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Eddie Izzard finishes his 38th marathon in 46 days
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Izzard runs with the English flag over English soil, the Welsh flag
through Wales, and so on in his 1,000-mile trek to bring relief to Africa.
Photo from EddieIzzard.com.
While the British comedian may not be one-upping Dean Karnazes' 50 marathons in 50 days, Eddie Izzard is nearly finished with his own marathon of marathons. Izzard's challenge will certainly knock your socks of if you were nonplussed by Teri Hatcher's fundraising efforts yesterday. On July 27, Izzard set out from London to run around the entire United Kingdom, hitting all four of Great Britain's capitals on his 1,000-mile route. He is running for a charity called Sport Relief, which raises money to help people in Africa and other poor regions of the world.
Izzard, who has played bit parts in numerous movies including Ocean's Thirteen, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and Mystery Men is perhaps best known for delivering smart stand-up in a dress in Dressed to Kill. Izzard has swapped out his dress for a pair of running shorts and his heels for bandages to sooth his ailing feet, and after only five weeks of training, aimed for a goal that would bring most Ironmen to their knees. This time he is certainly not joking about this goal. "Are you Forrest Gump-ing it? - No, Forest Gump didn't know why he was running. I do. So please donate," Izzard tells his followers on Twitter.
Almost from the very beginning Izzard has been complaining of foot pain, but has continued to average about six marathons a week since late July. In the first 19 days, he had finished 17 marathons -- not bad for a chunky middle-aged "non-runner" (who is not one of those guys who looks great in a dress, by the way). By his thirtieth marathon, Izzard was too exhausted to even type out a 140-character tweet from his iPhone. "Finished my 30th marathon yesterday. Too exhausted to Twitter. My 31st mara today, on towards Newcastle. Sponsor me!" he said on September 1. However, 9 days later Izzard is on his thirty-eighth marathon and can practically smell the finish Trafalager Square, which he plans to reach on September 15. Right now Izzard is in a county called Derbyshire, about 140 miles north of London.
From now until September 20, an annonymous donor has pledged to match on line donations up to £43 thousand. "Yanks" can donate, as can anyone from around the world.
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