Russell Cook, aka the ‘Hardest Geezer’, has hit back at accusations of being economical with the truth about the reason behind his slower than planned London Marathon time at the weekend.
Cook had been targeting to run the 26.2-mile course quicker than two hours and 35 minutes.
However, he finished the course in 2:46:59 on Sunday – in what he declared as a new personal best in a marathon.
After the race, he intimated on Instagram that at the 10km mark he thought his race ‘might all be over’ and vowed to give a ‘full debrief’ the next day.
Come Monday evening, he stayed true to his word – revealing why he was just over 11 minutes shy of his goal, citing that he needed to poo during his run – and since providing a video to back that up.
Taking to Instagram, the 29-year-old, wrote: ‘LDN Marathon debrief: At 10km I knew I was bang in trouble.
‘Heart rate through the roof from the first kilometre. 5km I’ve got that overwhelming feeling I’m about to s*** myself… 9km it’s actually happening. 10km I’m in a portaloo trying to fix up, look sharp.
Russell Cook (centre) said he didn’t run his London Marathon target time of sub two hours and 35 minutes as he needed to do a poo early on during the race
However, he faced accusations on social media why he ran slower than planned
‘Safe to say at that point, all time ambitions for the day had been size 10’d into row Z.
‘To be honest, I was deeecently rattled. Even thought about sacking it off and saving the legs for another day.
‘It’s tough when you feel like you’ve trained hard and then on the day, you’re just nowhere near it.
‘But that’s what is beautiful about this game. It doesn’t care what you had planned. It owes you nothing.
‘So after a bit of sulking I got back to basics. Try my best. Leave nothing out there. ENJOY IT.
‘Ultimately I got the time I deserved.
‘As for what’s next… The goal hasn’t changed. Representing GB in ultra running is still the ambition.
‘Setbacks on the road to big dreams are part of it. I’ll keep plugging away until I get closer to the level required.
‘Next up, learnings to be taken in + ultra races this summer.’
Despite opening up on his setback, there were many on social media who refused to believe that was the reason why Cook failed to reach his target.
One user on X, bluntly wrote: ‘Nowhere to hide when everything is timed at the London Marathon, also convenient it was the day he needed a s*** halfway through it.’
Cook raised more than £1million for charity while running the length of Africa across 352 days
That reply was in response to another user who wrote: ‘I see the hardest geezer is saying he didn’t get his sub 2:30 marathon time because he nearly s*** himself at the 10km mark,’ alongside an emoji of suspicion.
In a separate post on X, someone wrote: ‘Literally full on s***. #HardestS****** #HardestGeezer #LondonMarathon’. They backed up their claim by sharing data of Cook’s splits and questioning the validity of his reasoning.
Another user, wrote: ‘What was his 5k split? *checks: Which means he is full of bulls*** but we know that anyway. He was well off his target at 10k even if he was full of s***.
Despite the naysayers, Cook has since shared video evidence supporting his claim of needing the toilet.
The 29-year-old shared an Instagram video of his whole day which was filmed while wearing Oakley Meta glasses.
At the 10km-mark, and with his time at 37:41, he provides a first person perspective of himself inside a portaloo cabin grabbing some toilet paper. While reaching for the loo roll, he can be heard sighing: ‘Ah, f***ing hell!’ before grabbing plenty more.
The footage then cuts to him being back out of the portaloo and back running at 39:10 while taking on some water.
The next clip is at the 16km-mark, with his time at 1:01:56, and Cook being encouraged along.
Asked, ‘How you doing mate, you good?’, Cook replies: ‘I s*** myself at K10’, to which his supporter says: ‘Ah, all good, don’t worry.’
After posting the video, Cook doubled down on his stance after being questioned by one follower.
In response to being asked: ‘How come your strava never changed in the bog?’, Cook quipped back: ‘It did, in fact if you zoom in to 10km on the GPS route you can see exactly what was happening,’ alongside a crying-laughter emoji.
Looking at Cook’s data on Strava, he ran at an average pace of three minutes 55 seconds per kilometre.
Cook has shared an Instagram video of him using the portaloo during the London Marathon run
He also hit back at a follower on Instagram who queried his London Marathon toilet incident
Cook’s Strava data from the London Marathon shows he ran 15 seconds slower on average per kilometre than he needed to have achieved his goal of completing it under two hours 35 secs
To have reached his target time of running the London Marathon in under two hours and 35 minutes, Cook would have had to maintain an average pace of 3:40 per kilometre, or 5:54 per mile. He only hit that marker once, and that was at the 5km with his pace then for that 1,000m exactly at 3:40.
Cook’s run at the 10km-mark is in fact quicker than his average as he ran that 1,000m at 3:50.
His run at the 11km-mark was the slowest out of the 33km – with that time coming in at 5:13 – one minute and 23 seconds slower than the previous 1,000m.
Cook has gained publicity over recent years for his endurance challenges.
He raised more than £1million for charity during a previous challenge in Africa, despite complications with visas, health scares, geopolitical issues and an armed robbery.
The extreme challenge began at South Africa’s most southerly point on 22 April 2023 and finished more than 10,190 miles (16,400km) north in Tunisia, 352 days later.
Last year he ran the full length of New Zealand in 73 days.
