Cake or Death's Groovy News

[from getsurrey.co.uk]

COMEDIAN Eddie Izzard has been gathering support from the people of Surrey and Hampshire as he attempts a charity run from London to Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh before returning to the English capital.

He is covering 30 miles a day in aid of Sport Relief, and visited Staines, Egham and Bagshot after setting off from Trafalgar Square at 6am on Monday.

Tuesday morning saw him arriving in Camberley at about 8.30am, then continuing on the A30 through Hartley Wintney and Hook.

Izzard’s journey so far has taken him past the Royal Holloway university campus in Egham, and he ended his first day at The Windle Brook pub in Bagshot.

I think some people are going “who is this idiot, get out of the way”, but the majority of people are honking their horns to say hello.

He is posting Twitter updates on his progress, and on leaving Bagshot on Tuesday morning said he was “feeling a bit rough”.

But speaking to this website on Tuesday afternoon, Izzard said: “After a couple of miles I felt better, and weirdly I’m feeling better than I did on the first day.

“I seem to be moving along and keeping up an average of five miles an hour, which is good. The weather’s been cloudy, but it’s warm behind it.”

Izzard said the reception he had been getting from members of the public in Surrey and Hampshire was “generally very good”.

“I think some people are going ‘who is this idiot, get out of the way’, but the majority of people are honking their horns to say hello,” he said.

“We finished [on Monday] at a pub in Bagshot, they were nice there.

“We all slumped down and they showed us old pictures of Bagshot where there were no cars on the street.”

Ice cream van

The pub’s assistant manager, Kim Stevens, said Izzard bought a bottle of champagne for £26.50.

She added: “It was about half past three, his camera crew came in first and said ‘do you mind if we borrow your plug, Eddie Izzard is running up the road’. So it was a bit of a surprise.

“Eddie didn’t stay any longer than 15 or 20 minutes, he said he had to go and have a bath within an hour of finishing running.

“He was nice, he was looking around the pub at the pictures. We were quite quiet at the time, there wasn’t really anyone else here, but he did have photos taken with some people.”

On Tuesday, Izzard moved on through Camberley and down to Hartley Wintney, where he said people were waving out of windows.

But he added: “They’d blocked off the road because of a sewage problem, so there was no-one around because no cars were allowed in. It was quite unearthly.”

“Fantastic effort”

In Hook, he said people were chasing the ice cream van which is following him and giving away ice creams in return for donations.

Izzard has a small support group of route planners and a sports therapist for any medical or nutritional requirements.

One person posted a comment on his website saying they had seen him on the A315 Staines Road heading into Surrey, while another said: “Just spotted Eddie running along the A30 between Sunningdale and Windlesham. All alone but for his little England flag. Fantastic effort.”

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Follow Eddie’s progress HERE.