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Conversation Lesson

Dan: Over 100 years old, and this guy has run probably dozens of marathons. That’s incredible.

Arron: Yeah, that’s amazing.

Dan: How many marathons have you run?

Arron: I’ve run exactly zero.

Dan: What a coincidence. I think…I’m not sure, but I think I have run zero marathons.

Arron: Now have you ever thought of running a marathon?

Dan: I’ve thought about how crazy it is to run a marathon.

Arron: Yeah.

Dan: Actually, I don’t think that running a marathon is such a good thing for your body.

Arron: It puts a lot of stress on your joints.

Dan: Yeah. On your knees, on your feet. But in this case, I mean, obviously it hasn’t hurt this guy.

Arron: Oh yeah.

Dan: He’s over 100 and he’s still at it. Obviously his knees are still holding out, which is very strange because…

Arron: Most people die before they hit 89, so here’s a guy who’s 100 and he’s still going strong.

Dan: Yeah. I mean, what’s the average lifespan? Depending what country you live in, 70, 75?

Arron: Yeah, maybe 80 in some places.

Dan: 80 tops.

Arron: Yeah, tops.

Dan: For a woman.

Arron: Yeah, right.

Dan: I don’t think anywhere…

Arron: Do men live that long, right, average.

Dan: And this guy started - he started - at 89.

Arron: That’s incredible.

Dan: Yeah.

Arron: I think that just goes to show that this is a perfect example of how it’s never too late to start something.

Dan: Yes.

Arron: Age should never be an issue when taking on a new challenge, when trying to accomplish something like learning a language or learning to play a musical instrument or even changing careers. I hear that a lot. Like people say, “Oh, I wish I had gone to medical school and become a doctor.” Well, hey, you’re only 45; you could still do it. It is possible.

Dan: I think that’s really culture- dependent. My wife, being Japanese, starting something new…when she was, I think, 30, she got into studying massage.

Arron: Yes.

Dan: And I remember when she started. I thought oh cool, great thing to get into. And she did it, she studied it for years, she opened up her own store, was really successful…

Arron: Yeah.

Dan: But when she started, her father said to her, “You’re doing what? You’re studying what? You can’t do that. You’re too old.”

Arron: You’re too old, right.

Dan: “You’re too old to study something new.”

Arron: Right.

Dan: And I think in Japan there’s that idea that you start a career in your early 20s and you stick with it.

Arron: Yeah. I think something like that probably does depend on your cultural values and beliefs, but even in my native culture, the United States…yeah, I think that’s something you would hear from a lot of old people, older people - especially older people - that you’re too old to do something new. I think that’s a common belief; a lot of people think oh, I’m just too old; I can’t do it. And clearly that’s not true because Fauja shows us that it’s never too late to start something, so that’s really…to me, that’s inspiring.

Dan: Yeah. My buddy, he just went to law school - he’s 40 - and I remember when he started I was really impressed, not that he was becoming a lawyer; I think that’s probably one of the most horrible jobs.

Arron: Oh no it’s not. Lawyers can help a lot of people, I think.

Dan: Well yeah, they can, but I mean in terms of…it just seems like a very hard job.

Arron: Yeah, it’s hard. It’s difficult.

Dan: And it seems like it could be very boring.

Arron: Yeah. To you, not to everybody.

Dan: I was impressed that my friend, at the age of 37, was, “I’m going to do something completely new, and yes, I won’t become a lawyer until I’m 40 or 41, but that’s okay.” So, yeah, it’s never too late to start. It makes me think of when we surveyed all our Deep English learners, and one of the questions was “How old are you?” and we found out that so many of our…yeah, there’s lots of our listeners in their 20s and 30s, but there’s also lots in their 40s, 50s, 60s…

Arron: Oh, that’s great to hear.

Dan: …and some even in their 70s.

Arron: That’s great.

Dan: So I thought that was pretty cool.

Arron: Yeah, that’s great. Another one of the things that impressed me about this story was the fact that one of the precipitating factors in Fauja deciding to take up marathon running was this tragedy that happened to him. He lost his son in a terrible accident, and it depressed him, as it would any father who loves his son. I found it really interesting that running a marathon could help him deal with that…with those feelings of sorrow and depression. They mention in the story something about rhythmic…like the focusing on, like a rhythmic meditation…his feet hitting the pavement in a rhythmic fashion and maybe his breath going in and out. Yeah, you know, that’s something that a lot of meditators learn is to focus on the rhythm of the breath going in and out.

Dan: Yeah.

Arron: And so maybe you don’t need to take up marathon running per se to deal with difficult feelings and emotions and thoughts…that you have something with you at all times, which is the breath, that is constantly moving and changing and it’s right here in the present; and by focusing on that it doesn’t give these thoughts and feelings much space to exist, so that when they arise you’re dedicated to focusing on the present moment, and they have no food to keep them around and they sort of dissipate.

Dan: Yeah.

Arron: Yeah, I thought that was really interesting.

Dan: Yeah, that whole idea of rhythm being like the current of a river that you can follow, and as the distractions of your life or the sad, the sorrow in your life comes, you can continue on on that river.

Arron: Yeah.

Dan: I think that…what interested me about that being a meditation was, yeah, that rhythmic quality. It reminds me of, I guess…the earliest spiritual history of human is shamans, and one of their techniques for getting into meditative states is rhythm, is…

Arron: The drums.

Dan: The drums.

Arron: The shaman drums, right.

Dan: Right. And so there’s that same kind of rhythmic quality and, yeah, there’s the breath, and he found it through his footsteps.

Arron: Sure.

Dan: Kind of like that true story we had about the woman who had epilepsy.

Arron: Oh, the long-distance runner.

Dan: Yeah, right.

Arron: Yeah.

Dan: And she was able to…I mean, it was kind of a different situation. She had a physical… Arron: Yeah, because she was having seizures, if I remember correctly.

Dan: Yeah. But something about the rhythm of her steps was able to take her outside of that state and into a place where she didn’t have seizures.

Arron: Yeah, interesting. And, actually, a lot of runners report a sensation or a feeling or a state of consciousness that they call runner’s high.

Dan: Right.

Arron: Have you ever experienced the runner’s high?

Dan: Yeah. I used to run a bit when I was in high school just to stay in shape, not on the running team or anything.

Arron: Yeah, right.

Dan: And just to show you what a pathetic runner I was, a marathon is 26 miles…

Arron: Yeah.

Dan: …I would run 3 miles, and that was really difficult for me.

Arron: Oh gosh.

Dan: I remember at about 2-1/2 miles I would get really tired and want to give up, but I knew that right at about 3 miles I would feel a runner’s high and I would get this wave of good feeling and relaxed focus, kind of like I was floating as I ran.

Arron: Interesting.

Dan: So, another far-out part of that story was the fact that he went to America to run, to New York City of all places, after 9/11.

Arron: Yeah, that…I mean, that really impressed me and kind of shocked me because, you know, the climate at that time after 9/11 attacks was a pretty scary climate to be in.

Dan: Yeah.

Arron: You know, there were a lot of angry, scared people, and they directed a lot of their anger and fear toward people just solely on the basis of the way they looked and what people thought…they just associated, oh terrorism with Islam and Muslim, and that was a really frightening time.

Dan: Yeah. And because most people probably knew nothing about Sikhs, just the fact that he had a beard… Arron: And a turban.

Dan: …and wore a turban, they automatically assumed that he was Muslim…and the racist ones among them, they’re dangerous. When people are afraid, they’re dangerous; and when dumb people are afraid, they’re even more dangerous.

Arron: Well, yeah. And in a country where owning guns is totally legal, it’s a pretty dangerous mixture.

Dan: Yeah. I think it was somewhere in Texas, which probably has the most guns of any state in America…

Arron: That wouldn’t surprise me.

Dan: …I think it was Texas where there was a Sikh working at a convenience store, and some redneck went into the store and shot him.

Arron: Just on the way he looked.

Dan: Just because he thought he looked like a terrorist.

Arron: Wow. That’s a shame.

Dan: There were a lot of cases like that around that time. I wasn’t living in the States then, but I remember when I would go back to visit in 2002 and 2003 and see American flags everywhere and all this fear news reporting.

Arron: Well, the news reporting is a big one because I think the mainstream news media played a very big role in fanning the flames of this fear and ignorance through their reporting because fear sells, unfortunately.

Dan: Yeah, I don’t know what that is. I mean, people don’t want to be afraid, yet they’re attracted to watching fearful things on the news.

Arron: Yeah.

Dan: And the news companies play into that. They put more and more reporting about dangerous killers and terrorists, and then they get more viewers…

Arron: And that means more advertising dollars.

Dan: Yeah, more advertising dollars and more fear on TV.

Arron: Yeah. That’s a shame. Anyway, back to Fauja, I’m just impressed with his bravery to enter that climate and put himself in a situation where he’s in front of thousands and thousands of people in his running clothes with a turban and his beard. He was probably called all kinds of names.

Dan: Yeah, they called him Saddam and Osama and terrorist.

Arron: Yeah, I would not have done that. I think I would have been too afraid to put myself in that situation.

Dan: Yeah. I mean, now things are different - it’s 2013 - but 2003, I wouldn’t have done that either.

Arron: Wow.

Dan: Thinking about this guy Fauja, he’s 102 years old. He’s retired from marathons, but he said, “I’ll stop running when I die.”

Arron: Wow, that’s commitment right there.

Dan: So he’s not done running.

Arron: That’s commitment.

Dan: And it made me think about my own life. I’m 39 now, and I was thinking how cool would that be to be able to say that I’m in the best shape of my life at 40?

Arron: That wouldn’t be too hard for you, Dan.

Dan: Well, yeah. I’ve never been in that good of shape, so yeah, it wouldn’t be that hard, but it’s going to take some effort.

Arron: Okay, that’s true.

Dan: Because clearly I was in better shape in my 20s.

Arron: Well, I can’t laugh too hard at you because I’m in a similar situation. You know, I’m not in the best shape of my life, mostly due to lots of work and family life, and I just haven’t made the time to exercise as much as I probably should.

Dan: Right, right.

Arron: I could get in better shape.

Dan: Well let’s do something together. Let’s do a fitness challenge.

Arron: Umm, what do you have in mind? It depends on what you have in mind.

Dan: How about 2 hours a day…hour in the morning swimming, hour in the afternoon biking, and in the evening we do some running.

Arron: Well if we did that, we would be in great shape. The problem is time. I don’t have the time to do that.

Dan: Exactly. No, I’m just kidding. How about we do some interval training?

Arron: Oh, right. I’ve heard that’s really good for you.

Dan: Yeah. It’s very short bursts of activity, rest, activity, rest…

Arron: Right, right, I’ve heard about this.

Dan: …do it 7 or 8 times…

Arron: I’ve heard about this.

Dan: …and apparently it’s much more effective at keeping your heart healthy and burning calories.

Arron: Well I also heard that it stimulates the production of a growth hormone…

Dan: Yeah.

Arron: …that keeps you strong and young.

Dan: Yeah. And at our age, those growth hormones are dropping fast.

Arron: Yeah, that’s right. So let’s do it.

Dan: And it’s quick. It’s super fast.

Arron: Yeah. How long do you think a session would take?

Dan: This program that we should do - I think we should do - is 8 rounds, 30 seconds. Run as hard as you can, as fast as you can; 1-minute break; 30 seconds run as fast as you can; 1 minute break…8 times.

Arron: Okay.

Dan: So that’s 8 rounds of 30 seconds.

Arron: Yeah.

Dan: So that’s what? That’s only 4 minutes.

Arron: Plus the waiting time, the resting time.

Dan: The break in between.

Arron: And maybe a little warm-up, a little warm-down.

Dan: Yeah.

Arron: So maybe 20 minutes.

Dan: We can finish the whole thing in 15- 20 minutes.

Arron: 20 minutes.

Dan: Anybody can do 20 minutes, even you. Even me.

Arron: Yeah, okay. But because we’re so busy and so many things happening in our lives, how are we going to stick to this?

Dan: Okay. We’ve talked about commitment contracts before where…I don’t know if you remember; it’s where you place some money and if you complete this goal, nothing happens. You get nothing.

Arron: Okay.

Dan: Except, you get more healthy.

Arron: Health. Yeah, that’s a good thing to get.

Dan: But if you don’t complete the goal, then you lose money.

Arron: Okay. So there’s a penalty for not following through.

Dan: Yeah, yeah.

Arron: Okay.

Dan: So I think we should set an amount…how about 50 bucks?

Arron: Okay, that’s reasonable.

Dan: Fifty bucks. Every week, we do this 3 times a week…

Arron: Okay.

Dan: …and if we don’t do it…if I don’t do it, I owe you 50 bucks; if you don’t do it, you owe me 100 bucks.

Arron: No, I’ll stay with 50; that’s not fair.

Dan: Alright.

Arron: Okay.

Dan: And let’s use one of these online tracking tools, and we’ll just do it on the honor system.

Arron: What do you mean online tracking tools? Are you talking about like a goal-tracking tool?

Dan: Yeah, a goal-tracking tool.

Arron: So that every time I run, I go online…

Dan: And you check it.

Arron: …and I check it off that I’ve done it.

Dan: And I can see that you’ve done it.

Arron: And then you can see that I’ve done it. And I can see if you’ve done it or not. So this totally runs on the honor system.

Dan: Yes, this is the honor system.

Arron: Okay. Well, I trust you.

Dan: Yeah. And what do we do if we both don’t do it?

Arron: Well, there’s a number of things we could do, but maybe one thing to do is we both pay into an account or a pot…we put our money into a pot, and I don’t know, maybe we have to find a way to spend that in an undesirable way or maybe the next person that fails gets all the money.

Dan: No, no. I think that’s the key. The money should go to some place we don’t like.

Arron: Ah, okay. So some kind of organization or…

Dan: Right, organization that we don’t believe in.

Arron: Okay.

Dan: Because if it’s a good charity, then maybe we’ll feel good about losing.

Arron: So like, for example, a politician whose views we don’t agree with…

Dan: Right.

Arron: …we can donate the money to that.

Dan: Right. Well, I think I told you before, years ago, I once used George Bush as my…

Arron: As a motivator.

Dan: …as my motivator.

Arron: Negative motivator.

Dan: Because that’s the last place I wanted my money to go to.

Arron: Right, right. Okay, that’s a good example.

Dan: So we could say that we send the 50 bucks to George Bush.

Arron: Or the Republican Party or something like that.

Dan: Yeah.

Arron: Okay. That might be good.

Dan: Alright, let’s do it.

Arron: Okay, you’re on.

Dan: Okay.