Blogs

Eddie Izzard's marathon efforts to keep his fundraising on the quiet

Fundraising | Lucy Harvey | 5 Aug 2009

I’ve always been an Eddie Izzard fan. He’s funny, frighteningly intelligent, and he and his dad are Crystal Palace fans, which means they both deserve all of our support.

But, before last week, I was not in awe of Eddie.

Now, he Iz my hero.

For the past week, and for the next six, Eddie will run the equivalent of a marathon everyday, resting only on the Sabbath, on a journey that will take him from London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and back to London.

That’s 1,100 miles of running.

Now, I knew he was a bit of a runner from previous Twitter updates, often illustrated with a photo of something unusual, picturesque or bizarre courtesy of his iPhone. But I had no idea what he was planning, and still can’t quite believe it.

Such amazing effort deserves skip-loads of cash to be donated to his charity of choice – Sport Relief – but when I followed the link to his fundraising page I was met only by blank data entry fields.

For the running challenges of all running challenges, there is no running total.

That means I have no idea how much he has raised so far and neither, according to the Comic Relief press office, does Eddie.

At first I was surprised by the secrecy, but on second thoughts I am impressed.

I think sponsors are swayed by targets, amount raised so far, and what other people have donated. I know I have been in the past.

For Eddie’s challenge, you just donate how much you think his challenge deserves. Or failing that, how much you can afford.

I’m told the cloak-and-dagger approach was not a well-planned conspiracy, more of an ‘organic’ process.

In fact, it could well have more to do with the fact it is not ‘campaign time’ for the Sport Relief team so the facility is not available.

But whether or not it is deliberate, I like it.

In fact, I love it.

I’ll even consider it for my own fundraising challenge in October when I run the Royal Parks half-marathon, but to even mention running half a marathon in this blog is embarrassing.

Go Eddie.

Tweet