We’ve featured a lot of people who have taken on epic challenges, but this guest, Ray Zahab of Quebec, Canada, has done dozens and dozens of them. When we recorded this, Ray had just completed a couple of weeks before a crossing of Death Valley from north to south. I’m very familiar with the Badwater 135, which just completed, but that is run on roads. I didn’t even know it was a thing there to run the shortest route between two points, completely off-road. The terrain is seriously rugged, and it’s pretty hot, and Ray ran it with limited re-supplies in 53:35:21. In case you’re wondering, he drank 75 liters of water. He’s also run across the widest park of Death Valley west to east, crossing two mountain ranges, in 35 hours. He’s run 7500 km across the Sahara Desert in 111 days, 1850 km across the Namib Desert in Africa, 1200 km across the Atacama Desert in Chile, and 2000 km across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. That’s the hot, dry stuff. He’s crossed Baffin Island in northern Canada nine times in winter and trekked from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole on snowshoes pulling his supply sled. And I’m just scratching the surface. Here’s the WASP comeback story angle: Ray did this last Death Valley project a little more than a year after completing six months of debilitating chemotherapy for a rare form of lymphoma. What’s very cool about Ray is how he shares his projects with schoolchildren with live links, and he has been running his foundation, impossible2Possible, to introduce kids to the kind of adventuring he does and reach beyond their perceived limits. The foundation takes kids to wild places so they can challenge themselves, and it doesn’t even charge them to be there! Yes, they’re free! Ray and his wife have been raising two daughters who get to experience the outdoors unlike the way Ray was when he was younger and was an out-of-shape, pack-a-day smoker. So there’s another comeback. His brother inspired him to get outdoors and Ray now encourages everyone to also do so, including with his expedition company, KapiK1, which leads trips to remote and beautiful places like Baffin Island, the Atacama Desert, and the Gobi Desert. Even though we had a fairly short conversation, you might still find yourself listening in amazement to all that Ray does and get pumped up by his incredible level of energy and excitement.

Ray Zahab
rayzahab.com
impossible2possible.com
kapik1.com
rzahab@impossible2possible.com
Facebook and LinkedIn Ray Zahab
Instagram and X @rayzahab
YouTube @rayzahab1944

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

During my recent long hours on trails training for the Leadville Trail 100, as well as in the Chase the Moon ultramarathon I just ran, I have been listening to several podcasts, and one I recently discovered and really enjoy is Buckle Up with Brian Passenti and Simon Guérard. Fellow New York area guy and Yankees fan Brian grew up running but had some significant detours along the way due to drinking and addiction. He basically missed high school after his mom recognized his issues and sent him to various institutions in what is actually known as the Troubled Teen Industry. His path led him to enlist in the Marines where he served almost his full hitch but got discharged for getting caught smoking weed. Following his return to civilian life, Brian continued to run pretty decently, although probably diminished because many of his runs were done in the morning to work off his hangover so he could show up at his job appearing to be sober. He finished Leadville in 2010 in less than 24 hours and was fourth-place in the challenging Silver Rush 50 while juggling running and drinking. A drunken bike wreck in December, 2016 that resulted in significant bodily injury led him to get sober. His running and his life have taken off since then. He has finished Leadville eight times, Leadman, the Moab 240 in 82 hours, and this year the Cocodona 250 in less than 105 hours. Brian, who has a wife and kids, now has the Buckle Up podcast and a thriving full-time coaching business called Altitude Endurance Coaching, and his clients include many training for Leadville and other ultramarathons. I hope you enjoy this lively chat between two ultrarunning, storytelling East Coast guys.

Brian Passenti
altitudeendurancecoaching.com
Facebook Brian Passenti and Altitude Endurance Coaching
Instagram @passentiontherun
LinkedIn Brian Passenti

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
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Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

In January, 2022, episode #187, we brought to you the story of Holocaust survivor Lili Berliner. It is to this day, our episode with the highest number of downloads. We recently lost Lili at the age of 97, and I thought, in a first for the WASP, that we should replay this episode both for those of you who heard it earlier, as well as for those who have joined us more recently. It seems needed in this troubled time in the world that has seen a growing tide of antisemitism and hate. Lili’s story of survival is incredible. Her family was yanked from their home in Transylvania when she was a teenager and shoved into a ghetto that was merely a converted warehouse, along with thousands of others. The Nazis then shipped all of them in a suffocatingly cramped train car to Auschwitz, where her father was immediately killed. Lili, all five feet-nothing of her and her mother against all odds somehow survived the hell of Auschwitz, only to be forced into a death march - barely clothed in frigid winter weather - on which three-quarters of the prisoners perished. They arrived at a labor camp where they craftily survived. Lili was already fluent in seven languages as a teenager, and she used this as a survival skill. When liberated from the infamous Bergen-Belsen by British troops, her mother weighed all of 60 pounds. The Allies used Lili’s language expertise to extract confessions from German guards to use at their war trials.

But this is a story of hope. Lili met her husband Walter, one of the Ritchie Boys, who were German-speaking Austrians who joined the U.S. Army and provided the bulk of intelligence to the Allies during the war. They were married in the first Jewish ceremony in Germany following the war. The couple moved to the U.S. and settled in Queens, New York, and raised a family, including my college roommate at the University of Pennsylvania, Steve. Because the Nazis had interrupted her education, Lili went back and got her high school diploma at age 55, and three years later received a nursing degree. She gave back to others in the medical field until she finally retired at age 85. Along the way, I can attest that she was the warmest, kindest person you would ever meet and a loving mother and grandmother, so amazing for someone who’d seen such horrors. To quote her, “Living well is the greatest revenge.” After listening to this, I encourage you to read her riveting memoir, “And the Month was May,” which you can find on Amazon. Please listen along and be amazed by this incredible survival story.

Steve Berliner
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Instagram @berlinersteve

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
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Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @coachstahl
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast