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“Episode 14: The Hardest Day of My Life . . . and What it Taught Me”


Overview

On May 28, 2017, Randall participated in the longest endurance event of his life . . . a 160-kilometer ultramarathon through the dry, windy, and cold desert of Utah. (This is like doing four marathons back-to-back.) After traversing the course for 120 kilometers for 24 hours with no sleep, Randall reached a point of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion and collapsed into a chair at an aid station. It was pitch dark at 3:45 a.m. His body and mind screamed at him to quit, competing with his will to honor the memory of his son and mom, who had passed away.

Then, something happened that changed his life.

Join Randall as he tells story of endurance and how this experience in some ways reflects the struggle of people to endure hard things. Randall also shares how this story is also related to language learning and teaching.

Pre-Listening Activity

What is the hardest thing you have ever done in your life, either physically, emotionally, or mentally? What did the experience teach you about enduring hard things? Randall is going to talk about ultrarunning, why he started the sport, and what he has learned from participating in these difficult events.

Video Activity

Watch the video and answer the questions. Look for the closed-captions option ( CC ) at the bottom of the video to watch the transcript. [The captions are automatically generated, so they are not perfect.]


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