“Hardest Geezer” is back on the road with a new ultrarunning challenge, this one sure to impress soccer fans along with runners. Russ Cook of Worthing, U.K., aka @HardestGeezer, is known for completing a transcontinental run of the length of Africa in April, after spending almost a year on the road. Now, he says he’ll run to every soccer game England plays during the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, with the first kicking off in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 566 km from Wembley Stadium, where England played Serbia on Sunday evening.
“Yes boys & girls. Absolutely buzzing to be back on road, running to Germany to support @england throughout the euros,” Cook posted on Instagram on Tuesday. “Leaving Wembley now, ferocious 1s & 2s to every game.”
UEFA Euro 2024
This year’s UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2024) is the 17th edition of the men’s soccer championship, which takes place every four years. Germany is hosting the event, from June 14 to July 14. Euro 2024 sees 24 teams competing over the month-long period, with the winner taking on the champion of the 2024 Copa América tournament.
Cook’s African adventure
Cook left Cape Agulhas, South Africa, on April 22, 2023, passing through 16 countries, covering more than 15,000 km and raising more than £700,000 for charity before ending his run at the northern tip of Tunisia. He not only had to maintain remarkable physical fitness during his trek across Africa, but also dealt with a wide array of challenges. The 26-year-old’s journey was complicated by visa hassles, health challenges and crime (at one point he and his crew were robbed at gunpoint, losing their cameras, phones, cash and passports, causing a delay of more than a month). The biggest challenge was obtaining travel visas for Algeria, his second-last country; his original goal was to have been finished by Christmas 2023.
Supporting England will be “significantly easier”
Cook filmed himself running on Tuesday, the first day of his new challenge, sharing a map that estimates the journey to Gelsenkirchen will take him three days and 14 hours, including a ferry across the English channel from the Essex coast, where he will then run through the Netherlands. “First game on Sunday, in Germany, so we’ve got a lot of ground to cover,” Cook said. “What a time to be alive.”
Euro 2024 kicks off in a group stage, which sees England playing next in Frankfurt (just under 300 km for Cook to run from Gelsenkirchen) next Thursday, and in Cologne (approximately 200 km) on June 25. “Gotta be said, as well, significantly easier than running across the Sahara desert, this,” Cook said. “So I’m enjoying myself. Tesco on every corner, what a doddle.” Cook is fuelling up at convenience stores and spent his first night in an Essex pub.
