What inspires two creative people to lace up their running shoes, and run for charity?

Clare Bumford and Raman Mohial (from Greenwich) who both work for creative recruitment consultants RedSofa London are running the Vitality Run Hackney Half Marathon in aid of Hackney based arts charity Eastside Educational Trust.

Clare and Raman are committed runners and fancied a new challenge by taking on one of the newest half marathons in the country but one that already numbers amongst the top ten.

Clare, who is from Haringey talks about their motivation for supporting Eastside: "We were adamant that we wanted to support a local initiative, one which we could be involved in properly, where we could put faces to names and one which we could develop a long-term relationship with.

"Specifically, Eastside spoke to us as it’s an education initiative which encourages young people to explore their creativity in a setting which is exciting and inspiring. When we met with the guys at Eastside for the first time, we came away feeling inspired ourselves to train hard and make them proud. And also more importantly to spread the word on Eastside and the invaluable work they do in our local area."

Raman adds: "The team have been so supportive of our training and are keen for us to have a proactive role with their events as well, which is both inspiring and motivational. On a personal level, working in both the television and music industry previous to RedSofa, I have had the benefit of being mentored by some incredible people, and I have wished to be involved with an organisation that provides the same platform for young people. Eastside do this and much more, it’s an honour to be running for them."

It's obvious that Clare and Raman are committed to their cause, but training can be both hard and fun! Raman explains: "Running towards a goal such as the Hackney Half has been a great motivational factor. I have only been running longer distances since the start of 2015, so it has been great to see a rapid improvement in my technique, fitness and times. All whilst working towards a goal and knowing that the hard work Clare and I have put in is going towards a great cause in Eastside. I haven’t trained alongside anyone previously; running with Clare has been fantastic because she is a lot faster than me so I have to push myself to keep up! Clare and I get along famously anyway, so I feel it has been the perfect blend of motivating each other and also enjoying an activity as friends."

Clare agrees: "The best part about training has been running with Raman of course, as usually I run alone and we have become best buds driving each other forward and improving on our pace together and exploring areas of Hackney I have never run around before. I love to run so enjoy training but it’s hard to factor long runs into the week."

Eastside's Director, Chris Enticott comments: "We’re very proud that Clare and Raman are running in support of Eastside. For us it was natural to want to work with two such creative people and give them a chance to share their expertise with the young people on our projects - we believe that creativity is going to be the crucial skill for the next generation and we are delighted that so many people have given so generously in support of our cause. You can still make a donation via:http://bit.ly/1FF4LFR