A wee bit harder than his gig as host of the 24-hour Panel show that he did for Comic Relief this past year, but after 8 days and 140 miles, the official David Walliams vs. The Thames challenge for Sport Relief is now over.  Along the way, Walliams battled a stomach virus, high tide, low tide, heavy rain, hurricane force winds and, not to mention, the plethora of non-mentionables that live in the Thames. Cheering David on at various intervals were the likes of fellow comedians Rob Brydon, Jimmy Carr and Miranda Hart along with 1000’s of fans every step of the way. Walliams emerged victorious from the murky waters of the Thames just shy of 6:30pm London time yesterday having raised over £1 million for Sport Relief.

If 140 miles in 8 days wasn’t enough of a feat, how great was it that David paused during his Saturday leg of the swim to save Vinny, a labrador retriever who jumped in the Thames to welcome him to Cookham Lock in Berkshire. Seems as though one-year-old Vinny suffers from a bad hip and undergoes frequent hydrotherapy sessions and had to be helped to shore by Walliams.

Some great photos here from Ian Wylie of David’s trek along the way beginning from day one up until the very end and more on David’s rescue of Vinny here from the BBC.

In case you’re remotely thinking about duplicating David’s efforts, this is definitely a ‘leave this to professionals’ type of challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqVOMMVB2Fo