Ray Zahab Uses Ultra Running For Education
Experiential Education Comes To Life With Zahab's Baffin Trek
Jul 15, 2009
In 2007, ultimate marathoner Ray Zahab and two others ran across the Sahara Dessert without one day of rest. For 111 days they endured injuries, sand storms, mental breakdowns as well as political strife throughout Africa. But the end result for Zahab as documented in “Running the Sahara” was seeing how running could become a platform for learning and bringing attention to an issue.
"Running across the Sahara changed me," Zahab explains. "I knew when I put my hand in the Red Sea [4500 miles after dipping his foot in the Atlantic Ocean] that I could never just run a race to win again. Every step I run now has to have a purpose, a reason, or be inspirational to someone.”
Becoming an Ultra Marathoner
The Canadian from Quebec was not always an athlete. At 30 years old he was partying hard, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day while working as an elite horse trainer.
“Something went off in my head, like a light switch, when I turned 30,” he shares. “My younger brother was a physical trainer, so I decided to check it out. After some hikes and runs I decided to put out my last cigarette. Actually my last cigarette was on New Year’s Eve 1999. It was metaphorical for me to snub it out as everyone was counting down for the New Year. I never smoked again.”
To say Zahab became hooked on running is an understatement. Zahab not only started competing in ultra marathons a few months after he took up running, which vary in lengths from 50 to 200 miles in challenging conditions, he started winning them.
“No one was more surprised than me!” Zahab admits of his success.
Creating impossible2Possible
Since the start of his successful ultra marathon career and running the Sahara, Zahab has founded impossible2Possible, a highly sponsored and non-profit organization that focuses on the current buzzwords in education: experiential learning. Since running the Sahara, Zahab’s mantra has become “there are no limits,” a philosophy which pushed him and a team of two others to trek unassisted to the South Pole in world-record time, all while documenting and interacting with students from around the globe in December of 2008 through January 2009.
Baffin Island Adventure Trek
The highly publicized and successful journey of the South Pole Trek has opened the door for the Baffin Island Adventure Trek which will take place in September 2009. For the first time five rookies, aged 17–21 will join Zahab. These "Youth Ambassadors/Adventurers" will travel to the territory of Nunavut to attempt to cross Baffin Island, the largest island in Canada in six days.
The Youth Ambassadors/Adventurers vary in abilities but all have a love of sport and a passion to get the most out of life. They are Inuk throat singer Kathleen Merritt of Ranklin Inlet, Nunavut; Olympic hopeful Thomsen Dhont of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; dog and cat socializer Amanda Cobbs-Russell of Murrieta, California; trampoline gymnast Tamara Banks of Lombardy, Ontario; and founder of "Students Making a Difference" Sandi Mypaver of Parma Heights, Ohio.
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