Richard Hammond runs home 16 miles for daughter's birthday

Monday July23rd 2007

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond abandoned his car and ran 16 miles home so that he wouldn't miss his daughter's fourth birthday.

The devoted Dad, who suffered a serious brain injury in last September’s 288mph dragster smash, was driving home to Gloucestershire from London when Friday's storms hit.

Traffic came to a standstill and motorists were warned of huge delays. But no amount of flooding was going to stop Richard.

He decided to dump his Porsche, put on an old pair of running shoes and jog the sixteen miles home at three in the morning.

Amazingly, he arrived at home at 5.30am, just in time for his daughter waking up on her special day.

Richard said:

"There was no way I was going to miss it. Luckily I had my waterproof jacket with me in the car so I decided to run the rest of the way. It was pitch black but I just put my iPod on and went."