"Inspiring People - Ray Zahab"

Every so often in life, you get the opportunity to meet someone truly inspiring.  Ray Zahab is one of those people, and I have had the privilege of connecting with him. 

I first met Ray Zahab for about 30 seconds back in 2002. He happened to be getting out of a beat up black pickup truck and entering my brother’s house which I had designed with construction just about complete.  My niece was a competitive figure skater at the national junior level, and Ray was helping her with some dry land training. I remember my sister-in-law commenting that Ray was this insane crazy extreme runner who competed in ultra marathons. It was a few years later I happened to be reading an article in a magazine at my doctor’s office, about this guy from Ottawa, who decided to run a 150km run across Alaska with only a few months training under his belt. The article was about Ray Zahab, and he not only finished the race but won it by several hours.  I was immediately intrigued, not realizing until later, when I connected the dots, that this was the same guy that I had met briefly a couple years back.  

To give you a bit of history, in 1999, Ray was a committed party animal and heavy smoker, and certainly not living the life of the athlete he was to become.  It was the Millennium New Years and he decided to make a massive change in his life, butting out his last cigarette just before midnight, December 31st, 1999.  His brother John was an accomplished athlete and personal trainer at the time and Ray took up the call to get his body in shape.  Ray quite candidly states that he had difficulty running a single kilometre back in 2000.  Fast forward 13 years, and it is absolutely remarkable what Ray Zahab has accomplished.  

Since that first race in Alaska, Ray has successfully completed multiple ultra marathons and extreme treks. In 2006, he ran the entire length of the Sahara Desert, 750km the long way.  He ran the three Canadian Coastal Trails (2007) back to back and non-stop. These included the Akshayuk Pass in Baffin Island, East Coast Trail Newfoundland and the West Coast Trail, BritishColumbia.  In 2008 Ray ran over 80km in each of the 13 provinces and territories in Canada in just 13 days. 2009, Ray and colleagues Kevin Vallely and Richard Weber broke the 1,100km unassisted expedition record to the SouthPole.  They were the first to complete the trek to the South Pole on foot, in snow shoes. From 2010-2012 ray has continued with his extreme races where he and his teammates ran the length of the Atacam Desert in Chile, Death Valley National Park USA,  and the entire 650km length of Lake Baikal in Siberia.  In June of this year, Ray Zahab and i2P teammate Ferg Hawke will attempt to run 2,000km across the Gobi Desert at it’s widest point.  Ray Zahab has accomplished more, in 12 years, than most could dream of in a lifetime.

These are fantastic feats, but Ray’s most important legacy is the foundation impossible2Possible (i2P) that he and Bob Cox established in 2008.  Through i2P Ray and Bob have created an unparalleled educational program for youth, through adventure learning and pushing their perceived boundaries on challenging life-changing expeditions.  Several “Youth Ambassadors” between 17 and 21 years old, are selected each year to participate as runners and support on the various expeditions around the world.  This, combined with an educational component, creates a truly unique experience empowering the Youth Ambassadors to work on various causes supported by i2P, and to become our leaders of the future.   To date the Young Ambassadors have participated in several amazing treks to such places as Baffin Island, Tunisia, the Amazon, Bolivia, India and Botswana.  In May of this year the i2P Youth Ambassadors will be running a marathon a day for 8 consecutive days across some of the most spectacular scenery in Utah and joining educators, palaeontologists and scientists on an archeological dig excavating a dinosaur fossil. Impossible2Possible is a truly outstanding organization.

I ran into Ray purely by chance in a Starbucks coffee shop last year.   I happened to have my then 16 year old daughter with me at the time, and I wanted her to meet Ray. I used the 3 second rule and immediately introduced myself and Julia. I was already very familiar with Ray’s accomplishments, and I wanted Julia to meet a truly inspiring person.  I was not anticipating just how much of an impact that first meeting would have.  Julia, since that meeting, has researched Ray’s organization quite extensively, hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and is training for her first marathon. She attributes much of this motivation to i2P. 

Looking back at Ray Zahab’s accomplishments has also really inspired me as an artist and life long learner. I find myself drawn to people like Ray, and their stories - the people that have a vision, an authenticity - the ones that simply go for it.    Ray’s story, and those like it, resonate with me. I know how Ray’s story makes me feel and I witnessed first hand the positive effect it has on my daughter.  I read somewhere, "In this life, you have the opportunity to write your own story - you better make it good!"  We all have a story - Ray’s story is amazing - an inspiration for us all, to want to get into the good chapters of our individual stories!

As for myself, I love to paint - this is what I do.  If I never made another single nickel from my art, I would still draw and paint.  I love it more each and every day.  I now see how, following Ray Zahab’s lead, I can shift direction ever so slightly, and paint with "intention" - to find the "WHY and the HOW" - WHY I  paint, and HOW I can use my art to give back.  

In consultation with Ray and Bob, I have found a way to use my talents as an artist in a positive way to give back this unbelievable foundation. I now donate a portion of every online sale of my artwork to i2P.  I intend to hold a variety of fundraising efforts to give to such a worthy cause.  

I2P has a goal of 1 million Youth Ambassadors, leading the way to a sustainable future.  My goal is to help impossible2Possible reach their goal!

I encourage you to check out i2P - it is an organization guaranteed to inspire!  

Cheers!

1 Comment

Robt Campos

November 23, 2019

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