Ultra Man

He’s an unlikely hero. Three years ago, Ray Zahab was a pack-a-day smoker who had never run a marathon—let alone an “ultra-marathon”—in his life. Today, meet one of the first modern runners to cross the Sahara on foot.

The gruelling 7,000-kilometre run across the largest hot desert in the world began in November of 2006 and ended when Zahab and fellow runners Charlie Engle, from the United States, and Kevin Lin, from Taiwan, crossed the finish line in Egypt. The expedition through Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and Egypt forced the men to face one of the harshest climates on Earth. The team was guided through the blistering, sandy terrain with little but a couple of GPS receivers and a desire to conquer seemingly unconquerable odds.

One of those daunting challenges is the lack of unclean water that leaves millions in northern Africa in mortal danger. Learning of the water crisis in Africa, Zahab dreamed up the idea of an awareness-raising run. He called upon his two racing friends—both of whom he’d run with in 2004 on the Jungle Marathon that snaked through the Amazon. The Sahara race, however, would be the trio’s most challenging. Not only was the 7,000-kilometre Sahara expedition more distance than all his previous races put together, but Zahab was also battling tendonitis, which made it even harder to complete the required 70 kilometres a day (a distance that is the equivalent of running two marathons, daily).

But then, this is a guy who scoffs at odds. Though he is now one of the world’s premiere endurance athletes, Zahab, a former professional equestrian competitor, was a hard-drinking heavy smoker until three years ago, when he gave up his vices to begin rock- and ice-climbing. Those endurance tests were just a tease though and he went on to attempt the Yukon Arctic Ultra marathon in 2004. He won.

“I was so surprised,” says Zahab. “I didn’t expect to win, but I guess I’ve always believed that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I mean, it’s 90 percent mental and the other 10 percent is all in your head!”

That mind-over-matter mentality was put to the test in the Sahara. Zahab had completed desert races before (he came first in the Sahara Race of 2005), but what he was now proposing was bigger—much bigger.

Teaming up with H2O Africa (H2OAfrica.org), Zahab proposed that the race be routed through areas most severely affected by diseased water in the hopes that increased awareness would lead to increased funding.

That awareness level will get a much-needed boost this fall, when a documentary, Running the Sahara, is released. The film was directed by James Moll (who won an Academy Award in 1999 for The Last Days, a feature documentary that chronicled the lives of Hungarian Holocaust survivors) and is narrated by two-time Academy Award-winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), who is also an executive producer. Following the three runners from start to finish, the film documents the highly anticipated launch of the run on the coast of Senegal, through the bustling metropolis of Cairo and the great Pyramids of Giza, until they finally dip their toes in the Red Sea on the eastern coast of Egypt.

Running the Sahara has been submitted to the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and Canadian audiences will soon be able to watch as Zahab and his teammates battle temperatures that exceed 50 C during the day and often drop below -5 C at night. But climactic conditions were the least of this Quebecois runner’s worries.

“Sometimes we would get really sick or we would have a sandstorm,” says Zahab. “Sometimes we would be injured and would achieve less mileage on that day. Then we would have to make up for it the next day.”

But despite the harsh conditions, Zahab and his teammates never faltered and never missed a day. Waking at 4 a.m. each day, the team would run until noon, when they would rest and have lunch before continuing their run until darkness fell.

“The physical obstacles were tremendous and I was exhausted,” says Zahab. “But I trained my mind to stay focused on my wife and my home [in Chelsea, Quebec]. I imagined that every step I took across the desert took me one step closer to home.”

It worked. Zahab and his teammates covered the last 300 kilometres in only 60 hours, after a mere two hours of sleep. During the final two kilometres, Zahab, Engle and Lin walked towards the finish line with friends and family. As they approached the Red Sea, just before sunset on the 111th day, Zahab had one thought in his mind: “Thank God it’s almost over.”

Now an ambassador for SpreadtheNet.org—an organization created by Belinda Stronach and Rick Mercer whose aim is to raise the funds needed to buy 500,000 bed nets to stop the spread of malaria in Africa—Zahab is taking his mind-over-matter message on the road, using his experiences as an ultra-marathon runner to motivate others to make change.

“We limit ourselves by convincing ourselves, without realizing it, that we can’t do things,” says Zahab. “You can’t let yourself be defeated by doubt. Ever.”

Ray Zahab (www.rayzahab.com) is currently planning his next ultra-marathon, this one across Newfoundland.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Going Hard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.