It was during Fairtrade Fortnight a few months ago, in deep mid-winter (oh yeah, and when did that period end then?), when our friends from Traidcraft put to us the idea of running the British 10km run for Traidcraft Exchange, and to highlight the Koolskools/Traidcraft Fairtrade cotton for schools initiative. After much gnashing of teeth on the part of one member of the business partnership who shall remain nameless, we were pretty quickly persuaded of the merits of doing so. From February onwards we launched ourselves into the training regime with gusto. You know, the customary exercise schedule for gentlemen in their forties and fifties: (1) lots of carbohydrates (mainly brown, fizzy, “high energy” drinks often consumed in a pint glass); (2) lots of “visualising” of the forthcoming sporting challenge and working on our posture (mostly on the sofa it has to be said); (3) and finally, following in the footsteps of the iconic Usain Bolt who said recently “If you want to go faster get more rest”, we immediately latched on to this, took him literally and made his advice the main focus of our high intensity fitness programme. So here you can see us looking very smug at the start of the race, then not quite so smug but still very happy at kilometre number 2. Funnily enough, we have lost the photos taken at 8kms onwards. Shame, but we can assure all of our supporters that we were most certainly still standing at that point, when all 3 training pillars set out above really began to “pay dividends”. On a more serious note, the Koolskools/Traidcraft Fairtrade cotton for schools initiative was established towards the end of 2011, with a view to trying to bring more UK schools into the Fairtrade cotton school uniform fold, together with a corresponding benefit to Traidcraft Exchange charity and the nascent Tabitha orphanage in Mauritius. We are delighted that the first schools and organisations have signed up to the initiative, and the first cheques have gone through to the two charities as a result. But come on, we want more of you schools to sign up please, so do visit the following link and embark on a Fairtrade cotton journey for your school. We should like to thank all of you who supported and sponsored us on the day, and a special thank you to Ania and Sylvia who got up at 5am with the participants to make sure that they at least started the race close to the front.
Andy and Mike