The first man to run the length of Africa

This Sunday, he will achieve his goal and claim the World Record for becoming the first man to do so and all of this in the name of charity. So far he has raised over £570,000 for two charities and aims to raise £1 million as a consequence of his tremendous feat.

Over the course of the last year, Russ and his crew have overcome several obstacles that are not for the faint-hearted including numerous health scares (urinating blood being a recurring situation), kidnappings, robberies, visa issues that jeopardized the whole mission and the transportation of a van on a glorified dingy in pirate infested waters.

These were only some of the human inflicted challenges, whereas the ones that nature have thrown at him could surpass the aforementioned. Running through the rolling hills of South Africa was a brisk introduction to what lay ahead, the Namib desert followed which is only a cute 1900 km after which he entered the insect ridden, ever-raining or humid Congo Basin rain forest. Western Africa was more populated than other places and contact with humans was more frequent, which felt like a welcome respite from the more remote sections of the adventure.

Over the past month he has been through possibly the most demanding section, namely 4000km through the Sahara Desert, deciding to run at night to escape the piercing sun. Although the sun was gone, the small hindrance of intense sand storms and only a head torch to guide him through the dark. With the added threat of coming too close to the Moroccan border ending in a drone strike, made the last part of the journey quite eventful.

Although, all of the above may make the mission seem as though it was painful throughout, what has made it so special is the people the team have encountered all along the African continent. Having crossed 16 countries, they have met an array of different cultures all of which have embraced this peculiar ginger man that runs 70 km a day.

There has been acts of generosity that would never occur in our Western world, such as a man that travelled 9 hours by bus in order to fix their van for them and would not accept payment for it. There was also so many people that showed them around their villages, houses, farms, animal sanctuaries or offered them food and drink. It just shows that we should learn from these cultures, although some of these people very clearly did not have very much to offer but did so all the same.

If you were inspired by Russ' story then there is still time to donate to his charity here, that supports people with mental health issues through running. His whole journey has been documented on YouTube and there is a documentary in the making!