YouTube Transcription #74 Marathon Man – Eddie Izzard

On Sunday March 20th, comedian and politician Eddie Izzard completed his goal of running 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa to encourage donations to the UK charity Sport Relief. At the time of writing this he has raised £1,351,722 (about ￥216,880,796) from people phoning in during his 27 days. The charity will run until June so he will generate a lot more money. He decided on 27 marathons to represent Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in prison.

Izzard: So this is Sunday the 20th of March. It is the 27th day of my challenge, trying to run 27 marathons in 27 days. Unfortunately, due to being in hospital on the fifth day I dropped it out; I’ve always been a day behind. Today I’m going to try and run marathon 26 and 27 on the same day; on the last day. And then you get 27 marathons on 27 days. But at the moment it’s only 3am, this is a really early start for the last one. 90 kilometers, 56 miles to run.
Physiotherapist: Day 27, and marathon 26 and 27.
Izzard: Ah, stomach feels tight, got some acid going on there.
Physio: This is the big one; everything’s been leading up to this point.
Izzard: I just gotta get this ******* done.
Driver: There’s a general feeling of excitement and anxiety… you know… it’s all going down today.
Medic: We’re gonna be going through the Cradle Of Mankind (actually “Humankind”), which is gonna be a challenge. It’s sloping roads; it’s up- and down- hill; uphill and down dale, that sort of thing. I think he’ll do this one pretty well. Actually got a good feeling about this one.
Physio: Everything’s been leading up to this point for the 26th/27th marathon, the double marathon; 90 kilometetres, 56 miles to run. If you go off too fast, you basically just wear the system out, and you run out of energy. Your brain starts to protect you. “Hitting the wall” is actually a brain-manifested event, so the brain detects that you’re using energy too quickly, so it shuts you down, and that’s what “the wall” is. People literally just… it’s called “the wall” because people just stop in their tracks, they can’t go on any further.
Izzard: I’ve got a stomach thing going on, I’ve got a hurt foot, I’m aching, tired… I want to get it started, I want to get it done, I don’t want many questions.
Doctor: The only things I’d be concerned about is if he gets, sort of, palpitations, chest pains, then he knows to stop.
BBC: What’s your main anxiety or concern for this…
Izzard: Oh, you know what it is! I mean, what is it? What do you think it is?
Doctor: You know, when he decided he was going to do this four or five years ago, whenever it was, everyone thought he was completely mad, but here we are. We’re on the cusp of a fantastic achievement, so… right, we’re off, you know… see you later.
Physio: 12 hours’ time we’ll see how he’s looking.

Here is a summary video of the final day, including reaching his destination.