In a small town located in the mountains, there was a young boy named Owen. He was crazy about basketball more than anything else in the world. He would spend hours every day practicing his dribbling (运球), shooting and passing. He dreamed of one day winning games on a team.

Owen’s town had a small basketball court that was often empty. Owen would go there every day after school to practice. One day, as he was shooting hoops (投篮), he heard a voice behind him, “Hey, kid! You’re pretty good!”

Owen turned around to see a tall man with a friendly smile. The man introduced himself as Coach Johnson and asked Owen if he wanted to join his basketball team. The team was made up of kids from all over the town, and they practiced every day after school.

Owen was overjoyed because he had never played on a team before. He wanted to start and win games. Owen quickly became the star player of the team.

However, the team never won a game. “I had trained so hard and performed excellently, but we were always losing! Jack should have run much faster towards me and Kris should have passed the ball to me!” Owen kept complaining to the coach.

The complaint seemed understandable! Owen was admired by his teammates because he was fast and had incredible shots. However, Johnson knew Owen lacked something important. He told Owen to learn to play with his teammates as a team instead of just focusing on himself. Owen didn’t quite understand that at first and insisted he just needed to practice harder to win games.

However, disaster struck. Owen injured his ankle one day and had to sit out for several weeks, which let him fall into anxiety. He felt his dream was slipping away.

During his recovery at home, Owen refused to see anyone on the team, except his coach. Johnson handed Owen a phone downloaded with some videos about the best basketball teams and some cards from Owen’s teammates.

Owen couldn’t wait to watch those videos.

After recovering, Owen returned to his team as a changed player.

Every year, thousands of runners gather in Australia to run the yearly 543. 7- mile (875- kilometer)endurance (忍耐力) course from Sydney to Melbourne.

It is thought to be one of the world ‘s toughest ultra - marathons (超级马拉松), which can take up to five days to cross the finish line. So only the top athletes of the game typically dare to take it on. They are young (generally under 30), and obviously well equipped and trained. Most importantly, with the help of high-level teams, they will draw up a detailed plan to make sure that they will have enough time for running and sleeping during the race.

But all that changed when a 61- year - old competitor by the name of Cliff Young entered it. Cliff had always dreamed of taking part in the ultra - marathon since he heard of the event when he was young. Finally, with the support of his family, he signed up for it and now he wandered to the starting blocks (起跑器). But he made a strange sight. Everyone was laughing at his everyday overalls (连体工装裤) and work boots (靴子) with his race number proudly displayed on the back of his shirt.

However, Cliff never cared about it. When questioned by the media why he dared to take part in such a challenging running, he told the curious press that his hard - working background gave him all the skills and endurance he’d need to finish the race, saying: “I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or tractors, and the whole time I was growing up, whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2, 000 sheep on 2, 000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race. So do my family!” Hearing this, they were so shocked and thought him to be too confident. No one believed he would win, and some even doubt whether he would finish the game.

And from the moment the runners left the starting blocks, it looked like the skeptics (怀疑者) would be proved right.

However, according to Cliff, it was all part of his plan.