LONDON – Standup comedian Eddie Izzard completed a 1,100 mile (1,770 kilometer) run across Britain on Tuesday, staggering across the finish line at London’s rain-soaked Trafalgar Square.
The cross-dressing comic, better known for running through his routines in drag than running marathons, said he managed the feat of endurance with only five weeks’ training.
“I … feel … exhausted,” Izzard said, raising his hands in the air in front of assembled journalists.
Izzard covered the country in seven weeks, clocking up at least 27 miles (43 kilometers) nearly every day to raise money for Sport Relief, a U.K. charity which works in Britain and abroad.
The 47-year-old entertainer, known to U.S. audiences for his roles in FX’s “The Riches” and Tom Cruise’s World War II drama “Valkyrie,” said the run had wrecked his feet.
“The small toes have lost their nails and they look like alien monsters but I’m told they will grow back,” he said, adding that while everyone kept complementing him about the shape of his legs, “I thought they looked quite good beforehand.”
Sport Relief spokeswoman Jeni Ayling said a BBC crew was accompanying him in a rickshaw the whole way, filming him as he ran. Also following him were his manager, a sports therapist, and an ice cream van which periodically played the theme song to “Chariots Of Fire.”
The double Emmy award-winner’s run took him across Britain, from London to Liverpool, Northern Ireland, Scotland and down back to the capital, according to the BBC. The broadcaster said Izzard effectively ran 43 marathons. It added that some of Izzard’s runs had taken him as many as 10 hours to complete, although his last one was took just over five.
Izzard said told the broadcaster last month that “you have to be a little bit crazy” to tackle a challenge of this kind.
“But doing standup comedy is a little crazy,” he said.
