Hey, welcome back to IELTS Face-off.
I love to run. But running to work in heels and with a laptop is not the best idea
But today I actually have a guest
and she runs desert in the world
She runs in some of the most competitive race in the world
And she’s going to talk to us about what it means to go the extra-mile
I'm going the extra-mile right now get to work on time and early
so I'll see you guys in the studio
When it comes to Going the extra mile, who better to talk to us than a woman who's been through deserts and deserts
and has been through hundreds and hundreds of kilometres, difficult running
I think that's one example that I would love to be able to share with everybody
and also to share with myself in terms of her story
as well as how she managed to do all of those things
so Thanh Vu thank you so much for coming
And thank you for having me here I'm really happy to be here
You don't look so Vietnamese, what's your background?
So I was born and raised in Hanoi until I was 12
And then I did a year of studying in Singapore
Then after that for high school and university I was in Canada
And then after that in my final year of university I wanted a different experience
and I went to the UK
so after graduation I looked for jobs pretty much everywhere
and I got a good offer in Singapore
and I literally just packed my bags right away got in the plane
and I was there for two and a half years before returning to Vietnamese
What’s Vietnamese about you and what is maybe not necessarily Vietnamese about you?
I think, to be honest people think that I don't look very Vietnamese or behave in a Vietnamese way, I guess.
Maybe just my appearance
But for me the reason that I'm able to do all the things that I do
It's because I am Vietnamese and the grit runs in my blood
So I completely regard myself as a true Vietnamese
You’ve gone back to Vietnam and right now you're living in Ho Chi Minh City for two years And you've been training
When did you start training?
My encounter with Desert Running started in July 2015
After two and a half years in Singapore
I really felt like I was getting into my comfort zone again
I wanted to do something so grand that it will help me truly become who I am
At the end of June and literally sign up for the rece next day
Do you ever feel like you have to take on a male persona in order to achieve all of these physically demanding things?
Definitely not. I still hold on very strongly to my personality.
I don't think that to be a strong woman you don't need to be manly
that's like really the message I want to push across to younger girls
You can definitely be who you want to be and who you are and still be incredibly strong and have that grit
I'm still quite girly
but I also want to be more and the desert running is just only a third of my life
That's how I come to gain my confidence that's how I learned to overcome personal barriers.
So that when I come back to the normal life
When I face adversity in my personal life or my work or anything else
I still have that mentality and I still persevere and to pursue what I want to do
Now you said one time in Desert Grand Slam, your brain was not really functioning
and you're like falling asleep with your eyes open.
Tell us more about this experience.
In 2016 that's when I did the fourth Desert Grand Slamb
And I think I was pretty well prepared for the races
But in Gobi, which is the second desert race in the year
The heat got so extreme that make me wonder if it was worth it to pursue this goal
The heat got to everyone and everyone had to slow down
and it would take like an hour to just get through five kilometer, was just quite slow even for a desert running
It was even really hard to drink water
because the temperature was like 50-something
So the water was really warmer than your body rate
Every time you drink water, your body heat goes up
Everything I ate I would spat out
And so on the whole day like I was running on empty stomach pretty much
I got to a point where I'm really really exhausted
and I thought wow what if something happened
Then like there's like an immense guilt overcame me and I had to kind of push that dot away right then
And there and just focus on the next step
and I just 1 2 1 2 left right left right to get to the next checkpoint
And then finally the camp destination.
For me that was a pretty traumatic experience
and I took about two weeks to recalibrate. And question myself like where the significance of what I'm doing?
What kind of impact I would have?
And if it's worth it but what do I need to do in order to make sure that I'm safe to return to my family and my friends?
That's important.
Putting yourself through all of these physical challenges. So compare to mental challenges
which one do you think it's more difficult for you to overcome?
Actually people would think like all these things that I do very physical
It's true you need to get yourself to a certain level of physical fitness
But that level of physical fitness is not reserved for specific people
I still truly believe after all the things that I've done. If I can do it anyone can do it
It's just important question is whether you want to
Once you set your mind on it and once you set your heart on it
That is when you can do it.
The fact is that all these challenges that I do
I hope to learn a lot of life lessons, from them I do these things
because I want to become a better person a stronger person
Someone who are mentally strong
So that again when I come back into their normal life I can do things that I really want to do
Training is a very I guess it's a very solitude, process right a process of solitude
Are you a person who who lives more in solace or are you a person who is cut collective person?
I love being with people
I'm an introverted extroverted. So that's why I'm able to do the things that I do
so that's why I need that to make a few you know tweaks in my daily schedule to make sure like
on the weekends I would have time to hang out with my friends
And sometimes my friends would go out to run with me or do exercises with me
so that's very sweet to them and and I really appreciate it that.
That's really nice.
So next up we're going to actually test Thanh to a couple of IELTS challenges
so guys IELTS CHALLENGE coming right up next
Hey welcome to the IELTS Challenge and right now we're going to participate in the five-second challenge
Where Thanh Vu and I will have to answer a series of questions
The person with the most number of answers and facts in five seconds wins
Five seconds for us each one of us will have to name whatever the question is asking us.
Name countries that start with N.
Nigeria
Namibia
Norway
This is hard
Nicaragua
Name dishes that you don’t like
I like everything
Curry
Spring rolls
Raw onions
Raw garlic
Capsicum
Name aspects that you don’t like about yourself
My inner thighs
My hair right now
My neck
Your neck?
Name aspects I don't like about myself ?
My insecurities
Name 7 continents in the world
Antarctica
Australia (Oceania)
North America
South America
Europe
Asia
She named everything
Africa, that is.
Name must-have items when you travel
Shoes
Socks
Running t-shirt
Lipstick
Deodorant
Moisturizer
Towel
Shoes
Socks
Mascara
Eyeliner
Concealer
Blush
Primer
Foundation
Powder
Oh my god.
Thank you.
Congratulation.
Thank you. You did very well.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot for coming.
So you know what advice do you have for people who are looking to change themselves right or to you know get out of their comfort zone
and go the extra mile to do something different?
How can they really find what is that thing that they should do?
Right you know so they say life begins at the end of your comfort zone right.
And I truly believe in that whether it's your physical comfort zone or your personal comfort zone
or your career comfort zone or any comfort zones that you feel like you have develop a bubble for yourself,
I think that once you actually you know you can,
You can imagine a lot and you can reap things,
You can hear things from people but only when you actually open yourself up and do those things
that's when you become a really amazing person.
You would definitely amaze yourself at what you can do
That's great. So thanks a lot for it for the talk and I think you know you're definitely one of the people that can share with our audience
not just your story. I'm not just basically to showcase your grit
for some people the grit is inside right.
For you it's expressed outside as well both inside and outside.
So you know I was really glad to have the audience and myself to be able to listen to your story.
And definitely guys you know you can see a lot more of today's talk as well as today's IELTS challenge
on our social media as well as on our YouTube page.
So make sure to check them out.
And for now we're gonna go on to see our IELTS expert where you'll get a chance to know all of those IELTS useful tips.