Hardest Adventures Run (& Pub) Club

It's 3:42am, and you find yourself standing outside the kiln-like Tarasca bar on the Rúa de Entremuros. After a night supping Estrella Galicia and licor café, a chance acquaintance can seem like a very good friend, perhaps even one of your new favourite people. And so when Sonny D'Souza tells me that he'll be visiting St Andrews in six months' time to get a new run club off the ground, I naturally extol the glorious virtue and limitless potential of the project whilst pledging my unwavering support.

Fast forward four months and Sonny is calling me as I collapse, crumpled and clammy into an Edinburgh flat after a day's interning. He wants to know what venues to partner with, what the run club landscape is like in St Andrews, etc etc. "S**t," I thought, "He hasn’t forgotten about it." Having spent a year away from the town, I supply all the info I can and put Sonny in touch with people who will know more than me. Soberly, I once again reaffirm my faith in the project.

Another two months go by, and I'm shuffling along Watson Avenue pumped full of Ventolin instead of Lucky Strikes as I desperately try to stave off a cold that my flatmate kindly brought with him all the way from Dartmouth. It's gorgeously warm and windless, deceivingly so for Sonny, who I hope doesn’t expect to see these conditions again. He's been delivering info sessions all day in the Irvine Building when we meet in the car park by West Sands with a gaggle of other runners/soon-to-be drinkers.

Sonny is part of Hardest Adventures, the new project of Russ Cook, who's better known online as “Hardest Geezer”. Russ is the guy (ginger, big beard) who ran the length of Africa a while ago. Hardest Adventures, meanwhile, is effectively an adventure tour operator that will sort your logistics for trekking Machu Picchu, Everest Base Camp, or some equally rugged pursuit. Now the company is marketing directly to students, which is where Sonny comes in: he's leading several of these run clubs all around the UK in order to raise awareness of the company and what it offers.

The run attracts a healthy crowd even without the presence of Russ himself, who has been known to appear at uni runs when they take place closer to his native Brighton. We lope out a 5K along West Sands before heading up to The Rule, where two-pound pints slip easily down the back of parched throats in the lovely if rapidly cooling beer garden. All enjoy the run and the discounted drinks, and promise to bring along someone else next time.

There is also a pause for thought about the running scene in St Andrews. Somebody says that their friend was interested but ultimately didn't come because they didn't want to be seen running through town. That’s a real shame. On the other hand, though, nobody seems to care too much about being red and sweaty around others after a pint here in the beer garden.

Back by popular demand, there'll be another Hardest Adventures Run (& Pub) Club on Monday 5 October.

Illustration by Francesca Jeffs