Northamptonshire villager completes 240km slog across Arctic in temperatures reaching -28C

Chris Plowman, from Old, completed the five-day run across the northern tip of Sweden last month and braved a low of -28C.

The primary school sports development manager previously completed a similar length race in the Sahara Desert, the Marathon des Sables.

And he has described the moment he reached the finishing line as an incredible feeling.

He said: “The experience was pretty unbelievable and the extremes were much more dramatic than I thought it would be.

“The climbs were much bigger than expected and the terrain was tough.

“One night I had to sleep on a wooden floor and it was -28C, it was absolutely horrendous.

“When we got to the finishing line it was arguably the best day of my life, it was an incredible feeling.

“It was pretty emotional but it gave me a real buzz which is still with me now.”

Mr Plowman came sixth overall out of 13 in the race, but the emphasis was much more on finishing, with two pulling out halfway through the first day.

The fitness fanatic works with schools to develop links between children and sport for Pacesetter Sports, and will be going into local schools to deliver assemblies based on his experience.

He added: “One of the worst parts was going across lakes and falling through the snow into slush, which made our snow shoes wet which then froze.

“At one point my snood froze so I had no face protection and the shoes placed an incredble amount of pressure on my tendons.

“It felt cool that I was just in my own mind in the middle of the arctic, running across snow.

“It was an unbelievable experience and I’m looking forward to going into schools to tell kids about it.

“I think I’m going to let it settle for a bit and enjoy playing cricket in the summer, but after that I’d like to do an extreme rowing or altitude race.”