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Ray Zahab will be speaking in Kelowna at the My Call to Action event, Sept. 29.
By Kathy Michaels
Ray Zahab ran 7,500 kilometres across the Sahara Desert, raced through Antarctica to the South Pole and at the end of the month he’ll make his way from Chelsea Que. to Kelowna.
This journey won’t be marked by the intense show of determination the extreme athlete and activist is best known for, but his arrival could be the impetus to set others on the path to their own metamorphosis.
Zahab, along with actress and activist Mia Farrow, will be speaking at an event called My Call to Action. They hope sharing their stories compels others to move forward and be active participants in their own lives and the world around them.
“I am a normal person who stumbled upon an ability, and I realized that this ability is in everyone of us,” said Zahab, who ran across the Sahara in 111 days and walked 1,100 km across the South Pole. “We all have the capacity and ability to do anything, but human beings underestimate themselves.”
Recalling his own call to action, Zahab explained that he once bore no resemblance to the man whose desire to break past his own limitations one step at a time, inspired a documentary narrated by Matt Damon.
“I was not an athlete growing up — I was definitely on the way on the other end of the spectrum,” he said. “I was a former pack-a-day smoker with a sedentary lifestyle.”
In 1998, Zahab was on the cusp of his 30s, and like many reaching that milestone, he found himself picking apart the person he had become.
“That was a wake-up call,” he said. “I realized I’m 30, I don’t have a college degree, what the hell am I going to do?”
At that time, he was working as a horse trainer, but when making a general survey of his life, Zahab decided that there was nothing overwhelmingly positive happening.
“When you get into that kind of funk, you really can’t see anything else around you. All I knew is that I didn’t want to feel that way anymore.”
On New Year’s Eve of 1999, he made a commitment to change his life.
“Because I am a great procrastinator, I decided that I was going to quit this pack-a-day smoking habit by January 2000,” he said. “For all intents and purposes, I was going to leave the negative baggage at the door and in the new millennium, live my life differently.”
He made “corny” and “cliche” resolutions, but was determined to stick to them and when he woke up on January 1, 2000, something had changed.
“First thing I realized was that feeling sorry for myself was the most unproductive things I could do— there are a billion people in the world who have it worse than I do. So, I wanted to celebrate life,” he said.
“It had nothing to do with adventure or wanting to be a great athlete or anything. It had to do with wanting to do something in my life that I would feel really good about.”
Starting that day, Zahab joined his younger brother in all sorts of activities. The cigarettes he relied on became a thing of the past when he started getting outdoors, feeling healthier and most importantly, happier about himself.
“From 2000 to 2003, I did every sport I could do; the only sport I didn’t do was running because I couldn’t understand why anyone would run anywhere when they could drive there,” he said. “Then I read about the Yukon Arctic ultra-marathon, and I was so taken with the idea that people could run 160 km without stopping — I thought what are these people made of?”
He saw a photo of one of the ultra-marathon runners and realized those who took part in the race were just regular people who have realized there are no physical, mental or emotional limits to themselves. So he entered the race and two months later, he showed up at the start line with a cheap plastic sled he was going to drag his gear in.
“Here I was, realizing I probably bit off more than I could chew. But I committed to myself that I was going to bring myself to my absolute limits and discover what I could about myself,” he said. “What I discovered at the halfway point was that I was having a helluva a bad time, I was so ready to throw in the towel.”
That’s when he found the resolve to push on.
“I said to myself, ‘look you’re out here, dude, and you made this commitment to do the best that you can, and the last three years have been so amazing, but now push has come to shove and this is the moment that defines all other moments. So what are you going to do about it?’”
Deciding to do the best he could, he realized he would just walk until he couldn’t walk anymore. One kilometer turned to five, then 10 and then he saw the finish line.
“I realized ‘I am running now, I am not walking’,” he said. “Ten hours before I was in pain and I was cold, and then I was running across the finish line and it dawned me, I am a runner.”
He finished his race and the organizer came up to him and said “dude, you finished the race, in fact you’ve won the race”
For the first time in his life he felt empowered.
“I was so preoccupied that I wanted to do the best I could, that I went on to win the ultra-marathon,” he said.
Since then, Zahab’s journeys have literally made world records and are likely to be recorded in history, but that’s not what resonates with people.
“I tell people a story that I hope they really dig and they walk away with a strong notion that there’s a whole world of life ahead of them and we have one life to live and we have to live it to the max, celebrate life and reach for things that seem impossible.”
A call to action takes place Sept. 29, 7:30 pm at Trinity Baptist Church. Tickets are available at: www.mycalltoaction.com to learn more about Zahab go to www.rayzahab.com.
kathy@kelowna.com
250-575-0761
One Response to “Learn about Ray Zahab’s journey from average Joe to elite athlete”
Tags: my call to action, ray zahab
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Hey Ray, great story and very motivating. Hope you, Marsh, and the gang had a geat trip across Baffin Island.
Please continue discussion on the forum: link