I have a goal of running a 10K next summer. This is probably no big deal to some people, but I hate running in a way words can’t accurately describe. I’d rather have a screaming fight with a loved one, clean the bathrooms at Yankee Stadium, or eat clams and other wobbly foods before I would run a full mile. I’m really not exaggerating here, I think it is epically awful. Thus, I need to force myself to work through it and defeat it. And then by summer 2011 I will run a marathon. I’m also trying to be realistic here.

Anyway, I thought this was all very ambitious, especially considering I’ve actually been working really hard on it. Normally I’m all talk you see. So imagine the jaw-dropping that occurred when I read that British comedian/actor Eddie Izzard has just completed an epic 1,100 mile run across Great Britain in seven weeks for a charity called Sport Relief. That’s the equivalent of 43 marathons. He ran 30 miles a day, six days a week through all the capitals.

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.

[From Yahoo]

This is my absolute favorite story of the year so far. I can’t imagine any celebrity doing anything half this amazing in the next three and a half months. Every single thing gives me chills. What an incredible way to take something that’s a huge challenge – a marathon – and then do it so much bigger. 43 times bigger. I can’t imagine how anyone could do something so demanding. I just feel totally boggled, and like I need to create some sort of statue or shrine to Eddie Izzard now. And while he raised an enormous amount of money, I’m guessing Eddie has access to £200,000. It’s probably hard to put a price on something like this, but to me running 1,100 miles in less than two months is worth so much more than if he’d written a check for £200,000.

Eddie’s got great stories too – like the time he stopped to get a hamburger and a group of girls spontaneously decided to join him on his run. Or that the ice cream truck’s purpose wasn’t just to play inspirational music for Eddie (waaaay better than using an iPod, by the way) – it also gave out free ice cream to his supporters who came to watch along the way. And he ate 5,000 – 6,000 calories a day. That’s the only incentive I could think of that might actually tempt me to do 1/43rd of what Eddie’s done. I am such a cheeseball, but Eddie Izzard actually made me tear up. I hope they make an inspirational sports movie about this someday.

Here’s a clip from the BBC’s documentary about Eddie’s run, along with pictures of him on September 7th and July 29th. There’s a good deal of running in the rain in Great Britain. Images thanks to WENN.com .