Eddie Izzard went for a run once, a very, very long run. In 2009 he set off from London to run around the UK in aid of Sport Relief. He ran 43 marathons in 51 days, at least 27 miles each day, 6 days a week for 7 weeks straight, covering 1132.5 miles (When you’ve already run 1132 miles, that last half mile is pretty important). When I found out he’d be practically running past my house I decided to head out to join him for a while on my handcycle.
I met him at the side of a road in Scotland, as he plodded along alone on one of those grey, drizzly days that makes up 90% of Scotlands weather when it’s not actually raining. By this point Eddie had already ran an absurd distance over the previous weeks and I thought hanging out with him for a few miles might help take his mind off the blisters, destroyed toenails and general agony he must be going through.
I was just so impressed by his determination to keep going through all the pain and inspired by his attitude of just doing something to make a change and complete his own dream, no matter what people said. Before he set off, Eddie got in touch with a few fitness consultants and trainers for advice because he’d not done much running before, nevermind a marathon. They quickly made a nine month training schedule to help Eddie evolve from an overweight stand-up comedian and movie star to a conditioned athlete capable of running daily marathons. Eddie said “Great, thanks Jeff. But I’m going in five weeks”.
So he trained for five weeks, then set off running by himself. By the time he reached me I was sitting in my wheelchair at the side of the road, hauling my handcycle out of the back of the car. “Alright Eddie, mind if I come along with you for a while?” I said.
I only got to tag along beside him for a tiny part of his 1132.5 mile run but along the way we chatted about his motivation for doing something fairly insane, how he enjoyed the challenge and how strongly he felt about people fulfilling the natural human obligation to help other people.
It was all something I related to so well, and not long after I left him I decided it was time to seriously take up the challenge and fulfil my own obligation to use the opportunities I have to help. It took a while for 30,000 miles around the world in a wheelchair to take shape in my mind, even longer for it to make it to this stage, but here it is. I’ve never been so determined to do something in my life, because like Eddie I feel so strongly that I just should do something.
So I was really stoked today to get a quote from Eddie about my own fairly insane trip and showing his support:
“Andy Campbell’s determination and tenacity is inspiring.
He is a paralysed Iraq veteran and I met him when he was setting up a hand cycle at the side of the road on the route I was running, during my 43 marathons around the UK. I couldn’t work out what he was doing and then it dawned on me that he was going to hand cycle along with me.
He is the only person on my UK 43 Marathon run, that I specifically called the camera team in to cover, because I thought that him running with me, using just a hand cycle that he was lying on, was brilliant and the UK public needed to see it.
He is setting off on a 30,000 mile adventure around the world in a wheelchair to raise money for charity. Please give him every financial support and every human support that you can.”
When he was running around the UK, Eddie arranged to be followed by an ice cream van so he could stop and share an ice cream with people he met along the way. I think that is utter genius at work so might just steal his idea and have an ice cream van as my support vehicle to carry my kayak, bike, paraglider etc. Although on my current budget I might have to end up settling for a pizza delivery moped!
Eddie is on twitter: @EddieIzzard. Photos of Eddie credited to Amanda Searle who’s also on twitter: @amandasphoto.
