CAIRO: Ray Zahab admits that not everyone would share his idea of a good time. He and two buddies had just run across more than 6,400 km of Saharan desert from the Atlantic coast of Senegal to Egypt's Red Sea. The trek, during which they ran the distance of two marathons a day, took 110 days. "It was a crazy idea, says the 38-year-old Canadian athlete. "The funny thing is I've only been running a couple of years, and only ultra-running like this since 2004. I had come to parts of the Sahara before, but I'd only seen fractions of it. I said to myself 'I wonder if anyone has ever run across it?' Until his amazing feat last week, no one had ever attempted the sprint. Zahab and his friends - American Charlie Engle, 44, and Kevin Lin, 30, of Taiwan - jumped at the chance to do what has long been considered the impossible. For 110 days, the three men woke up before dawn to run their first marathon before breaking for a lunch of tuna fish, pasta and vegetables. After a three hour siesta, they would embark on their second daily marathon before making camp for the night. On average, they slept only five hour each night. "All we thought about every single day was just getting to the next segment; we just wanted to keep going, says Engle, a father of two and television producer from North Carolina. "We averaged five hours of sleep every night for the entire trip. Psychologically, it was equally as hard as it was physically. But the trip was not just a bid to get their names in the record books. When they began to make plans for the expedition, the three men realized they had the chance to do something bigger. "When we came up with the idea, the original concept was to run across the Sahara, "We were just three buddies and we thought it was a very difficult and interesting thing to do. This did not start off as some huge humanitarian effort. But we realized that we had an opportunity to bring attention to something important. "We thought it was selfish not to help people if we could, and water is a problem that seriously effects people in their day to day lives, he says. "Even for us, water played a big role in the expedition itself - without water we wouldn't have made it. According to a 2000 report prepared by the UN-backed World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, half the world's population lives in desperate conditions, without secure access to proper sanitation or clean, safe drinking water. Of those, one billion have no access to clean water at all. The problem is especially acute in the Sahara. "The most persistent, strongest image I have of the trip is from Mali, says Zahab. "We came to a very small village and in the center there was an open pit filled with very dirty, dark water. "All the drains and trenches in the village were emptying into this pit. In the middle of it there were three or four camels drinking and pooping in the water, and around them there were 15 or 20 people gathering up the same water. "And that was the water they were going to drink and use all day. To highlight the dire consequences of water scarcity, and carry grim stories like these beyond the far reaches of the desert, the runners teamed up with award-winning film makers James Moll and Matt Damon. The film crew followed the three men on their trek across the desert, recording both the physical challenges of their adventure and the bleak poverty of the communities they ran through. The rest of the world could read updates on the trip, and learn about the fight against extreme poverty, on the website of the team's humanitarian organization, www.H2OAfrica.com. After months of running across one of the world's largest empty spaces, the bustling sprawl of Cairo came as a welcome shock to the system. "We had been dreaming of Cairo for 108 days, says Engle. "For us, Giza and the Pyramids signaled the end of our journey, even though we still continued on to the Red Sea. We were always looking for the pyramids! "Everyone understands that Cairo means traffic and pollution and lots of crazy things, just like other big cities, he continued. "Normally, as a runner, I would be repelled by that because you can't move or breathe. In this case I was so excited. The elation of making it to Cairo far outweighed any of that craziness. "Cairo is a crazy city, agreed Zahab, smiling. "It is pretty cool, but it is a crazy city. There is a lot going on. It is overwhelming, but finally being here is a great feeling.
