[wordup] Eddie Izzard runs 43 marathons in 51 days.

[Adam Shand]

This is amazing, good for him!!

Adam.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8256589.stm



Run, Izzard, run and run again
By Claire Heald
BBC News

It's the last leg of Eddie Izzard's 43 marathons in 51 days. How did  
the less than athletic comic pull off such a feat of endurance?

Running into London's Trafalgar Square on Tuesday, Eddie Izzard took  
the last of 1.6m steps, from the 43 marathons he has completed in 51  
days.

He has run at least 27 miles a day, six days a week, over the past  
seven weeks, covering more than 1,110 miles of England, Wales,  
Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The aim - to raise what he calls, in classic whimsical Izzard style,  
"billions" for charity Sport Relief.

Just the one marathon race is enough for super-fit modern athletes,  
and the pinnacle of achievement for "fun runners". The suggested  
recovery time afterwards is two to three weeks.

It seemed impressive enough when hardened explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes  
ran seven marathons, in seven days, on seven continents in 2003.

So how has Izzard, a 47-year-old with no previous aspiration to  
emulate Paula Radcliffe, made it through so many since his first  
marathon in July?

And if he can run 43 marathons in a row, can it really be that  
difficult?

Absent toenails

The secret does not lie in strict training. Where athletes devote a  
life to running and amateurs clear the diary for months before a race,  
Izzard admits to only five weeks of prep.

Indeed, during the course of his schedule he has demonstrated what  
sports scientists call a "training effect" - he has sped up instead of  
slowing down, from about 10 hours to just shy of five.

It's a positive, if unexpected, benefit of all the running.

Some nay-sayers wonder whether a 10-hour marathon really counts,  
arguing that it is little more than a lengthy sponsored walk.

And Izzard himself admits people no longer believe how many races he  
has run. "I might as well say I've just eaten a car."

But run them he has, despite the painful physical cost of the  
friction, the impact on his body, and the mental struggle to get up  
every day and run.

Before each race, his feet are bandaged. He has lost toenails, and one  
ankle ligament is seriously sore.

"My feet blistered up terribly, then started healing when I shoved  
them in surgical spirit," says Izzard. "Then they reblistered because  
you've got new skin coming through.

"Blisters upon blisters are not very nice. It's the pain. Like the  
pain from mouth ulcers, it's not a massive area but sharp and quite  
agonising."

Daily ice baths are a necessary evil, he says, "to stop your legs  
inflating to twice the size of an elephant".

Body eats itself

And internally there is more, albeit temporary damage, says sports  
scientist Professor John Brewer, of the University of Bedfordshire.

With each run sapping about 3,000 calories, Izzard's body will be  
eating its own fat stores to keep going.

The force of four to five times his weight slamming through each foot,  
with every step he takes, takes its toll on muscles, tendons, ligaments.

Haemoglobin - the blood protein which carries oxygen around the body -  
will be broken down by the power of his own frame repeatedly crushing  
it in his feet.

So is completing these punishing runs miraculous?

It seems not.

"He should be commended for showing that anyone can unlock that  
running potential," says Prof Brewer.

"Our bodies are designed to run because that's genetically how we  
developed - to catch food and avoid being someone else's food. We have  
enough body fat to sustain about 40 marathons."

“ I would definitely put him closer to the Kenyans than to the man in  
the diver's suit ”
Andy Dixon, Runner's World
Although it's better to build up slowly, Izzard will benefit from  
reshaped muscles, more efficient organs, and boosted blood vessels.

And expert commentators are impressed by his endurance.

"In terms of the sliding scale of marathon runners, I would definitely  
put him closer to the Kenyans than to the man in the diver's suit,"  
says Andy Dixon, editor of the racer's bible Runner's World.

"Covering 26 miles in a day at whatever speed for 43 runs, it's  
demanding.

"A five-hour marathon is a fairly decent pace. It's a massive  
achievement. The big difference is raising yourself to do it again and  
again and again - physically and mentally. I can only imagine the  
suffering he's going through."

The relentless runners in life, the real Forrest Gumps, do exist. Take  
American He-man Dean Karnazes, a brawny type who brands himself  
Ultramarathon Man.

For him, 50 marathons across 50 US states in 50 consecutive days, only  
to run back to the start, is a mere jog.

Perhaps the real surprise is that the British equivalent is a once  
well-upholstered comedian, and sometime wearer of heels.


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