RUNDER

RUNDER ELITE 
OLI WHEELER

Oli is a British man,  a Dad, a husband, a CEO. Plus he's an absolute nutter when he's on two wheels. Married to the game and pushing the limits when life gets too comfortable.

Getting to connect with Oli after his recent Desert Adventure (Morocco Dessert Challenge), he shared some insight into the view from his lenses and left us, well, nothing short of inspired. We can all be doing more, no matter your story. Life is ready for you to take it by the horns, like Oli does.
Poster

Oli, we're already fairly well acquainted but for those who do not know you, give us a the elevator pitch of who you are and what you do! 

My name is Oli Wheeler and I am a husband and father with a PR Agency in London that specialises in promoting some of the world’s best known brands, including Under Armour, Wizz Air, Hawaiian Tropic and the Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team. When I am not doing that, I love riding and racing dirt bikes across mountains and deserts in the UK and around the world. The more challenging, the better.

Can you share some juicy bits about what drives you and keeps you motivated on the daily. 

I am driven to succeed so that our family can live a happy and enjoyable life and experience as much of the world as possible. We don’t really bother with expensive food and fashion, instead our focus is more on flights and travel. My wife Tina is an actress and radio presenter, but also loves to hike with her girlfriends, recently climbing the 5,500m Mount Yala peak in Nepal. This kind of extreme stimulation provides a fantastic contrast to the intense focus of our daily lives.

When you commit to these endurance adventures what kind of training and preparation typically goes in? 

I was born in 1969, so I am not a “spring chicken” and so I do need to train. Endurance events require some basic fitness and away from the bike I often walk around three miles each way to my office with a back pack and I use a rowing machine in the gym. Around twice a month I get on my Husqvarna training bike and do a 100 mile cross country track in the morning and then 50 laps of a motocross track in the afternoon. Riding is always the best complete work-out for me as I really don’t like being indoors in a gym.

8 days in the desert, more than 3000km, riding all day, mega tough terrain, mental challenges, physical challenges, dodging dune buggies, trucks and boulders. Please give us some idea of what you went through during this race and what you came out with.

The sport involves racing a motorcycle across an unknown and difficult landscape, while navigating from a scroll of instructions mounted to the handlebars. Being chased by a hundred buggies and trucks in faster vehicles is a bit like being chased by pirates. In the desert we do an average of 450kms a day for eight days, which is very punishing on the body. Each night we sleep in a pop-up tent, often in a sandstorm. I don’t think adventures get much more intense.

These days you are mostly riding a motorbike, right? Was it always a motorbike?

In my teenage years I was obsessed with freestyle BMX, and I still have a vintage bike and I hit the skatepark a few times in the summer. In my twenties I raced fast outdoor karts followed by a couple of years racing Caterhams in the British Sports Car Series. Then I spent a quieter decade just with some mountain biking while raising a young family. Riding motorcycles is quite recent, I actually only got my licence in 2015 when I joined some friends for an off road adventure across Cambodia. I realised that dirt bikes combine BMX with motorsport, but combine much more riding time with adventure, and I was hooked.

When you are not out riding what does a day in the life of Oli look like?

A typical week will be in London, starting with early mornings and the school run and a solid ten hours in my office in Soho. On Fridays we jump in the Land Rover and head 90 minutes up to our Lake House in the Cotswolds, where we spend as much time outdoors as possible, swimming, fishing, outdoor cooking, and trying to sneak the dirt bikes out of the shed for a few hours. That’s become easier now that my son has a bike of his own.

How does Runder fit into your lifestyle and on your adventures.

I spent a few years in South Africa in my twenties, so I have some history with biltong! Unlike other packet snacks it’s something I genuinely look forward to, whatever I am doing out on the trails. For longer adventures, I put a whole box in my race crate which travels out to remote locations with my race bike, several weeks before I do. A box of Runder biltong has become just as much a part of my essential preparation as packing my hydration and vitamin products.

What is your  favourite Runder product?

I can never choose between the thinly sliced original biltong and the droewors sticks, so I always take both and alternate between the days. I have so far resisted the temptation to try the Carolina Reaper as I tend to minimise my chili intake on long rally events. But winter is coming … and I know it’s in the cupboard!

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