Here's Ray's story. "I was sedentary. I wasn't the sporty type; in high school I was the 'dodge ball target'. At 30, I felt unfulfilled. I needed to change something but I didn't know what. I decided to take control of my body. It wasn't about being healthy. It was about becoming a different person." Ray decided the best thing was to give up something he saw as a love not an addiction; tobacco. It took him a year and a half to quit but on New Years eve 1999 he smoked his last cigarette. " From Janurary 1st onwards I looked at life differently. I lived every day like my last and discovered my body was like an engine. I was 30 years old and I was being introduced to someone I'd never met. That person is in each of us. As I came to control one thing, I began closing the door on the negative and opening up to the positive." He took up mountain biking, but felt like he wasn't a runner. " I lacked power and endurance and I didn't think I had the build but in 2003 I read an article about ultra marathons and I thought 'what the heck' and signed up to run in the Yukon arctic race." He hadn't run more than five times in three years and had only three months to transition from mountain biker to ultra marathon runner. When he reached the halfway point of the race, he felt like dropping out. " I was dragging my sled and freezing. I sat down and went through the things that had bought me here. I thought 'four years ago, you quit smoking and this is where it has lead you.'" He got up and took it one step at a time, determined to go farther. He lost track of time in between running and walking. " My mind was in a different place. I don't know how but I won the race. Running taught me I could do things I would have never imagined." Since then Ray has won several extreme races.
Derived from Metro News, Tuesday November 15, 2011.
Author: Romina McGuinness.
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