Eddie Izzard kicks off first of 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa

Eddie Izzard has kicked off his epic Sports Relief challenge in South Africa.

The British comedian posted a selfie on Tuesday morning to mark the first of the 27 marathons that he is aiming to run in 27 days.

Clearly in good spirits at the beginning of his journey, the 54-year-old wrote: “Just started running in South Africa. Trying to run 27 marathons in 27 days for @sportrelief.”

The star is aiming to complete the challenge to raise money for the charity appeal, with the amount of marathons mirroring the number of years Nelson Mandela spent in prison.

“If he can do 27 years in prison, I can certainly do 27 days of running marathons back-to-back,” he said.

With his route tracing Mandela’s life story, he is beginning at his place of birth and hopefully end up at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on March 20.

The star will have to run over 700 miles to complete the challeng, while battling temperatures of up to 30C.

Izzard famously ran 43 marathons in 51 days back in the UK 2009 and was due to undertake a similar challenge in 2012 but had to pull out due to health reasons.

“I was inspired to run 27 marathons in 27 days for Sport Relief after seeing the film Invictus,” he said.

“The film featured a poem called Invictus - one of Nelson Mandela's favourite poems during his 27 years in prison.

“He used it to give himself determination to keep himself going and keep his spirit alive. It's a beautiful poem about being the master of your own fate and destiny.”