Ollie Phillips Arctic Rugby Challenge Team Captain on the training and the challenge of trekking to the North Pole to play a game of rugby in –30 to –50 temperatures in aid of the Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of rugby.
Ollie, how’s the training going?
…… Its the north pole! We’re working hard behind the scenes, we actually have to put weight on, because we will burn 9k per day, labourious heavy lifting, we’ve done stuff in Altmore in Wales, big focus on working in the conditions on how to put the tents up, melting water, its been good, the time spent with the guys has been excellent, basically a great excuse to be together and work as a team i’ve been working with David Arnot & Eva Woods for about 8 months, (from Enhance Nutrition) on both excercise and nutrition, food plan, because i retired with damaged calf i need to be sure that I am ready for this, 10+ months of training and we head off in April!
Whats the itinerary?
We get to resolute bay base camp and have about 10 days training there, practicing, its right into the chill factor there, once everyone gets through that then we set off! That ten days will aclimatise us and put all our training into practice. What we are really dealing with is the cold its -30 -50 if you are sloppy with tent or kit management then you will get frost bite, it could be 14 day to 5 day depending on conditions, mistakes are very costly, one persons mistake affects the group……….. so hydration…… everything.
Whats going through your head?
I am a bit nervous as it will be a completely alien environment for me, its nerve racking but a great challenge, the two objectives are the goal… to make a Guinness world record and go to the poll to play the coldest game of rugby ever and the crowning glory is the Wooden Spoon, raiseing £300,000.
This will be proud to be part of and it can’t be broken! It’s a feather in the cap on a personal level and to be a captain of one of these teams is an honour.
So please give to this cause and follow the trek on the following links
Tweet: Support @charityspoon #ArcticChallenge 2015! Upload your bobble hat selfie http://bit.ly/1Dsam10
Just Giving Page: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/oliverphillips1
www.arcticrugbychallenge.org
twitter @olliephillips11
www.olliephillips.com
