Eddie Iz Running for Sport Relief

About 5 weeks ago, Sport Relief, the Sporty part of Comic Relief asked me (and probably a lot of other people) if I would like to do a sporting challenge.

I had always wanted to do a big physical running challenge, and this seemed a great way to do it and also raise money to help Africa and the poorest countries in the world as well as projects that Sport Relief fund in the UK I was also going to be advised by Olympic experts who have worked with Sport Relief before. They would help me keep running in the right direction.

So I told them I wanted to try to run around the whole of the UK. London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and back to London, running through as many parts of the UK that lie in between our 4 capitals.

They said great. You're nuts.

I said yes but that never hurt.

They said how far is this?

I said 1100 miles. I will try to run 30 miles a day for 6 days a week. It will probably take 7 weeks.

They said great. Is there anything else you want to mention.

Yes. I will run through England holding and English flag and then I'll run through Wales holding a Welsh flag and so on through all the UK.

But why not just have a Union Jack?

Because this is the thinking for my mission:

WE ARE DIFFERENT

WE ARE THE SAME

WE ARE UNITED KINGDOM

WE ARE AFRICA WE ARE

HUMANITY

They said - anything else?

Yes, I'm leaving in 5 weeks.

Ladies and Gentlemen - my 5 weeks training are up and I am off on a great adventure.

Please sponsor me on the Sport Relief donation page and follow my journey on Twitter and tell everyone you've ever met to do the same.

And if you see me running, do let me know via twitter. That will help to keep me going.

Eddie Izzard