Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man for Sport Relief

Eddie Izzard - comedian, actor and occasional long-distance runner.

Eddie's come to South Africa - and he's been here before.

Is that from last time?

It's his second attempt at a seemingly impossible challenge.

Yes.

It all began four years ago, in 2012, when Eddie set out

on a super-tough South African journey -

to run 27 marathons in 27 days.

And why did he set himself this mammoth task?

To celebrate one of his great heroes - the anti-apartheid leader

and South African President Nelson Mandela,

who spent 27 years in prison for his political beliefs...

..but four marathons in, on his original attempt,

Eddie was struggling.

His pee turned a darker shade of weird.

It's still red.

All was not right. The medics called a halt.

You've got to go to Casualty.

A devastated Eddie spent three days in hospital.

The challenge was called off - but he made a promise.

I don't want to give up.

Looks like Africa beat me this time.

I will return and finish this.

Four years later, true to his word, a leaner, healthier Eddie

has returned to South Africa to finish the job...

It's just dawn. Over here, we've got donkeys at the bus stop.

..and this time, he's given himself an added incentive -

he's raising cash for Sport Relief.

Eddie! Eddie!

We're just running for Sport Relief.

I don't know if you've got any spare milk you can...?

But second time around, the challenge is just as tough...

..and just as painful.

Spray me! Spray me like crazy!

Ah!

Agh!

This time, can Eddie make it all the way to the finish?

Oh, stop. I want to stop.

This programme contains some strong language.

Um... Hi.

I have to run 27 marathons in 27 days, from tomorrow. No days off.

I tried it four years ago and I failed.

This time, I must succeed.

I think I can do it.

That is sunrise. This is Africa.

Um...

I should just get this thing going.

I just want to get it going.

Can I go now? No, I have to go warm up.

Arms up.

It's an early morning. Temperatures are still cool.

Eddie's physio, Tim, walks him through the first of many warm-ups.

This is the same flag that I ran with four years ago.

It's a small psychological thing.

Flags are bizarrely powerful and passionate.

- Guys, I'll go. - OK, Eddie.

- Good luck. - Cheers.

Eddie's running route will trace the story of Nelson Mandela's life,

starting in his birthplace, here in the Eastern Cape.

It's this area that shaped a young Nelson.

It's rugged, rural and tough -

and tough for Eddie to run in, as it's hotter than hotness!

Midday temperatures can push past 40 degrees.

Yeah, I'm beginning to feel heat on this cheek.

Yeah, it's going to get increasingly hotter.

Well, that's a quarter of a marathon. Easy to do, really.

- Looking good. - There you go.

Then we'll fake the rest in post... What do you call it? Green screen.

- Postproduction! - Yeah!

Just put me panting. Slow it down.

We are in Mvezo, and this is the birthplace of Nelson Mandela.

Just in that area was where he was born,

so this area, he would've been around here as a kid.

- I'm just running around. - Good!

I like the flag.

For Eddie, who has done no heat acclimatisation,

having literally arrived last night,

Day 1 is his extreme marathon-y way

of getting used to soaking up the rays

and familiarising himself with the route he's attempted before.

- Hello. Good to see you again, Zim. - Yes, nice meeting you again, Eddie.

- We saw each other four years ago. - Yeah.

You said I was a little bit crazy, and I think I am a little bit crazy.

- We are at Nelson Mandela's village. - Right.

Right behind you, on the other side, is Nelson Mandela's house.

- Oh, that's...? - His residence. - That's where he lived?! - Across the road.

And, if you look up the road on the other side, there,

mainly on the top of the hill,

you will see his grave on the other side.

I met him once. He didn't know who I was. He thought I was crazy.

And the fact that I failed last time and I've come back -

- he once said, apparently, "Don't judge me by my successes..." - Yes.

"..judge me by the number of times

- "I failed and got back up again." - Got up again. - Exactly.

- Can I have a quick look through? - Yes, we can go inside. Let's go.

He might be in the middle of a marathon, but Eddie can't resist

finding time for Zim to show him the Mandela Museum.

Oh, here's a good quote.

He was a tonne of energy and charm,

and I would've liked to have known him better.

But instead, I'll have to do this and, er...

Yeah, he's one of my inspirations.

Topped up on inspiration, Eddie, now doing his own long walk, and run,

has plenty of time to ponder the enormity of his own challenge.

I can't read what it says.

- Yay! - Wahey!

This is Africa, this is what I'll be running through.

I'm running down to Cape Town.

That's crazy - across the face of South Africa.

And then, I want to run through that...

cos it's good for the soul.

So this is Day 2.

I am kind of wondering...

did I really...decide...to do this?

Day 2's route will take Eddie from Nelson Mandela's homelands

to the railway station where he left the provinces.

Tim runs a check on the inside of Eddie's head.

Enthusiasm for today's marathon?

OK. Energy levels?

Eddie flew through Day 1, but he's already suffering with sunburn.

But the real issue is psychological. Rick Matthews has planned the route.

There's a fairly rough gorge you've got to go through.

- Rough ground surface or...? - Rough ground surface. - Right, OK.

- Great. - OK? - OK.

The worry is not completing all 27 marathons...

rough ground has given Eddie's feet injuries before.

- If we have tension here, we have tension here. - Exactly.

So tension in the mind gives us tension in the body,

so, if we can just focus on the task for right now...

No, please, don't! Don't hurt my back!

Please, don't!

Please don't hurt my back.

Oh, fuck!

This is the... It makes it so tough!

Because there's no clear line to run on.

Can you see all this?

That's what makes it bloody hard!

Eddie has run 22km this morning.

- It's the halfway point. - I need a minute.

- Is it that right-hand side? - Yeah. - But he's struggling. - This is hard.

The rough roads have jarred his back.

To monitor his health, he's brought a doctor -

his old school friend Gary.

God, this is tough!

He's got a little bit of heat fatigue.

His core body temperature's probably...

has obviously gone up very high.

It's making him feel a little bit dizzy and a little bit nauseous.

Oh, stop. I want to stop.

He's feeling pretty crap at the moment, but, hopefully,

we can just get over this little hump and get things back on track.

And, of course, he's worried that he's, second day, hurting -

"Am I going to be able to do this?"

Eddie has run endurance marathons before.

He knows it's not just whether his body can take the pain,

but also if he can beat the doubts in his mind.

He always had a kind of dream - a kind of dreamy kid, fantasies -

and, at that time, we just thought he was some kid

who just was having impossible dreams.

It's tough.

It's only Day 2.

But the amazing thing about him

is that he's fulfilled many of those dreams -

and continues to have mad dreams

and then work bloody hard to achieve them.

- I need someone to talk to. - OK. Want to run? - OK.

See you, Eddie.

Gary is here as a doctor - but, for now, Eddie's got his old schoolmate

to just chat and walk him through the day.

We've known each other since we were 13.

We went to school together.

I have dragged him along. He's a good doctor.

Um, he's a very thoughtful doctor.

I was throwing up about half an hour ago.

Now I feel a little better.

It's all part of running in 35 degrees temperature.

- Is this the finish, by any chance? - It is, mate.

I run, I walk, I stagger, I crawl.

Whatever, just get it done.

Some coolness.

This is the morning of the third marathon.

I feel slightly more positive this morning.

Today we're going to do one of the slowest marathons

that history has ever seen.

Dr Gary here has said today should be a recovery marathon.

Recovery is normally what you do...

You do a marathon and then you have your recovery day, week, whatever -

but I'm not doing any recovery,

so, the idea of a recovery marathon...

- did you just come up with that? - Yeah.

He just came up with that.

We're having to invent systems as we go.

Just got to get through these next couple of days.

Psychologically, that was the barrier -

we've got to get beyond the point where it all went wrong last time.

In 2012, I attempted to run 27 marathons in 27 days.

On the third marathon, I started to pee brown-coloured pee,

so that happened on Day 3.

That turned out to be rhabdomyolysis,

where your muscles start shredding, going into your blood stream.