Here is a video of the north pole marathon:

After the most relaxing and low-key day Ed and I have enjoyed for the last 8 weeks, disaster struck. We were walking back in from a dusty game of football with local kids when we got the message that the Grain Media boys, the crew who are accompanying us to both marathons, making a documentary, filming news footage and so forth, were stuck in Algiers customs where officials clamed they did not have the right papers for all their equipment which would as a result have to be left behind. Our world seemed to cave in. A frantic incredibly stressful 3 hours then ensued, with every organiser, Saharawi official and the embassy of the Saharawi in Algiers all involved…but to no avail. They had to leave the stuff behind. Thankfully they were quick of mind, had brought 4 cameras with them, and we were able to sneak through with two of their cameras. No huge loss, but a stressful night that an already exhausted Ed and myself could have done without!

Just wanted to add a BIG thank you also to Yes Insurance, our main sponsors, who have been nothing but super supportive, and without whom much of what we’re doing around the EarthFireIce campaign would not be possible. As soon as these guys came on board, so many other things just clicked into place, and it’s thanks to them that we have the momentum we do. Thanks guys, we hope to make you proud!

Team EFI with Paul from Yes Insurance

…yes another week is gone and again there will be no going out, no partying, no beers. I’ll be at home, checking emails, carbo-loading and maybe getting an early nights sleep. This brings to close a chaotic but hugely satifsfying week for the EarthFireIce team. We issued two press releases announcing our launch and two great partnerships with Yes Insurance and Iridium Satellite. On the media side we have arranged a further partnership with Extreme. These are all fantastic developments and we are very pleased to working with all the people involved to make this campaign a huge success.

Of course this is the last friday in for a while… Sean and I will be leaving to the Sahara next week where we will spend 10 days living and working with the Saharawi people. In addition we have to run the marathon… and I am nervous now… since clearly it is too late to train much more, whatever happens will now happen and lets hope I can make it. For a first marathon I certainly did not choose an easy one. Still I hope this will be the real thing… heat and dust storms all the way. I’ll only be doing this once after all.

In signing off… can I just say one more thing: Watch the press next week, listen to the radio, watch morning TV shows… we are launching on 20 February and we want to make this big. Any questions do not hesitate to contact us.

The EarthFireIce pre-launch press release goes out first thing tomorrow in preparation for all systems go on 20 Feb!

Thanks a billion to Trevor from Meridian Corporate Communications for helping us to co-ordinate this thing, and to all the help we’ve received from the PR people supporting Pure (Astrolabe), Practical Action and Global Cool… without your help how would we get those gazillion supporters!

Yes, today was the day. The day the masses were engaged, the day the scientists officially and finally realised they needed to talk the language of the masses and not the language of research reports, the day the individual was called to take action on an…INDIVIDUAL level. Yes, today saw the official launch of Global Cool - and their 10 year journey to get 1 BILLION PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION AND SAVE A TONNE EACH / YEAR. Read more about it on their site and a full story here.

We love these guys, their message and what they are doing. And we want to help them as much as we can - which is why we’ve partnered with them and will be working closely - we’re looking at ways to promote them as much as we can through our events, and ultimately we’d like everyone who pledges on our map to be part of the bigger Global Cool community, be part of their BILLION.