The ‘Hardest Geezer’ Russ Cook has not given up on his dream of competing with the Team GB 24-hour running team, despite failing to hit his latest self-imposed target of running a 2:35 marathon.
Having initially hit back at his doubters who claimed his goal was ‘pie-in-the-sky’, the man who made his name by completing a series of extraordinary endurance challenges around the world, admits he has been forced to eat some humble pie and will adjust accordingly going forward.
Speaking on his YouTube video blog, he reveals how his London Marathon time back in April of 2:46:59 was a ‘huge setback’ and that he was ‘gutted’ not to have got closer to where he needed to be.
The first of seven ‘semi-impossible’ challenges
The first man to run the entire length of Africa, his London Marathon attempt was due to the first of seven ‘semi-impossible’ ultra-endurance challenges, which also include running a sub-7:30 100km, completing a 250km race in 24 hours, qualifying for the Team GB 24-hour team, setting a new world record for the Land’s End to John o’ Groats run, racing from San Francisco to New York, and completing the longest non-stop run ever of 581km.
His marathon story started in New York, where he recorded a 2:53 finish and saw him train intensively for a number of months, while also seeking scientific support by discovering his VO2 max score.
![Russ Cook completes his epic run across the entire length of Africa [Photo credit: The Snapshot People Ltd]](https://run247.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Russ-Cook-completes-length-of-Africa-run-2024.jpg)
But despite feeling confident that he could get close to his goal of a 2:35 or even a 2:40 time around the streets of England’s capital city, he was left feeling ‘p****d off’ after stomach issues left him well adrift right from the start.
He accepts he just wasn’t up to it on the day that Sabastian Sawe rewrote marathon history by crossing the line in under two hours and set his new world record.
‘I was obviously gutted’
“There’s no hiding from it. I just got my official text through 2:46:59. So, that is a whole 12 minutes shy of what I was aiming for, which is an awful long time,” he says in footage filmed immediately after the race. “First, I was obviously gutted because I’ve trained for a long time for this, and it would have really helped push me on for the rest of my goals for the rest of the year and next year, and this is like quite a huge setback.
“So, obviously, I just wasn’t at it. Three 3k in my heart rate was at 173/174, then about 5k I had the feeling I was about to s**t myself. Went to the toilet at 10k to try and sort myself out. Lost a few minutes in there.
“By that time, the goal is well and truly just not there. I was losing my head a bit. I was like, ‘Oh, mate, I’ve trained for this whole time, and I’m not even an hour in, and I’m nowhere near it’. Whatever the reason is, it’s my own fault. So, I just take responsibility for it.”
But in true ‘Hardest Geezer’ style, he quickly put the pain of failure behind him and began to focus on what comes next.
‘There was actually an insane amount of support’
“I think that’s all the negative stuff out of the way. That’s just the truth. Like, that’s just the reality of how I’m feeling,” he said. “I wasn’t enjoying it for the first half; I was just p****d off. I was p****d off, and I was disappointed in myself. And then the second half, I settled into a pace that felt more realistic and actually just tried to be a bit more grateful for the opportunity to run a marathon.
“It’s an amazing experience. There was actually an insane amount of support the whole way around. People shouting my name the whole way through. I still got six and a bit minutes off my time from New York. So there are positives, and I’ve learned a lot.
“I need to race more. I need to set more realistic targets because I’m just shooting for the stars, which is all fun and games, but if you’re 11/12 minutes off it, you’ve got a slice of humble pie after that.”
So will he now continue to press for that 2:35? Or will his focus switch to one of the other challenges on his list?
‘I guess we’ll have to wait and see’
“Failure has been a huge part of my story. I’ve failed loads in my life. This is just another one, and they often become the best building blocks for bigger success in the future,” he insists. “So we’ll go again. The 2:35 will happen. The 2:30 will happen. I’m just going to need a bit more time.
“When you spend months chasing one specific time, it always stings when it doesn’t happen. But the marathon is an honest event, and I got the result I deserved on the day. That said, it wasn’t all for nothing. I went from a 2:53 in New York to a 2:46 today.
“That’s a massive step forward, and I’m a better runner than I was at the start of this block. I’ve been chasing performance for less than a year, and it feels like a completely different sport. I’m still inexperienced, and I need more time. The work showed I got faster, and when the race started going wrong, I didn’t quit. I stayed in the game.
“So, what’s next? Chase that 2:35 again or start training for 24-hour running? Honestly, I don’t know yet, but I know I’m not done. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
