Eddie Iz Awesome

It was Sport Relief over the weekend (as I think I mentioned below), in the build up to the weekend I watched a 3-part documentary about Eddie Izzard running 44 marathons in 50 days (or similarly ridiculous numbers). Here is a man who is a self-confessed non-runner, who hasn’t done any training to speak of who sets off to run a marathon a day, 6 days on, 1 day off for something like 7 weeks to raise money for Sport Relief. This all took place last summer and I have to say, slightly shame-faced, that I wasn’t really aware of it while he was doing it. I heard a few bits and bobs but the whole thing sounds so hugely impossible that I don’t think it really registered with me. However watching the documentary I was so bloody impressed with him I ended up texting the number that popped up at the end of each programme to donate (something I have never done before in my life).

He put himself through a pretty mega ordeal and dealt with it all with amazing humour and grace. I’ve never really been that aware of Mr Izzard as a celebrity/comedian/activist before – really my only awareness has been that my Mum and cousin both think he is funny and he voiced those recycling ads and was in the awful film version of The Avengers. I thought he came across so well in the programmes, however it was never entirely clear what his motivation was, obviously he is an ardent believer in what Sport Relief is doing but that alone doesn’t seem reason enough to run over 1000 miles all around the UK. The first programme seemed to hint strongly that he needed to do something like this as a bit of a journey of self-discovery, he visited important locations from his childhood (e.g. the house where his Mum died from cancer when he was 6) and he is obviously an incredibly determined bloke, maybe that was reason enough? I think I need to try and dig out some of his dvds, apparently his style of comedy is very Python-like, which would suit me no end. But suffice to say, Eddie Izzard is a legend and I am very much in awe of him.

Running, Raining, Writing

Nimes was bloody ace, a very pretty (in a kind of crumbly way) town. Lots of roman architecture and amazing cafés, we just mooched around, went to see Avignon and the Pont Du Gard, repeatedly braved public transport (and didn’t get lost once, although I almost managed to make us miss a bus by waiting on the wrong side of the road) and ate lots of bread and cheese, drank loads of wine and chilled out. In exciting cheese-related news, did you know that in France they have FULL SIZED BABYBELS! I kid you not, try to contain yourselves, and they’re fooking massive. Ace.

Spent a good chunk of yesterday down in Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport where Becca was taking part in a charity heptathlon for Sport Relief along with some celebrities and professional sports people. It was a really fun day, everyone was so nice, had a good chat to olympic diver Nick Robinson-Baker who was a very nice bloke and also spoke briefly to the very nice Jess Ennis (a special mention must also go to, now retired, ice hockey player Ron Shudra – an incredibly lovely man). It was such a rewarding event to be at, everyone had loads of fun, noone took themselves too seriously and were really generous with their time. Becca found it a bit weird that people were asking for her autograph though! I think there will be some highlights of it on Look North tonight, there were lots of cameras around and the whole thing was organised by the Beeb so you’d imagine it was recorded one way or another.

This week I will be cracking on with some structural changes to the Run For All site, finishing off things for Ben Cotton and Aisling Swindells, continuing work on the Pickles and Potter site and also starting work in earnest on the Northern Dales Farmers Markets site – for which I spent a very rainy Saturday in Richmond taking photos.

Marathon training continues, we went to Decathlon in Sheffield yesterday and I stocked up on new shorts – I haven’t run in shorts since I was at school. My oh my, running in shorts is brilliant!