online campaign to try and like, it's such an interesting thing because very few people would have a country say we're not going to give you a visa.

1:40:31You cannot come into our country and you decide that the way to overcome that is with some tweets. Yeah, it was bold strategy. We were strategising for a couple of weeks before that. Right, this, you know, we are back against the wall here, what are we going to do? And we kind of, you know, Gus and Stan had were putting together these kind of plans to get residency in Mauritania and then potentially, you know, do all of these little things to try and somehow get a visa. And I just got to a point where I said like, boys, let's just help Mary. Let's just blast it on socials. Because it's going to take someone right at the top to say yes, you know, swing for the vans.

1:41:22And that's what happened. You launch this kind of online campaign led predominantly by Twitter to get someone in Algeria, someone high up or a politician in the UK to speak to Algeria. The campaign goes pretty viral. Everyone's posting it in the UK. So much so that even Elon Musk tweeted at one point, which is bad. Basically saying that this is what this platform's for. Yeah, he knows about the platform. How sick. And then Algeria tweet you basically saying we'll give you a visa on the spot, which is Matt. Actually, Matt, when you think about where you came from, you've got Elon Musk tweeting and they're like, Algeria's Twitter account.

1:41:58You go and come on in. We're going to, we're going to change our laws so that you can come through here and Elon Musk's tweeting at this smart. It was Matt. It was absolutely crazy. And then you get through. You get your visa. You're able to enter Algeria. The Sahara Desert was another big challenge for you. You get to day three, engine 13. The truck breaks down and the Sahara Desert 250 kilometers away from the nearest road. What I found so interesting about this little chapter in the story was that when we spoke to Stan, who was part of your team on the research call, he says that you aren't really concerned because everyone just assumed that everything would be fine.

1:42:36We'd been through much worse. Stan said that the resilience they had built up was accumulative and gradually they became less and less concerned about setbacks. And I read that and it was really inspiring to me because it says something about life. We all have these like subjective setbacks that we can like fall into a dark hole thinking I like the end. It could just be like Jenny at work sat in our seat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereas you're in the Sahara Desert and your truck is broken down 250 kilometers from the nearest road. The repair team can't fix it and you guys just shrug it will be fine.

1:43:09Belly before they met. Can't lie. 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, everyone knew what they had to do. No one needed, you know, no one needed telling. We all just got on with our jobs and the amount of output for four people was crazy. That really is what resilience is. People always ask like how do you become more resilient? But it seems to you story taught me that it's like go through some difficult shit together and come out the other end.

1:43:56Yeah, and you'll have evidence. Yeah, and even if you, you know, go through some difficult shit and it doesn't work out then you've got a few lessons in there. You least you survived, right? Yeah, that's a lesson. And then you get to the final leg of the trip and all of the people around you tell me that there was a noticeable increase in your sort of happiness and demeanor when you could start to see the finish line. Definitely. In your mind, you get sort of what two weeks out in the social media interest goes pretty fucking crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, even like mainstream media kind of picked up I think the last few days.

1:44:30Last few days. Yeah. The whole of the UK only had one thing to talk about. I'm sure it was, you know, very much the case in every parts of the world. I saw news reports in America and other parts of the world but it felt like back here in the UK, the UK was just talking about one thing. Really? It was following you, you know, surely you go friend and stuff must have told you it was fucking pandemonium. Every social, you know, I'd go on social media and anyone that I knew was posted about you running that last leg driving money to those charities that mean a whole lot to you. As you come into that last leg, that last day, crowds of people, like hundreds of people flew out there.

1:45:08It's not. Absolutely not. And they're running with you a lot of them. I was heard from some of your team, I think Stan was saying to me a lot of people flew out there but they were keeling over and like claps on the side of the road because I don't think they anticipated that this isn't London mate. It was so funny. Like Tunisia at that time wasn't even that hot coming from the UK everyone's just absolutely cooked. And you come into that last day. And your dad is there as well. Yeah. Yeah. It was emotional day man. My dad came and ran, I could eat already bang a two or three car. He just asked for, he came and ran and put his arm around me and that and, you know, it was special.

1:45:53Your relationship with him started to pick up. As you got closer to the finish line, it seems. Yeah. I've heard that from a few people. Yeah. Throughout the whole mission really I think but Emily's definitely a big part of helping that. What was it like to see him and where did you see him? On the last day. On the last day. Yeah, we ran a little bit of a couple of tears. Just like. What are the tears for? I don't know, I guess it was like a signal that it was like this is actually over now. You know, my dad's here. I like, you know, everything. Everything that I've been through but also like everything he'd been through everything.

1:46:40His dad's been through. It just felt like a moment, you know. He was proud of you. Very, very proud of you. Very, very proud of you. We got to speak to him on the phone. And hearing how proud of you he was. It was one of the most moving things I actually of this whole experience is speaking to your friends and family hearing just how proud of father as a viewers. It moved me when I heard it. I actually am. I can't believe it's my son. You know, and constantly in the line and. And it's sort of like not real sort of thing. You know, it's like, you know, but it's tickle out sick. He was thinking it now really.

1:47:25And he went on to say I couldn't be more proud of my son.

1:47:31Yeah, it's nice. It's powerful when your dad says that in it. Always. Always. You crossed the line. How does that feel? Oh, yeah. I mean, that finished line, honestly, felt like a fucking mystical thing that was never coming for the longest time.

1:47:58So the fact that it finally came was just like, wow, it's finally over, you know, like we actually did it.

1:48:07So yeah, very grateful. It's quite complex emotions. I can see it in your face. Yeah. What are those emotions? I guess it's just like grateful that it all worked out, you know. And like all the hard work paid off. And all the hard times paid off. Your girlfriend said that you, um, you walked over to the edge of the water, and reached the northernmost point of Africa, and you're saluted. And to her, that salute meant more than just as sort of random to conjecture. It was a salute in many respects to say, you know, there's certain chapters closed in my life now, and there's certain things that I've proven.

1:48:54I think maybe the right word there is proven.

1:49:00Yeah, I think so. Hopefully. What have you proven? I guess, um, I'm capable, you know, I can do it. Your mum was there as well. The whole gang. The whole team. Was that the best feeling of the whole journey? That end moment with your family was, because I heard you described that the start was amazing the first day. And in that moment, I imagine it's overwhelming for so many reasons. It's so much to process. So overwhelming, man. People there and screaming and with cameras and the sky news of running the whole society. It's like, it looked back, it's crazy. I was watching the church. It was totally mad.

1:49:41I think the finish line was one of the things that was just so over. Like, 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, you, it's almost feels like an out of body experience. And you're someone that's like lived most of their life in relative isolation. Yeah. You like being alone. Yeah. Emily told me this, she goes, I think he's happiest when he's, when no one's there. Yeah. I do like being alone. I do like it. Interesting. Still is like, you get back to the UK and you've been running this crazy, you've done this crazy thing for more than a year, right?

1:50:17It was 350 days. I was out there for 14 months. 14 months. You get back to the UK. You land. The weather's different. Obviously society's completely different. Now everybody knows who you are here. So wherever you go, someone's got, oh, hard to squeeze you. You've got to have a fucking picture of how it's like. How is that? Still think I'm kind of working that out at the moment. Don't really know. It's definitely different. But everyone's so nice. And I think like the, like the stories of people look like they come up to me and they're like, you know, I was running the marathon on Sunday and people were like, you were a reason I'm here and stuff.

1:51:01That's kind of Mac, but that's sick as well, you know. So. Are you feeling overwhelmed? Yeah, definitely. How'd you know? Because I'm trying to distance myself from everyone and everything at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. Just, I think my social batteries run out quite quick. And once that happens, I'm just like, what do I need to be alone? Like, immediately done. Can't speak. And you get all these emails now. 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. You don't have management.

1:51:46You don't have anyone. You know, agent, nothing. 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 my ultimate happens. Sorry, does anyone work out like this? It's all right. You know, when you were running that marathon, you'd run the London marathon like a couple like two days ago or something. Yeah. That's a very public place to be. Yeah, I didn't quite anticipate that. I don't know. I had some people that saw you down there. And they were a little bit concerned. Really? Yeah, because you looked a little bit overwhelmed. Yeah, it was a little bit.

1:52:21There was just a lot of people. People grabbing it you and starting. Yeah. I mean, people were nice. They only had nice things to say to me. It was just so much stimulation. You know what I mean? I was like, I'm not used to this. It's it. I find it fascinating. So you're at the very top of this mountain in terms of publicity and attention and everyone's screaming and grabbing it. You're once you for stuff. You've just done this incredible adrenaline -inducing feat running the length of Africa. There's all of these chemicals in your body, the adrenaline, the dolphins, all that stuff that comes from endurance sports.

1:52:57And then done. Zubb. Zero. Like, stop. Yeah. How's that? My body needed it. Yeah. It's absolutely, you know, bashed in. But it is also, 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, wake up, interview here or go and do this and then this and, you know, meet this person, chat to that person. And I'm kind of missing that, that routine of exercise and all the time. Kind of want to start that back up again pretty soon. Maybe, maybe in the 60 or 70k day, but like, I need, I actually need that, you know.

1:53:52So. How's your mental health?

1:53:58I think, 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 don't really, I don't know the immediate next steps, like career wise, what I'm going to 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 going to create certain level of like mental challenges. So I just need to figure them out and then I'll be alright. You know, you must get bored of people asking you what's next. Because it's a, this is what everyone asks when everyone does it.

1:54:36When anyone does anything interesting, like what's next? They want to know the next challenge. I have got a lot of ideas. I think like, one of the big things that I would be really, what I would really love to do is.

1:54:50In some way, be part of like, document in other people's journeys when they go on, you know, they're starting from somewhere in there. They've got this big thing that they want to do. And just like, either helping them or being 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 was so much, everything 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.

1:55:37I said, interesting thought. You've had enough of that. Enough of it being about you. Yeah. It's interesting, Russ, because you're someone that quite clearly through your story wants likes being alone. And like, Loki under the radar, do their own things, spend time in my own head. And then exactly that, doing exactly that in you running the length of Africa, being alone out there in the Sahara Desert alone, has built this massive fucking audience. Yeah. And all these people watching you that are now like very much compromising in some respects. Obviously, there's so much privilege and stuff that comes with it, but they're compromising the very thing that you love the most, which is you're running from London to Asia alone, Asia to London alone on your own with the hammock.

1:56:21It's never quite going to be the same, you know what I'm saying? You can't even walk down the street in London. You're like a really distinctive notice recognisable guy as well, because the ginger beard and stuff is there. Yeah. I think it will, like, it will die down like eventually. So I think it's going to be all right. It's just different. Yeah, it's just different. It's different in the new set of problems, I guess, to manage and stuff. Yeah. You did all of this, you know, to have the experience you inspired all these people along the way. And obviously, central to this was the running charity.

1:56:59They do incredible work for people kind of like yourself that are in that situation where you're looking for guidance. Yeah. You're looking for a sense of purpose and meaning, et cetera, et cetera. How much, how much, what was the goal? Fun rate and goal. Yeah, what's your fundraising? A million. A million. Yeah. And what do you want at the moment? When I checked yesterday, I think it was 970. And what exactly is sure it is now? And you've been down to see the work that this charity do. I've worked with the charity for like, years. You know, I used to, before I left, I was the adventure guy. So I'd take people, take groups of people who climb the mountains or out into nature.

1:57:36And we'd do stuff. I did stuff with fundraisers who were raising money for the charity. I mean, I did the age slum run for the running charity as well. So I've been involved for four or five years. Well, I have to say, Russ, you, um, you inspired millions of people. You don't know this, but like, when I'm in the gym, yeah. And I start thinking about quitting the whole time when you're an Africa. I was like, fucking Russ is running three marathons today. What the hell am I doing thinking about quitting? And it was this thought in the back of my head that helped me over and over again. When I was in difficult moments, when I'm in the gym, when I'm thinking about quitting, when I'm thinking about not even doing the workout.

1:58:12And I'm like, that guy's going to be up today running another 20, well, 60 K or 100 K. Yeah. So it was, it was even like at this motivational force for me in my life. And I'm really, really appreciative of that. But I also know, because I've seen the messages and I've seen at the M's, that for many people out there that are Russ at 19, that don't know the path forward, that don't have guidance, that don't have something to aim at, you've given them a blueprint for how to turn your life around. And there's, you've given 19 year old Russ, all the 19 year old Russes out there are blueprint for how to turn your life around.

1:58:45And you've given them evidence that it's possible. And people in that situation, as you were, they don't always believe it's possible. You described the hopelessness and the helplessness of that situation. That's exactly what you've done. And also, you've raised a shit ton of money. Now your goal was to raise a million pounds, which is a ridiculous amount of money. So before we sat down, I made a few phone calls. You know I'm an investor in a few companies, and I'm on the board of a few companies. So I called Julian Hearn at Hewlett and I said, listen, wouldn't it be great if Hewlett could get behind this and make sure he hit that target?

1:59:27Now, there you go. Wow. They've donated, they're a remainder of the cash to you for your fund raising. So you've hit the million pounds. And we wanted to say a huge well done and congratulations on behalf of all of us. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

1:59:59It's Emily here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

2:00:10Oh, sweet. Now, man, thank you. Absolutely incredible. And I know the team at Perfect Head here, they've, could you chop me the, um, Dacquery thing on here? This one here. Again, I'm an, uh, an investor in this company and, uh, we, we have, uh, partnership together. They've also produced the hardest energy, which is a limited edition. Strawberry Dacquery flavored Perfect Head, which will be on sale. And I think the proceeds, much of the proceeds of this will be donated towards this campaign as well. Um, it begs the question why strawberry Dacquery? For some people that don't know why strawberry Dacquery?

2:00:46I don't even know. Like he just ended up becoming a thing that I was saying towards throughout the mission. I'd be like, get me to Tunisian Beach for a strawberry Dacquery. It was in my head and then we finally got it done there. And then here as well. So we'll, we'll include up the link to buy this in the description below. So anyone that wants to celebrate your incredible achievement, whether it's what we'll be able to do. So we do have a last tradition on this podcast. We've not, not usually how they end. Um, where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest, not knowing who they're going to be leaving it for.

2:01:13So I think it's a good one. Huh, there's two questions. Interesting. I'm going to ask you both questions because they're both applicable. Okay. So first question is, if there was a movie about your life, which I'm sure there will be, who would you want to play you? Ron Weezy.

2:01:30Okay. And question number two, what place do you feel the most comfortable in and why? One of the things that I just love doing the most is mid -run, going to Tesco, getting some snacks and just sitting outside Tesco on the pavement eating my snacks. It's just my favourite place. I love doing that. Very relatable as always, Russ. Thank you so much. So, honestly, everything I said then about the inspiration you'd given me is completely true. And I know that there's so many people out there that feel the same way. And you've made me want to aim higher in some of the things that I do in my life and pursue bigger challenges and really push myself to the limits because as you've proven in your life, all of the good things are on the other side of some form of discomfort, the purpose, the meaning, the connection as you've proven.

2:02:15And like so many people at the moment in society are suffering with their mental health, with a lack of sort of a sense of meaninglessness and you're this like the shining example for all of us, this North Star, of this first step we have to take to go on that incredible journey. So thank you so much Russ. Mate, thanks for everything you've done. Honestly, I can't thank you enough. You made it happen as well. So, amazing.

2:03:03Q1 is often when businesses start implementing new systems and processes in hopes of creating efficiencies for the year ahead. And over the course of my career, I've learnt just how crucial having the right systems in places, one which has helped me across many of my investments is NetSuite. They're also a sponsor of this podcast. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system through their streamlined platform. You'll find all of your accounting financial management inventory and HR in one place. Their technology has been a real game changer, especially for my team at Flight Studio. As over the last year, we've moved out of startup mode and into scale at mode.

2:03:38We no longer have to juggle multiple systems and having everything together has reduced the number of manual tasks and errors. Over 41 ,000 businesses have chosen to future -proof their business with NetSuite. So, if you'd like to learn how it can help your business, head to NetSuite .com slash Bartlett and free download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning. That's NetSuite .com slash Bartlett.