Running Tunisia Day 2

Hey everyone! Some updates from the team

Day 1

From Ray:

Today was our first full day running in the Sahara. After a long drive of about 2.5 hours, we began running in the hopes of reaching our goal of 42.2 km by the end of the day – a distance that neither Jill, Kajsa, nor Connor had ever ran in a single day before. The first 20 km was… muddy. The unbelievable lightning/rain storm the previous night had altered the land to such a degree that Jill was skating across the desert. We continued to move forward in the search of lunch – something that the youth ambassadors had been fixated on from km 15 – 20. When we finally crested the hill, we looked down upon the land cruisers and an outstretched blanket covered with sandwiches, oranges, dates, tea… and Mohammed. After our lunch break, we began on the second part of our day; however, during the hottest, most uncomfortable part of the day, we almost immediately experienced problems. Jill was experiencing dehydration as well as nutrition issues. She created a masterpiece on the side of the trail consisting of everything consumed in the past 12 hours as well as sound effects we had never heard before. We made a collective decision to take an easier pace, as it was stiflingly hot at about 33 degrees Celsius. Things were looking up, but at about 33 km, Jill decided to not only hit the wall, but take it out and allow it to fall on top of her. The day finished with a positive attitude, as we were treated to authentic Arabic music complete with sing-a-long in the land cruiser as we jostled down the road back to camp. Jill’s experience today with dehydration really helped us to appreciate the importance of drinking enough water, which has implications not only for completing the trek but makes us realize that people who do not have access to clean drinking water are at a severe disadvantage.






House from Star Wars


Sunset

Also check out this video from the team and this feature on CNN

Day 2

From the Youth Ambassadors:

The day started out with a 1.5 hour drive with rockin’ Arabic/French music in Nardeen’s car to start where we finished yesterday. After a tough day yesterday, we made a collective decision to run 20 minutes, then do a fast walk for 2 minutes. Our goal was to make it back to camp, about 36 km, and everyone was feeling pretty good around lunch time, however, the heat of the day was beginning and we still had about 16 km to go. After lunch, we came across a herd of dromedaries (one-humped camels) and watched as Andy chased them around the desert in his attempt to ride one! As the heat pressed down on us, we tried to focus on hydrating properly and keeping a consistent pace while out on our own. Throughout the first two days, Kathy (Ray’s wife) had been running alongside with us and helping with pacing, but today, she deemed us ready to go out on our own and make our own decisions on proper speed for running a multi-day expedition. The heat was very hard to take the last 10 km, but we worked together to keep everyone motivated and could not have been happier when we crested the hill to overlook the camp in front of us. Back at camp, we had an interesting educational discussion with Doc Affleck about a variety of water issues as well as facts and interesting history about the theories of the origins of water. Ray had us do an experiment where we carried 12 litres of water around camp to get a feel for what it is like for children to carry water for miles on end that is necessary for their everyday life.

Volcanic Interference

Hi Everyone! My name is Kat and I'm one of i2P's advisors. While Ray and the i2P team are in Tunisia, I'm going to guest blog to keep you updated on all of their incredible adventures- before they left they had to navigate being challenged by a volcano!

In Bob and Ray's words:

"As it goes with any expedition you need to have proper planning, a good logistics team behind you, and of course a lot of luck! Today's Volcano in Iceland has put us into an early adaptation mode since the last update we received was that our flights from Montreal to Paris had been canceled! Fortunately the impossible2Possible team has McCord Travel, an amazing travel agency supporting us and first thing this morning they were hard at work trying to reserve us a flight into Tunisia through an alternative route. At this point we have flights reserved and as I write this they are trying to transfer the new tickets. Our new route has us heading through Morocco and only landing 2 hours behind our original travel itinerary!

The team has spent the morning in orientation and we are all getting to know each other! It was great to finally meet the youth ambassadors in person! We couldn't have selected a better group of four for this journey!

We will keep you posted of any other travel changes!"

You can meet the incredible Youth Ambassadors yourself by checking out this video:

Youth Ambassador Intros from GOi2P on Vimeo.

Running Tunisia and stuff

Hey There !

Its been awhile (as usual) .....seems life gets so busy i rarely can write. ANyhow, SIberia went awesome....check it out at www.siberianx.com for the deets. We were able to communicate with the students during the expedition, but what really blew me away was they way so many young people came together to fundraise and so far raise in the $ 12 000 range for water projects in Africa- for people they may never meet. The power of youth amazes me. So much hope, so much potential.

This week we leave for Tunisia. Four amazing Youth Ambassadors will run across the northern Sahara. I am proud to be part of their team. www.runningtunisia.com Please stay tuned....

2010 Siberian Express For Water !

Impossible2Possible H20 Initiative !

I hope everyone had awesome holidays !!! Roughly 60 days from now Kevin Vallely and I will be running 60-70 kms per day across Lake Baikal….unsupported ! We will drag everything we need for the entire expedition in specially made sleds- that includes nearly 100 pounds of food, sleeping gear, camera equipment Iridium and our BGAN. Important equipment to have- as our goal is not to cross the world’s largest (by volume) fresh water lake a small team- We actually will be a team of thousands as students from Europe, US and Canada join us tracking our daily progress, communicate with us as we stream live video into classrooms, and speak with us via our Iridiums! We will also post daily blogs and film high definition footage and photos that will be made available to students for their own projects.

Training has been going well- i am convincing myself I love the cold…it seemed to work last year on the way to the South Pole ! The website for Siberian Express launches January 11. You will be able to access it from www.impossible2possible.com at that time…

Education, Inspiration,…Action !

As we travel to the Arctic to train and prepare (Yellowknife on January 11-13 and Pangnirtung Jan 29-30), students will share in the prep for the Siberia Expedition (which takes place March 1-11). The Experiential Learning program will commence at the same time- our team lead by Dr. Ewan Affleck has been busy preparing the best Educational Modules we have made to date- and will encompass the topic of this expedition…water ! Students and schools will also combine forces to raise the resources needed for a well project and rainwater collection project in Africa based on everything they learn about this precious of all resources! Our partners for these projects will be the Ryans Well Foundation and Giving Water.Org. Great organizations with great people.

Part 2

Siberian Express for Water is the first of two expeditions in our 2010 H20 initiative. The second is our next Youth Expedition. Running Tunisia will take place this April as 5 Youth Ambassadors attempt an epic run across Tunisia…in their own version of Running The Sahara ! More details on this later- I hope you will join us for these two expeditions ! We are still accepting applications for Youth Ambassadors- details are on the impossible2Possible.com website ! Schools are still able to sign up as well to communicate with us, learn about water…and make a difference ! Everything is free of charge. Thank you all once again for reading along and for your emails. Next newsletter soon ! Keep running !!!

August Update !

impossible2Possible World Expedition: Stage 1 Baffin Island

Here we go !!!

Starting next Tuesday, September 1st five incredible Youth Adventurers will set out for Canada's Arctic in an attempt to 

cross the Akshayuk Pass on Baffin Island- and trek all the way back to Pangnirtung ! I will join them, along with familiar names like Marshall Ulrich, Tessum Weber,

i2P's own Bob Cox, and my wife Kath ! Dr. Ewan Affleck and his Educational Team have once again created a series of relevant and exciting Educational Modules

which will be made available to all who visit the www.impossible2possible.com/world website ! As with the South Pole Quest, daily blogs, photos and live tracking

will be broadcast to the World through the live website. This time, select students from the over 5000 in schools across North America have teamed with us to ask questions, 

and have those questions answered through voice files daily on www.impossible2possible.com/world

Our Youth Adventurers are excited and a little nervous- this isn't a field trip- but a full-on expedition ! They will carry all of their food and supplies and gear for this arduous trek. Best of

all they get to share their experiences, what they learn (not only about themselves, but about the incredible culture of the North), and speak to thousands of youth daily through their blogs, etc

on the live website. Glacial moraine, scores of icy cold river crossings, lots of bog- and some of the most stunning scenery on Earth ! Here we go! 

Join us in this first leg of the i2P World Expedition series ! The second expedition is slated for January 2010, school and Youth Adventurer registration

will be announced end of September. Future expedition stages to be announced soon. Our generous sponsors have made this expedition possible- with no cost whatsoever to school

and Youth Adventurers. Please visit the Sponsor page at www.impossible2possible.com/world

Here They Go Again !

More expedition news- Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement from Ray and South Pole Quest teammate and buddy Kevin Vallely as they will soon announce a unique and very exciting

expedition they are planning for May 2010. As soon as the deets get hammered out- you will be the first to know ! Of course there will be once again links to thousands of students and classrooms !

Desert Camp with The Man !

I've joined with ultra running legend Marshall Ulrich to host the Dreams in Action Running Camp, Death Valley, October 14-18, 2009 !    At this camp you will learn how to improve your running for all kinds of races, including road, desert, stage, mountain, and trail races!  We welcome all runners, whether you have just started running or if you are an experienced ultra runner, this camp will teach you what you need to know! For more info go to http://www.marshallulrich.com/trainer.htm Special guest instructors will include Bart Yasso- Author of My Life On The Run (and an all around running guru), Danny Dreyer- author of  Chi Running, Andrew Skurka- Nat Geo Adventurer of the Year....and of course Marshal Ulrich- The Man ! I will be there too instructing...i promise not to make you run across the Sahara or drag a sled to the South Pole if you promise to come ! Hope to see you there !

Well, thats it- but there is alot of news- thank you once again for taking the time to read my newsletter- and remember to stay in touch, i love receiving your emails- and please keep the good

vibes coming...i truly appreciate it !

Mid July Update !

Hey Everybody !

Okay- no doubt the weather has started out a bit crazy this summer- but that just makes running more interesting, right ? !!! 

Montreal2Ottawa In One Go !!! 

So – lots of cool stuff happening and about to happen….but before you read any further- please, please, please join me on facebook and twitter (rayzahab) ! Why ?

Well- I am glad you asked !  impossible2Possible will be utilizing a new tracking map for this September’s upcoming Baffin Island Youth expedition- which will feature Facebook and other social media updates ! Not only that- as part of my training for this upcoming expedition I will attempt to run from Montreal to Ottawa on August 15^th !

All of my live updates will be through Twitter and Facebook- so we need you and your family and friends to join me ! I will update through the entire 200ish km run!

I hope to be joined at various points by my many friends out there…we will announce on both the impossible2possible facebook page and my personal page the details soon. So tie up your laces ! 

Impossible2Possible Update 

This Baffin Island expedition will once again feature live website (a la South Pole Quest), educational modules and student interaction ! We have thousands of students joining us online for the adventure- and 5 incredible young adventurers from all over North America (deets at impossible2possible.com) will “peer to peer” share their experiences with students and classrooms across North America !

The live website will launch early August- and will start with our Youth Ambassadors blogging about their prep. Then- in the first week of September we will start or crossing of the Akshayuk Pass on Baffin. This will not only be a grueling adventure in a remote and beautiful part of the world- but as with all of our expeditions there will be a multitude of lessons learned and shared. Youth Ambassadors will also be photographing glaciers and comparing changes from archived photos. The incredible culture of the North will be a major highlight- and i2P has several surprise guests for the educational modules – from scientists to Inuit  legends. Schools are invited to join us by signing up on impossible2possible.com- everything is free ! We hope you will join us by following too ! More to come soon! 
 

impossible2Possible Expedition and More !!!

impossible2Possible Expedition !

Hey Everybody !

I hope you are all enjoying the spring- and are getting out into the great outdoors for great adventure !

impossble2Possible is announcing an new expedition series that will kick off this in September this year

on Baffin Island. Details are on the impossible2Possible website. As with South Pole Quest, we will be connecting to

students and schools with a live and interactive website which will also feature a comprehensive educational resource.

Everything is free, and we are once again asking teachers and schools to join us by registering on the impossible2Possible

website. One of the most interesting components of this next adventure is that 4 young adventurers- fit and ready- will join

the i2P team ! These youth adventurers will lead the blogging and communications to our partner schools...exciting !

Please ask your local schools to sign up for the web resource- and contact us if there are any questions !

There is also a sign up section for those young adventurers you know who are wishing to apply. Its Free !

Running The Sahara Special Screening

Yay ! Running The Sahara is coming to Ottawa- on June 9th ! Mark your calendars. At 6:30 pm Starcite Theater in Hull, Quebec

Running The Sahara will be screened in support of Ryans Well Foundation. All of the proceeds from sales of the tickets

will go to this awesome organization which provides clean water to developing countries. Please contact my wife Kathy for

details ! kathyad@hotmail.com

Running

The most common question i am asked these days by my clients is: "What should i eat following my long run....i am never hungry !"

My answer ? Here's a shake rcipe that i have found works great if i am rushed- or am not in the mood for "solid" food..

1 scoop vanilla whey protein, 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1 handful spinach (yes, spinach), 1/2 cup yogurt, 1 teaspoon flax oil and water to desired consistency. 

Blend like crazy...and drink !

Another common question..."Should i stretch before or after my run ?" Answer: After. I have found stretching at the end of a long run improves recovery 

time, reduces injury- and is much safer as tissues are warmed up.

Okay- More coming soon.....

Cheers

Ray