The Ultimate Runner

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Added: Wed. Mar 11, 2009 12:21pm
Posted in: Extreme

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If you want to talk about growing bolder, you've got to include Ray Zahab. Ray is one of the most amazing people on earth. And even though you've probably never heard of him he does have some friends in high places.

Matt Damon is one. He was so impressed with Ray he created a tremendous documentary about him.

So what does Ray do? He's a runner. But he's never been in a track meet. To best explain Ray, we've got to back up about five years.

Like many of us, Ray's favorite pastime was sitting on the couch in front of the television. Habits? He smoked like a chimney, sucking in a pack a day. And like many of us, he knew he couldn't continue down that path.

He guessed he could try jogging, but he hated to run. He certainly didn't consider himself an athlete. But he was fascinated by the mental aspect of ordinary people pushing themselves in extraordinary directions.

Little did he know he would soon be one of the greatest examples of that fascination alive today. Ray became an ultra marathoner.

Did you see the movie, Forrest Gump? Remember when he just started running and running and running? That's an ultra marathon. It goes on, not for 26 miles, but for days and days and days.

And that's what Ray Zahab does. So, in the last five years, since he got off the couch, he's run thousands of miles, through the Yukon, through the jungle, through Libya and even through the Sahara desert.

He just completed the most mind boggling run of all, across Antarctica, all the way to the South Pole. That's 700 miles. And he did it in a world record time of 33 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes.

Some of the things he dealt with along the way? Altitude sickness, vertigo and some world record setting blisters plagued nearly every mile. The temperatures plunged to 40 below zero. Every step was as mentally grueling as it was physically.

Ray says when you run distances like that, you have a lot of time to think. He has been blown away by the plight of the people in many of the places he's run, and he's dedicated his life and his accomplishments to bring awareness to their needs.

If you're interested in learning about one of the most unique and interesting people on earth, who has an idealism you thought just didn't exist anymore, take a few minutes and listen to Ray Zahab run through his incredible transformation from a sedentary nobody to one of the most amazing men alive.

Click here to listen to Ray on the Growing Bolder Radio Show.