– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Hello and welcome to bonus episode number 158. I  almost said 183. No, I'm getting ahead of myself.  

Episode 158 of the Culips English podcast. How's  it going? I hope you're doing well. Thank you for  

clicking play and joining this English study  session with me. My name is Andrew and what I  

do here in our bonus episode series at Culips is  I share some stories from my everyday life with  

you and I hope that by doing so you will be able  to improve your English fluency. We know that if  

you want to get fluent in English you need to  spend a lot of time with the language. You need  

to make it a part of your everyday lifestyle  and that's what I'm here to help you with. So,  

let's dig in. We got a little bit of a longer  story for today. Today I'm going to talk to you  

about the race of my life. I had an amazing result  at a half marathon recently. It was a day filled  

with drama and I'm going to tell you the whole  story in this episode. Before I do, I want to  

remind you there's a 100% percent free interactive  transcript and vocabulary glossary available for  

this episode to everyone. Just click the link  in the description and you'll be able to access  

it on our website, Culips.com. Also, if you are a  Culips member then you'll get a comprehension quiz  

so you can check and see how much you were able  to understand from this episode after listening  

to it. If you would like to sign up and become a  Culips member then you can do that on our website,  

Culips.com. For an affordable price you will  get access to all of our best study tools and  

learning materials that are designed by our team  of expert teachers here to help you grow your  

fluency faster than ever. A huge thanks to all  of our members out there for your support. Guys,  

we couldn't do Culips without you so thank  you so much. We really appreciate you and,  

yeah, you're the best. Alright, with  that being said, I think we should jump  

in and get started with today's story. So,  without any further ado, here we go. Enjoy.  

OK, so for today's story, guys, I'm going to tell  you about a half marathon that I ran last weekend.  

Now, if you're a long-term Culips listener, you'll  know that one of my hobbies is running and I  

really enjoy it and I like marathoning and just  running. It's something I do all the time, maybe  

six or seven days a week. Like, it's something I  do almost every day is go outside and go running.  

Well, I'm currently in the process of training  for a full marathon that I will do next month  

in November. It's called the JTBC Marathon, and it  takes place every fall here in Seoul and this will  

be my first time participating in it. But it's  a pretty big, popular marathon so I'm looking  

forward to it and I've been training hard for it  since around April or May. So, it's been several  

months that I've been training for it. And  one thing that's a good idea and many runners  

recommend, and I've gotten this advice from other  runners and online, a lot of people recommend  

this, running books that I've read, they recommend  doing this, that is doing a tune-up race,  

a tune-up race. A tune-up race is like maybe a  10-kilometer race or a half marathon race that you  

do maybe five to six weeks before your marathon  just to check and see how good of shape you're in.  

Doing the tune-up race will tell you, you know, if  you're ready to do the marathon at your goal pace,  

your goal speed. And will give you some indication  if you're good to go or if it might be a very  

difficult and disappointing day when you do your  marathon. So, I usually try to do a tune-up race  

during my marathon training block. This will be my  fourth or fifth full marathon. So, I've trained a  

little bit for them in the past and, yeah, it's  something that I think also is a good idea to do  

one of these tune-up races. So, I decided to sign  up for a half marathon race, just a local race,  

nothing too big, nothing too special, but the cool  thing is that it takes place right here in my own  

backyard, in my neighborhood in Seoul, where I  go running all the time. You know, I've talked  

about on Culips before, so if you're a long-time  listener you'll know that there are these amazing  

riverside paths in Seoul. They're completely  blocked off to cars and they run alongside  

these streams that… there's this big network  through the city and they're great for cycling  

or biking or even taking a walk. And I run on them  all the time and there was a race on one of these  

riverside paths. So, when I learned about that,  I was stoked, and I signed up. And running is so  

popular all over the world these days and it's no  exception here in Seoul and in Korea. It's really,  

really popular, which makes it sometimes hard and  difficult to get a place and sign up for a race.  

There's a lot of competition just to sign up for  the races these days. But I was lucky enough to  

get a spot, so that was awesome. OK, let's fast  forward to race day. It happened last Sunday  

and looking at the weather forecast in advance,  it called for rain. So, I was expecting it to  

be pretty rainy on that day. In fact, it said  there was a 100% chance of strong rain on that  

Sunday. And so, in the back of my mind, you know,  leading up a few days before the race, I thought  

that this is probably not going to be a great race  experience. But I still had hope that maybe the  

weather report would be incorrect. But when I woke  up on Sunday morning and I looked outside, it was  

indeed 100% correct. It was pouring rain, just  like a really, really heavy rain shower, steady  

rain. Thankfully, no thunder or lightning or it  wasn't even too windy, but it was just really,  

really rainy. And I decided that I should do the  race even though it was rainy. My wife was like,  

you know, if you wake up on Sunday morning and  it's super rainy, just stay home. Just go back  

to bed. You don't really need to do the race.  It's not like your A race, right? It's not your  

goal race. And so, she said, you know, if it's  really rainy, just don't do it. But I woke up,  

I looked outside, it was pouring rain, but  I thought I'm already up. I had to wake up  

at 5 a.m. for this race because the start was at  8:30. And there was a lot of prep that I had to  

do in the morning. And I'll talk about that in  a second. But I looked outside, pouring rain,  

and I thought, yeah, let's do it. You only live  once, and who knows how many races I'll have an  

opportunity to run in the future. You know, I'm  41 years old, and running isn't a hobby that has  

like a super long lifespan. For most people, I  think once you hit like upper 50s into your 60s,  

you know, you don't see too many people running  half marathons in their 70s or even in their  

late 60s. There's a few guys out there, but not a  ton. So that was in the back of my mind. You know,  

clock's ticking. I'm getting older. Who knows how  many more chances I'll have in the future to run  

these kinds of events. And they're always fun  to participate in. So, I said, screw it. Let's  

go. We're running in the rain. And so, I got  ready, drank some coffee, ate a bagel, etc.,  

etc. I got ready, and I had to go to the start of  where the race is. Now, usually, I've participated  

in many different running events here in South  Korea, from 10-kilometer races, half marathons,  

full marathons, many, many, many. And always,  before the race, they mail you your racing bib.  

Your bib is the thing that has your name and your  number, and usually a chip inside of it to track  

your time as well. So always, I've gotten a bib in  the mail before a race. But for whatever reason,  

this event, they decided that instead of mailing  out the bibs, you have to go to the marathon start  

line area where they had like a little expo kind  of set up, right? There's different booths for  

different running clubs. There's a stage. There's  an emcee. There's music. It's almost like a little  

festival atmosphere, the starting area of  the race. So, you had to go there early and  

pick up your bib and your race pack. And so, I was  planning to ride my bike. When I thought, how will  

I get to the race? I figured I'll just ride my  bike. But then when I saw just how rainy it was,  

I was like, there's no way I'm going to be able to  ride my bike in this super heavy pouring rain. And  

so that made actually getting to the race ground a  little bit inconvenient for me. Even though I run  

there all the time. And if I were to take the bike  path to get there, it's not too far. But if I have  

to take the subway, it was a rather indirect route  to take the subway to get there, even though from  

my home to the starting area is only a couple  of kilometers. The subway was rather indirect.  

So, it took me a little bit longer to get there.  And once I actually arrived at the subway station,  

then I had to walk, walk slash jog because this  was my warmup time. So, I kind of walked quickly  

and jogged in the pouring rain from the subway  station to the start of the race area. That took  

me maybe 20 minutes or so to get there. And by the  time I arrived, I was just totally soaked. I have  

an Adidas tracksuit that I wear to every running  event. So, I had my tracksuit on, and I had my  

running clothes on under the tracksuit. I wore  just a sleeveless running jersey and some shorts.  

And I wore just a pair of like I have these. I  don't even know what you'd call them. They're like  

kind of sandal shoes? They're made by this company  called Merrell and they're kind of like this  

rubbery material. I don't know. They're great for  like going to the beach or wearing in the summer.  

And so, I wore those shoes just because it was  pouring rain and I didn't want to get my running  

shoes wet. I had my running shoes in my bag, and  I was just barefoot in these Merrell shoes to try  

and, yeah, keep my running shoes from getting  soaking, soaking wet. And yeah, so I had to do  

this walk jog from the subway station to the start  line. I finally got to where all the people were  

gathered at the start of the race. And by the time  I arrived, I was 100% soaked, guys, like from head  

to toe, dripping wet, drenched, totally soaked.  And I have to say that the starting area of this  

race was like no other race I've been at. We have  this expression in English to be a gong show,  

G-O-N-G, a gong show. To tell you the truth, I  don't even know the origin of that expression.  

I think it maybe dates back to the 50s or 60s.  Maybe I can find it and put a little footnote  

in the glossary for this episode, which you can  get for free, of course, on our website. So, I'll  

explain that in the glossary, the origin. But the  meaning of a gong show just means a very chaotic,  

disorganized scene. So, this race was a gong show.  It was really disorganized and chaotic. And as  

you can imagine, there were hundreds of people who  had to pick up their race bibs. It's pouring rain.  

Everybody's got an umbrella. I had an umbrella,  too. I was waiting in line. And I just assumed  

it was the correct line to get my race bib.  Everybody was asking each other, like, is this  

correct? Am I supposed to stand in this line? And  nobody knew. I asked the person in front of me,  

is this the right line to get my race bib? They're  like, I don't know. And we were asking around,  

and one person from the line was like, “I'm going  to go to the front and try and find out some info,  

and I'll come back.” She left, and then she never  came back. So, nobody knew what was happening. But  

by this time, it was probably, I don't know, I  would say around 7:45 a.m. And the gun to start  

the race was supposed to go off at 8:30. So, I was  a little bit stressed, but everybody was a little  

bit stressed about when we were going to get our  bibs and get to the start line and how things  

would work out because we were short for time. And  the line was so long. So, yeah, you can imagine,  

just pouring rain. There's no good covering for  people to pick up their race bibs. So, everybody  

has their umbrella, and we're all kind of huddled  together trying to keep the rain off us. But it  

wasn't working very well. We weren't sure where  to go, what line to stand in, and there wasn't  

great staff support. There weren't too many people  to ask. I mean, it's all staffed by volunteers,  

I think, so you can't be really too angry at  people, but it was pretty disorganized. And so,  

I waited in this line, felt like an hour, but  probably was about, I'd say it was around, yeah,  

almost an hour. Because by the time I got my bib,  it was like 8:25 a.m. So, I only had five minutes  

from picking up my bib until the race was supposed  to start. Mind you, I'm still in my tracksuit. I  

still have my umbrella, my bag. I've got to get  into my running shoes. I just had my Merrell  

water shoes, let's call them, on. And so, I was  totally unprepared to start the race in just five  

minutes. So, it was pretty hectic. But one of the  guys at the booths who was giving out the bibs,  

he's like, guys, don't worry. It's OK. We're going  to delay the race by 30 minutes. So, I was like,  

oh, perfect. OK, I have just enough time now. I  can go to the changing room. I can get changed.  

I can get set up. I can drop my bag off at the  bag check, and I can go to the starting line,  

and that'll be great, 30 minutes. OK. So, I kept  in mind that the race was going to be delayed,  

and I went about doing those things. I found  a little area of dry ground, which was really  

hard to find because it was just pouring rain  everywhere. And although they did have some  

tents and cover set up, you could imagine that  they were just packed, right? Everybody's kind  

of standing under the tent waiting for this race  to start. And I would say the scale of this race,  

probably around 2,000 runners, if I had to  guess, across three different events. There  

was a half marathon event, a 10K event, and a 5K  event, and I would imagine maybe 1,500 to 2,000  

people participated. But there's family members.  There's friends, right? So, you have more people  

than just the runners themselves. So, I found  a place where I could take my track suit off,  

and I could take off my wet shoes, and I brought a  towel with me. I tried to towel off a little bit,  

towel off my feet at least to try and get them  dry, and put on some socks. And I realized I  

brought the wrong pair of socks, and a little bit  embarrassing, but my socks weren't even matching.  

I brought two different socks, so I was like,  everything's not going right today. Got ready,  

and as I was tying up my shoes, suddenly I hear,  “3, 2, 1, go!” And I'm like, what's going on? I  

thought the race was delayed by 30 minutes. The  guy at the… the volunteer, the staff member, just  

told me the race was going to be delayed by 30  minutes. And as I was getting ready, 3, 2, 1, go!  

And I look, and there's all the half marathoners  just leaving. And so, they actually did leave at  

8:30, and then I was super stressed. I was like,  oh my gosh, I'm not even ready. I haven't warmed  

up or anything. I haven't checked my bag. I still  had my bag. I had to put all of my wet clothes in  

my bag. And so finally I got everything sort of  organized. I had to make my way to the bag check  

area, wait in line again. It wasn't too long, but  five minutes or so to check my bag. And then I ran  

to the start line. And the guy at the start line,  there's an emcee with a mic, and he pointed at me.  

He's like, go, go, go, go, go. You're already  late. So, I took off, and it was about 10 or 11  

minutes after the main group of runners had left,  then it was my turn to go. I was finally ready to  

start. And so that was not a very pleasant way,  kind of a little bit disappointing that I didn't  

get to run with everybody else because that's part  of the fun, right? It's like you're doing these  

events together. You're a part of the group. It's  a totally different atmosphere than when you're  

just running alone. But I was just running alone.  And so, at that time in my mind, I was like,  

whatever. It's just for fun, OK? This is just  going to be a fun run. The weather is against me.  

The weather is terrible. I was in a stressed out,  bad mood, and so was everybody. Everybody was in a  

bad mood. There were tons of angry people at this  race. Before the race, people fighting and getting  

angry at the staff members, unfortunately. They  were just volunteers, so not cool to get angry  

at them. But just the vibe was a little bit tense,  let's say, at the start of the race. And so, yeah,  

my goal was just to have fun, do a fun run, check  my fitness, make sure I'm in good shape, and,  

yeah, try not to get injured because it was really  rainy, really wet. The course was like a good,  

paved path. But sometimes, I'm not sure what  they do to the paths exactly here in Korea,  

but there were sections of it where it was almost  like painted this red color. And for whatever  

reason on those sections that were painted  red, I don't know if this is waterproofing  

or weatherproofing material that they've laid  over top, but it made it quite slippery. So  

that was in the back of my mind, too, as I was  running on some of these sections. It was like,  

oh, man, I better not injure myself. Like a month  before my marathon that I've been training for,  

I can't injure myself. So, I had all of  these things in mind, right? I'm stressed,  

I'm in a bad mood, it's pouring rain out, and,  yeah, I don't want to injure myself. However,  

one thing was in my favor, and that was the air  temperature was really cool. It's been a long,  

hot summer here in Seoul. And finally, we had a  day where I think the temperature was around 16,  

17 degrees Celsius when I took off and started  the race. So that was perfect because I've been  

training in like 30-plus degrees for so long.  And, you know, when you're running in that kind  

of conditions, you're sweating like crazy. Or at  least me, I'm completely drenched and just totally  

wet from sweat when I'm training in the summer.  So, to tell you the truth, it wasn't that much of  

a difference being in the total rain, although  I guess my feet were completely wet. That's a  

little different. But in terms of like running in  a wet shirt and wet shorts, it's nothing new to me  

because I've been doing that all summer long. So,  I took off running alone, right? But I felt good,  

and I felt strong. And in my mind, I was like,  let's just have a good race. Let's give it a  

good effort, but not injure myself. Well, once  I hit even just like a kilometer into the race,  

suddenly there were puddles on the path that were  just huge puddles, and they were unavoidable. You  

had to run through them. And so, you're splashing  up water everywhere. My shoes are soaked just  

even like five minutes into the race. And once I  got to about the two- or three-kilometer mark, I  

started to catch some of the other runners. I was  surprised that I sort of caught up with the back  

of the pack and I wasn't running alone anymore. So  that was pretty nice. It was only about 10 minutes  

of running alone. And then I was with some of the  other runners. And then another disaster struck  

and that was my shoelace came undone. So just as  I caught all of the other people, my shoe felt  

really loose. And I was like, oh no, is my shoe  undone? I looked down, my laces were undone. And  

I don't know how that happened because I double  knotted my shoes. “Double knotting” is when you  

tie your shoes really tightly twice so that this  doesn't happen. But I guess maybe it was because  

the shoelaces were wet or something. I'm not sure.  My shoe came undone. And so, it kind of sucks  

when you're in a race and you're running pretty  fast, pretty hard. If you have to slow down to  

a complete stop and then start again, moving your  body up to full speed again takes a lot of effort.  

And it's just like you can really feel that it  takes a big chunk of your energy. And so, I didn't  

want to have to do that, but I had no choice. So,  I stopped, tied up my shoe, and then I was back at  

it. And I was running, and I was running. It felt  good. And I was passing many people, which always  

feels good. You guys know, if you're a regular  Culips listener, that I'm a pretty competitive  

person. And I know it's like so silly. It's not a  competitive race at all. It's just for fun. But in  

my mind, I always feel good when I pass people. It  really motivates me. So, I'm like, yeah, passin’,  

passin’ all these people. Running pretty well. At  around the 5-kilometer mark into the race, and,  

of course, a half marathon is 21.1 kilometers.  So, about a quarter into the race, there was this  

section where a stream met up with the main river  that we were running beside. And there was kind of  

like a bridge. It's almost like a sidewalk where  the stream can flow under the sidewalk. And this  

section was completely washed out. In the heavy  rains, there was some flooding from the smaller  

stream. And so, the water was just pouring over  top instead of under this section of the sidewalk,  

which was probably 80 or 100 meters long. Like  it wasn't just a couple of steps. It took you  

20 seconds to run across it. And it was totally,  totally just like running water going over top  

of it. And so, when I saw that, I was like, oh,  great. I'm going to have to run totally, like,  

through this huge river almost. It felt like you  were running through a river. And the water was  

well over my ankles when I was going through this  section. And so, it was almost like a trail race,  

an adventure race, not necessarily a road race.  So that was a bit of drama on top of all the  

other drama running through this little river.  And yeah, otherwise, everything felt good. And  

I was constantly shocked. Like I didn't feel like  I was working very hard. But then when I looked at  

my watch, which I wear to give me some information  about my running speed and distance I've gone, my  

heart beats per minute, all of these things. When  I looked at my watch, I was running really fast  

and it didn't feel difficult, but I was going at  a really great pace. And then I was getting close  

to the turnaround point. This kind of race was an  out and back. An “out and back” is when you go,  

like if it's a half marathon, you run for 10 and  a half kilometers, then you turn around and you go  

back. So, the start and the finish are in the same  place. So, this race was an out-and-back style.  

And as I was getting close to the turnaround  point, I could count, I could start to count  

how many people passed me. All of the people that  had already turned around and were on their way  

back to the finish line, when they would pass me,  I could count them and see what position I was in.  

And so, as I got closer to the turnaround point,  the other runners who were leading the race,  

they started to pass me, and I counted them,  and I learned that I was in 23rd place. So,  

I thought, hey that’s not bad! I went from totally  last place to 23rd place in just 10 kilometers.  

So, let's keep going. That was kind of inspiring  to me because I thought I would be in like 100th  

place, but I was in 23rd place. So that was good.  And so, yeah, the plan on the way back was just  

the same to try and run hard, run fast, but also  run safely. And that's what I did. Again, I got to  

that area at around, now it was five kilometers  to the end of the race, which was completely  

washed out. And the river was even stronger on the  way back. The water was even higher, I think. So  

again, well over my ankles, had to run through  that river. But once I got past that obstacle,  

then it was only five kilometers to the end. And I  had been still passing people from the turnaround  

point. So, I figured I wasn't really counting, but  I was probably in like, I don't know, 15th place,  

12th place, something like that. But then once  you get to the five-kilometers-to-go mark, then  

suddenly it's not only half marathon runners, but  also the 10-kilometer runners were kind of mixed  

in together because they had been running for five  kilometers. Then they turn around and then go back  

to the finish line, which is the same finish  line that I had. So, I was able to count how  

many people I was passing until that point. But  then after that point, it was impossible because  

there's all these runners mixed together, half  marathon runners and 10-kilometer runners as well.  

So, I had no idea what position I was in or what  place I was in or anything. Just tried to keep  

running steady and solid. And as I got towards the  end of the race, maybe the last two kilometers or  

so, I was checking my watch and doing some math.  I was really… It was great. It was a great run  

because although it was still pouring rain, the  rain didn't let up, it didn't stop the whole  

time. So, it was still pouring rain, but because  of that, I didn't wear any headphones. I didn't  

want to get, you know, my headphones soaking  wet. So, I had just my own thoughts. It was just  

a quiet race, no music, no podcasts, anything  like that. So, I had a lot of time to think,  

and I was doing some mental mathematics around  two kilometers away from the finish line. And  

I calculated that if I kept on pace, if I didn't  slow down, then I would get a PB, personal best.  

Sometimes we call it a PR. I think I use these  two terms interchangeably. Sometimes I say PB,  

personal best. Sometimes I say PR, personal  record. So, I was calculating that I could do it.  

I could do a PB if I just kept up at the pace that  I was running. So, I was pretty stoked because I  

felt really good, and I thought I can do it. And  so that's what I did. I just kept running at the  

same pace. And this is a little bit funny. At the  finish line, I looked at my watch and I realized  

that the finish line was not exactly at the point  of a half marathon. The finish line was set up at  

about the 20.8-kilometer mark. So, if I crossed  over the finish line and then just stopped,  

I wouldn't have recorded a personal best for the  half marathon on my watch. And I'm kind of geeky.  

I love the stats and I love doing new records like  this. I love challenging myself and pushing myself  

and breaking records. And so, I really wanted to  have the half marathon record on my watch. If I  

stopped at the finish line, I would have been  several hundred meters too short. So, I decided  

I gotta keep going. I can't stop once I hit the  finish line. I have to go until my watch says,  

“New record in the half marathon!” And so, I must  have looked like a crazy guy because I'm coming  

towards the end of the finish line here. I'm going  at full speed because I want to make sure that I  

get my personal best record. And everybody else  crosses the finish line and they're like, oh,  

you know, all tired and happy. And me, I just keep  going. I don't stop at all. I just keep my head  

down. I blow by everybody. And I just kept running  for another 300 or 400 meters, whatever it was,  

until I hit the half marathon. And I did it! I  got a personal record. So, I was so stoked. All of  

that stress from the start of the race just washed  away. Didn't care about any of that at all. Didn't  

really care what position I was in. You know,  I thought maybe I got top 10, maybe. Who knows?  

Doesn't matter. I just got my personal best. So  that was sick. So sweet. And, yeah, I was soaking  

wet. Totally 100% drenched. More drenched than you  can imagine. And it was still pouring rain. So,  

I had to jog back towards the kind of festival  area where everything was set up. And I found  

my bag. And you could get your finishing medal.  And there was a post-race kit that had, like,  

some water and some snacks and some juice, some  bread. And also, they gave out cans of beer. So  

I was, like, don't mind if I do. OK. It's only, I  don't know, probably 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning.  

But they're handing out beers. And so, I thought,  OK, let me drink a beer and celebrate my new PR.  

I felt like I deserved it. I went through a lot  that morning. So, I went to the finish line. And  

I found a little dry area under a bridge. And I  just kind of, like, shivered under the bridge.  

It was pretty cold. And I was super wet. And also,  after a difficult physical effort like that, then  

sometimes you're a little bit cold. Thankfully,  in that race kit, one of the things that they  

also gave was a T-shirt. So, I had a brand-new  T-shirt that I could change into to get out of my  

wet clothes. And I put on back my Merrell shoes to  get out of my wet running shoes. And my wet socks.  

Drank my beer. Cheered on some of the other  runners who were finishing and watched those  

guys finish up. And then I decided I gotta make  my way home because I was starting to feel really  

cold. And the rain wasn't letting up at all. And  so, I started walking back to the subway station.  

Once I got back home, then I looked at my official  record. I got a little text message that was like,  

“Congratulations, you finished your race. You  can click this link and see your official time.”  

And they give you like a little certificate,  a digital certificate with your name and your  

time and some stats about your race. And I  looked at it and I was so shocked. It told  

me I came in first place in this race. First place  according to the chip time, not the gun time. So,  

there are two different ways you can decide who  the winner of a race is. The gun time is when  

the starting gun fires, right? It's like 3, 2, 1,  go. And from that point on, whoever crosses the  

finish line first is the winner. So, gun time is  that. And then the other way to track the winner  

of a race is chip time. And so, chip time is  whoever has the shortest time, the fastest time,  

right? And so, because I started so late, I wasn't  able to participate or to compete for that gun  

time. Because it's like everybody else had this  10 or 11-minute head start ahead of me. And so,  

I was nowhere near the winner of the gun time  result. However, I was the winner of the chip  

time. So, whoever crossed the finish line,  I'm not even sure who it is. Unfortunately,  

the race organizers didn't share this information  with us. But I would love to see those stats about  

where the other people finished and their times.  Whoever that was, awesome. It was a difficult race  

in some rough conditions. So, they did a great  job. They finished first. But I would have run  

faster than that person. So, I came in first place  out of over 500 runners. So, I was over the moon.  

I was so ecstatic that I did this great result.  And it felt like all of the hard training that  

I had been doing during the summer, running every  day in the crazy heat, and sweating… sweating like  

a pig. Sometimes we say “sweating like a pig.”  But sweating like a pig throughout the summer is  

just gross and nasty. But it all was worthwhile  in the end. And so, yeah, I came in first place.  

My first ever first place finish in a race. So,  yeah, like I said, just ecstatic with that great  

result. And I went to the website. And I was  like, is there a special prize for the winner?  

I wasn't sure. And so, I looked. And the winner  gets a trophy and gets a special certificate  

and gets a 100,000 won cash prize. 100,000 won is  probably around 100 Canadian dollars, maybe around  

80 American dollars or so if I had to guess.  So, it’s not a huge prize, but it's a decent  

prize. However, unfortunately, it goes to the  winner of the gun time, not the chip time. So,  

I don't get that sweet prize pack. But it's OK.  I don't care at all. I was just, like, so happy  

to beat my personal record and to come in first  place on chip time. That was awesome. And, yeah,  

it's like one of those races that you never know.  Maybe there weren't a lot of fast runners. Maybe  

a lot of the really fast runners that day woke up  and saw the rain and they're like, nah, not going  

to do it. Who knows? But it was cool for me. So,  I had a really nice experience in that race. And  

here's the funny thing. Here's the ironic thing.  The title of this episode is “The rain stole my  

thunder.” And when you steal somebody's thunder,  it means that you take something important away  

from somebody. So, for example, like this is the  classic example of stealing somebody's thunder:  

at a wedding. Let's say you go to your friend's  wedding and at the wedding, maybe at the reception  

after the wedding ceremony, you know, it's like  time to have the party, the wedding party, and the  

first dance of the couple. But before all of this  happens, you stand up and you say, “Everybody,  

I have a little announcement to make. I'm engaged.  I'm getting married!!” And so, your announcement,  

your news steals the thunder of your friend  because it's his special day, his wedding day,  

and then you made this announcement, and  you took all of the attention away. So,  

this is to steal someone's thunder, to take away  their achievement, their celebration, their idea,  

their good idea, something like this. And so, the  rain on this day stole my thunder because I had a  

really good result. For me, at least, it was a  really positive result, the fastest I've ever  

run in my whole life. But because of the rain, I  think like 99% of the people who participated in  

this race probably have a terrible memory of the  race. And if you go to the website for this event,  

it's really hilarious because there's a  message board where you can ask questions  

or leave comments for the organizers of the race.  And all of the posts on this message board are so  

negative. People were saying it's the worst race  they've ever participated in. The organization was  

terrible. And I guess there was a problem with  recording the time and the records for the 10K  

runners. My… thankfully, my record was recorded  accurately, and I have my watch to back it up,  

so I know that my chip time is my actual chip  time. But I guess for maybe the 10K runners,  

there was an error. So, people are complaining  like it was poorly organized. It was soaking wet.  

The chips didn't work correctly. And so, everybody  was saying on this website, like it's the worst  

race I've ever run. I want a refund. There were  tons of people asking for a refund. And there  

were some other issues as well. I don't really  want to pile on to the race organizers. You know,  

were there some things that they could have done  better? Yes. Was the rain probably the biggest  

factor and why things were disorganized? Also,  yes. So, whatever. It doesn't matter. But I think  

it's funny. It's funny how we can have one event,  one race, and depending on your perspective,  

it can be the best race of your life, like it was  for me, or it could be the worst race of your life  

like it was for some other people. So, both things  can be true. Thankfully, I'm on the side of things  

as it being one of the best races of my life.  And it was super motivating. I feel great now  

going into the JTBC marathon here at the start  of November in just under a month. And I hope  

I'll have another good story to share with you,  another good result after that race. But guys,  

I think this is the end for this week's story.  So, thank you so much for listening to me ramble  

on and on about running. You know, it's one  of my passions and it's something I could talk  

about all day. I try not to do it too much on the  podcast, but from time to time, I have to. I just  

have to do it. And I wanted to share this kind  of funny story and good result with you in this  

week's episode. So as always, let's continue the  conversation over on our Discord server. If you  

have any questions or comments for me about this  episode, you can leave them there. And maybe you  

have a story you could share with us about a time  when your thunder was stolen by somebody. This  

would be a great place to share that story with  me and our whole community. And I can't wait to  

hear what you have to say. So go, go, go. Share  your story with me. And the link to join our  

Discord is in the description for this episode.  All right, guys. I'm going to take off. Take care,  

as always. And we'll be back soon with another  brand-new Culips episode. Until then, goodbye.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
episode /ˈɛpɪsoʊd/ B1	noun - a part of a series of broadcasts or podcasts
fluency /ˈfluːənsi/ B2	noun - the ability to speak or write a language easily and well
marathon /ˈmærəθən/ B1	noun - a long-distance race of 26.2 miles
drama /ˈdrɑːmə/ A2	noun - a situation with a lot of emotional excitement
interactive /ˌɪntərˈæktɪv/ B1	adjective - allowing two-way communication
transcript /ˈtrænskrɪpt/ B2	noun - a written copy of something spoken
vocabulary /vəˈkæbjʊleri/ B1	noun - the words that someone knows or uses
fluent /ˈfluːənt/ B2	adjective - able to speak a language easily and well
lifestyle /ˈlaɪfstaɪl/ B1	noun - the way in which a person lives
training /ˈtreɪnɪŋ/ A2	noun - the process of learning a skill
recommend /ˌrekəˈmend/ B1	verb - to suggest something as good or suitable
participating /ˌpɑːrtɪˈsɪpeɪtɪŋ/ B1	verb - taking part in something
popular /ˈpɑːpjʊlər/ A2	adjective - liked or enjoyed by many people
competitive /kəmˈpetɪtɪv/ B1	adjective - eager to win or be successful
obstacle /ˈɑːbstəkl/ B1	noun - something that blocks your progress
ecstatic /ɪkˈstætɪk/ C1	adjective - feeling or expressing overwhelming happiness

Key Grammar Structures

• I almost said 183. No, I'm getting ahead of myself.

  ➔ Past Simple vs. Present Continuous for future meaning (getting ahead of myself)

  ➔ The phrase 'getting ahead of myself' uses the present continuous to describe a future action – anticipating or thinking too far in advance. It's a common idiomatic expression.

• We know that if you want to get fluent in English you need to spend a lot of time with the language.

  ➔ First Conditional (If + Present Simple, will + base verb)

  ➔ This sentence demonstrates a classic first conditional structure, outlining a necessary condition (spending time with the language) for achieving fluency.

• It's called the JTBC Marathon, and it takes place every fall here in Seoul.

  ➔ Present Simple for scheduled events/timetables

  ➔ The phrase 'it takes place' uses the present simple to describe a recurring event – the marathon happening every fall. This is standard for timetables and schedules.

• I've been training for a full marathon since around April or May.

  ➔ Present Perfect Continuous (have/has been + verb-ing) - duration of an action starting in the past and continuing to the present.

  ➔ The Present Perfect Continuous emphasizes the *duration* of the training. It started in April/May and is still ongoing at the time of speaking.