Impossible2Possible: 20 minutes with Ray Zahab

Ray Zahab ran 4,500 miles across the Sahara in 111 days, a feat documented in Running the Sahara.

Last week, he released a TED talk in which discussed how he used running to the South Pole to teach youth that what might seem impossible is possible.

I sent Ray a message via Facebook saying that my passions are running and kids and thanked him for being part of our community and using his talent as an athlete to do good for others.

He not only responded, he said that he’d like to speak with me and gave me his phone number. What? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one wondering why this incredible athlete wants to speak with me. I didn’t get it either, but I’m not going to turn down an opportunity to speak with Ray Zahab. I did a lot of research and found out that he and his organization were even cooler than I originally realized. His non-profit, Impossible2Possible (i2P),  live blogs expeditions (e.g. the Antarctica expedition) to schools, takes kids on expeditions, has free interactive modules to teach kids about where the expedition is going and runs week long camps. It’s as though Indiana Jones live blogged, taught about where he was going and kids could go with him. Awesome.

Today I spoke with Ray for 20 minutes. He told me some incredible stories and right now it looks like I’ll be involved with helping create the educational modules for their next expedition and he seemed excited about me joining their Fall camp. He even said there may be potential for an advisory position in the future. I’d say I’m thrilled but that means that all of this just happened and I’m not sure that is the case quite yet. No one pinch me, I don’t want to wake up!