The inspiring journey of a 70-year-old ultramarathon runner

陜西 張 鵬

肯·坎貝爾在陪伴妻子復健的過程中發現了自己對跑步的熱愛，經過長時間的訓練，他成功完成了一場100千米的超級馬拉松比賽。盡管有關節炎并可能需要進行全膝關節置換手術，但他仍保持對奔跑的樂觀心態并繼續前行。

主題語境：體育與健康 篇幅：366詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1 Ken Campbell had last attempted running at high school.When his wife,Susan,injured her foot, she needed support to rejoin her running group, so Campbell went along to keep her company in the recovery.“We were just walking at the beginning,”he says.“And I was heavy.I weighed over 90 kg.”But as the weeks and months passed, the weight fell away and Susan recovered—and Campbell's abilities grew.At the age of 63,he ran 50 km,and at 70,he ran through the night to complete a 100 km ultramarathon.

2 So how does someone with no sporting precedent (先例) become an ultradistance runner in his 60s and 70s? Susan had run marathons before her injury.But for Campbell,the turning point came when Susan's Fleet Feet running group took to the trails in the Sierra Nevada foothills near their home in Citrus Heights,California.

3 Campbell went out to visit Susan's group, and the trails were a terrible mess.It had been raining.And he was running in his road shoes, slipping, sliding and falling.He was struggling.He thought he liked that a lot and he could do better.

4 What he liked above all was the feeling of being enveloped by the trail and being embraced by the closeness of the vegetation and the nearness of the river.He was walking where native people had walked for thousands of years and where miners had walked on their way to gold.

5 Running the 100 km ultramarathon took Campbell 16 hours.When Campbell crossed the finish line at 3 am, Susan handed him a 100 km sticker to display on the back of his truck.He already had a 50 km one there.“It is a public announcement that you are part of this community,”he says.“Wherever we park,I see a line of vehicles with their various stickers and I feel that we are a tribe.”

6 Campbell suffered arthritis（關節炎）before he started running, and was a candidate for knee replacement.But for now, he is putting off surgery.It could put an end to the running.“The sense of well-being and accomplishment will carry me on forever,”he says.“If I can't run,I will walk.”

Reading Check

Detail1.What enabled Campbell to take up running again?

A.He lost weight.

B.He trained overnight.

C.His wife accompanied him.

D.His wife shared her experience.

Inference2.What did Campbell discover while accompanying his wife on a tail run?

A.The joy of being out in the wild.

B.The hardships of native people.

C.The pleasure of gold mining.

D.The mysteries of nature.

Inference3.What did the stickers on the back of Campbell's truck bring him?

A.A discount on parking.

B.A sense of belonging.

C.An enormous income.

D.An honour to his wife.

Inference 4.What can we learn about Campbell from the text?

A.He's a crowd-pleaser.

B.He is easy to content.

C.He is hard to deal with.

D.He's a determined man.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

He was walking where native people had walked for thousands of years and where miners had walked on their way to gold.他行走在千百年來土著人曾經行走過的地方，也行走在礦工們去挖掘黃金的道路上。

【點石成金】本句是一個復合句，句中的and 連接的是兩個并列的從句，前后兩個where引導的均為地點狀語從句。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

running group 跑步團隊

keep sb company 陪伴某人

turning point 轉折點

be enveloped by 被……所環繞

finish line 終點線

100 km sticker 100千米標簽

sense of well-being 幸福感

put off 推遲