Before detailing the marathon and my relationship with Bushbells, I would like to express enormous gratitude towards Wendy Roberts, founder and owner of Wendy Roberts Wellbeing & Performance Coach. Without her dedicated, consistent and heartfelt support, this initiative would never have been realised. The coaching I have received over these past few months has been of the highest quality: I cannot recommend this enterprise highly enough and I would encourage anybody wishing to boost their running performance - whether that be from a mental or physical aspect - to explore the many services here: https://www.wendyroberts.co.uk.

Bushbells is a British-based business selling kikoy clothing and other East African-inspired accessories. Run by the wonderful and highly committed Jax Comyn, the community investment programme was originally set up in 2009 to support a small group of talented tailors led by Sammy, having been widowed. A prolonged run of success led to the opening of Bluebells School in 2015 which continues to flourish to this day, providing an education for 150 students between the ages of three and seventeen. Consistently battling against destitution, endemic corruption and - as of the past two years - the collapse of the tourist industry, Bluebells must also function as a community, food distributor and medical centre. Notwithstanding the challenges, Bluebells continuously supply an education unparalleled by its neighbouring schools. I was fortunate enough to volunteer at Bluebells back in January of this year, and witness the immensity of the operation. Thoroughly inspired by the ambition of all those who worked there, and truly impressed by the structure of hiring local tailors and teachers thus creating an organic and productive local economy (a crucial step so often bypassed by Western organisations in Africa), I now feel it my turn to give back to Blueblls. Please visit Bushbells website here for more info and all products: https://www.bushbells.com

The marathon took place on the North Downs, outside of Guildford. 30miles // off-road // 1126m climbed // 5hrs 30mins total.

I would be immensely grateful for any donation of any size towards this amazing programme. All the money raised will be funding different areas of daily schooling life and major infrastructure programmes in their nascent stages, including the building of a grade 6 classroom to educate a broader age range of children.

As a final note, I would like to highlight the recent and shocking news of the death of Sammy, the head tailor at Bushbells. I was fortunate enough to meet Sammy during my time in Kenya; he was a tremendously warm-hearted man with an unbelievable talent for his line of work. He will be greatly missed by all those who met him. In support of Sammy's children - now orphans - there is a Gofundme page separate to this marathon to be found on this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-sammys-3-children?member=13183547&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

Thank you all for reading this and I wish everyone the best with the slim remainder of the Summer.

Freddie Krone