Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
Transcript
Interviewer: Hello, Lluís.
Lluís: Hello.
Interviewer: Erm, would you like to tell us about, erm, marathon running? 'Cause I know that you've started running marathons recently. Could you tell us a little bit about that, please?
Lluís: Er, well, yes, I started to, to, to run, like, er, I think, like, fourteen or fifteen years ago when I quit smoking. At the beginning I should run like a kilometre or two. And little by little … because I didn't have any ambition of this, to run much, it was just to do a bit of exercise to help my quitting of smoking. Er, so, but little by little I start to like it. And then, you know, I start to run a little bit more time, do more kilometres. And the thing that, the big change became when I got a watch, this kind of watches that, er, measures the distance and the speed. After that, you know, you try to get better, to do more kilometres, to do, er, yah, more time, and so on. Until, you know, er, I reach, er, a form that allow me to do a half-marathon. Y'know, this was my first race, was a half-marathon and I saw that I could do a half-marathon. And then, you know, little by little I thought why not try a marathon! And that was two years ago, that I did my first marathon. It was from Girona to the Costa Brava [… ?].
Interviewer: Ahh. And have you done any more marathons since the first one?
Lluís: Oh yeah. Last … This year, I did the Barcelona Marathon, which would … went at the beginning quite well 'cause I beat my best time for half-marathon which was like an hour and forty minutes and I did in the Barcelona Marathon an hour and thirty-one minutes which is quite good for men of my age (which … I'm forty-eight) and, you know, I'm not a professional or anything like that, so, quite a good time for me, I think. But then, at, at the end, you know, it was a very hot day. Maybe I didn't drank enough or something. At the kilometre forty, when it was only two kilometres left, I felt dizzy and you know, so I found myself on the ground and just my legs were weak and, you know, it felt numb and, you know, they had to, to help me out and sit me on a chair and they brought me some water and some food and, you know. So, at the end of the time it wasn't so good.
Interviewer: But you did finish the marathon?
Lluís: Yes, I did. I did finish the marathon but not with the time that I wanted to do, which was three hours and fifteen. So, it was three hours and thirty-five minutes which is not that … twenty minutes more than I wanted to do. But it was, still, it was still all right.
Interviewer: OK, well, congratulations. Thanks for telling us about it.
I have been an amateur runner for years and intend to run a marathon this year.
When I was a high school student, I was chosen for a marathon. Our sports teacher hadn't told us anything about the race. There were 5 people from our school and surprisingly, hundreds of hundred people from other schools. The marathon started. Everyone knows that you should save your energy during a marathon. We all would see that one strange student who had orange shoes was about a hundred metres ahead of the others just after a minute. We were so delighted because of managing our energy. The majority of people couldn't keep on after twenty minutes. Guess what? Eventually, the boy having the orange shoes won the marathon. I finished 174th in that marathon.
I used to love running and was quite into it before I put on weight and now I have quit as it's hard on my joints especially my knees and ankles so I have taken up other less taxing activities like palate and yoga that involve more stretching and flexibility. I was involved in many team competitive sports like netball, handball and volleyball during my teenage years but nowadays I prefer non-competitive ones.
I don't running, but I think it's very useful for our health if you don't have problems with health. Sometimes I think about running but I like to sleep in the morning. I have never participated in marathons or any other running activity.