THE Hardest Geezer, Russ Cook, has launched his new book covering his record-breaking Africa run – but has been panned with a bizarre 1-star review from a skeptic.
The 27-year-old successfully ran the length of Africa over the course of 352 days, completing 368 marathons in the process, and arrived at his finishing point in April 2024.
The accompanying book, Hardest Geezer – Mind Over Miles, was released yesterday and promised to be the “untold story behind his record-breaking run” – but it supposedly left one disgruntled reader still unconvinced.
The endurance athlete raised over £1m for charity in the process of his run and documented his journey on social media whilst crossing the continent.
Despite this, Cook was met with doubts from some social media sceptics who believed he wouldn’t make it or worse – was faking the run.
These doubts seem to have lingered with a 1-star review the day of his book launch from an alleged sceptic denying his run was an authentic achievement – and instead claiming it was done by a dog.
The supposed customer said: “Load of tosh. He strapped his Garmin to his dog when he was doing the tour of Africa.
“The man’s legacy is built on the foundations of fraud; of a dog he had with him on that journey.
“He’d just sit in the comfy van, and then get out and run a bit when the dog got tired. Could never be me.”
Hardest Geezer seemed to take the review in his stride though, sharing it to social media yesterday on the day of the launch, joking: “Book launch day going well.”
His post has since received well over 9,500 likes and more than 130 comments from social media users.
One wrote: “Got to be a flat Earth type of fella.”
Another replied: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
A third said: “You did a really good job of never showing that dog in any of your videos.”
Another commented: “He’s a quick reader.”
A fifth joked: “I mean with how long the beard got you could have passed for a dog.”
