Izzard completes marathons feat

Comedian Eddie Izzard has completed his endurance feat of 43 marathons in 51 days for charity Sport Relief, finishing in London's Trafalgar Square.

Izzard, who ran at least 27 miles per day and took just one day off per week, covered about 1,100 miles on his route across the UK.

The 47-year-old, who trained for just five weeks for the event, told BBC News he now planned to "sleep for a week".

In 2006, David Walliams swam the English Channel for Sport Relief.

Blisters upon blisters are not very nice. It's the pain. Like the pain from mouth ulcers, it's not a massive area but sharp and quite agonising Eddie Izzard How did he do it? Send us your comments

Izzard - who ended his mammoth challenge in the pouring rain - said he had been trying to complete his final day's run in under five hours but had failed to do so by 30 seconds.

"I don't know what the hell I was doing at the end but it must have been way faster than I was doing the rest of the time.

"So I feel exhausted now, but you know, it's over."

He added: "Being here is very nice because, when I left here seven-and-a-half weeks ago, there was nothing here, it was just a cold morning and now there's a lot of people here, even in the rain."

The comedian, who has so far raised more than £200,000, was joined by well-wishers for portions of the challenge, which took in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version