Eddie Izzard stopped the traffic in Oswestry as his Sport Relief Roadshow rolled into Shropshire.

The comedian was half way through his 13th marathon in just 15 days when he took a detour into Oswestry yesterday to meet fans and surprised shoppers.

And he revealed that, apart from a toe injury, he was coping with the daily running better now than when he started his cross-UK challenge.

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“The trick is to not stop otherwise I seize up,” he said, bouncing up and down on the spot as he signed autographs and posed for pictures in Church Street.

“I have a hot bath every morning to get me moving, try not to stop all day and when I’ve finished I get into a freezing cold bath.

“Then I go through massages and have my blisters treated before putting special compression socks on which make me walk around like John Wayne all night.”

Shopper Deb Foulkes, from Oswestry, donated £5 to Sport Relief in return for having a photo taken with Eddie.

“Its great to see him in Oswestry and what he is doing is amazing,” she said.

Fans Clive and Marion Gee and their daughter Alice drove from Welshpool to Oswestry to see him.

Marion said: “I saw him running along the main road towards Oswestry and we are such fans that I went back home for the family and we came to Oswestry to try and see him.”

Having to keep up a huge calorie intake on his ultra marathon run, Eddie was grateful for the Welsh oggie he was given by staff in Gilhams delicatessen before carrying on his run to Wrexham.

He has pledged to run more than 1,000 miles around the UK with just one rest day a week.