It’s like training for a marathon, on ice skates.
That’s what our warehouse manager Justen Ehrig will be doing over the next seven months. Justen is a competitor in the 11 Day Power Play, an 11-day long hockey game that takes place in November to benefit local charities and cancer research in the Buffalo-area. This year, the event will be trying to break the Guinness World Record for the longest hockey game, which currently sits at 252-hours long.
This will be Justen’s second time trying to break the World’s Longest Hockey game.
Justen will be playing approximately 100 hours of hockey in just 11 days, putting in around 20, 4-hour shifts as goalie and skater. At the same time he’s training for this event, Justen will be hoping to raise $20,000 to help the event reach its goal of $1,000,000. As of April 1, he’s already over $9,000.
Justen has played in this event since the event began in 2017, playing as an ode to his mother. Justen’s mother, Sherrie, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2016 and passed away in December 2017 after Justen played in the inaugural event. Sherrie watched Justen play all 11-days when he participated in the event in 2017.
“I was driving to work one day and heard about it on the radio promoting the event, and I signed up immediately,” Justen said. “That was my way of wanting to fight for her and everybody else in our community.”
Training for this game is intense. Justen said his team is currently being trained by Excelsior Orthopedics, whose certified Athletic Trainers often train professional and Olympic athletes.
With the event seven months away, overnight skates, running, dieting, and even sleep training has already begun. After all, Justen will be sleeping, eating, and spending all 11 days of this event at the hockey rink. There’s no going home to refresh. Over 250 straight hours either at the hockey rink or in a locker room acting as a makeshift dormitory, waiting until your shift gets called every eight hours or so.
“You play hockey more than you sleep,” Justen said. “It’s quite the physical gauntlet, but it is really just as much a mental battle as well.”
Justen has raised upwards of $40,000 since 2017 while participating in this event. To donate to Justen’s fundraising efforts, click here.
More to come as we periodically check in on Justen during his journey to participate in the 11-Day Power Play!