Nova: Marathon Challenge

Because I’m generally willing to watch almost any show that talks about running, I made time in my schedule last week to watch the PBS NOVA program Marathon Challenge. While the program definitely had some shortcomings, overall, I thought it was well worth spending an hour of my time on.

NOVA selected 12 people from hundreds of applicants that were interested in getting professional coaching to reach their goal of running the 2007 Boston Marathon. Early on in the program, one of the participants had to drop out because of recurring stress fractures. She was replaced by former NFL lineman Steve Deossie. Although Steve was a professional athlete, the challenge of running a marathon was probably almost as great for him as it was for the other participates, because, in his words:

I am designed and built specifically to run five yards and hit something with a lot of violence. I did that very well for many years. The conditioning for that is the exact opposite of marathon conditioning.

The program follows the participants as they go through fitness tests, training, and the actual marathon. Because the program will undoubtedly be rebroadcast, I won’t spoil the ending. I will say, however, even though I wish the show would have focused more on the specifics of the training plan they were following and given more details about the participants’ physiological responses to training, I thought that it was inspiring to watch the participants’ progress.

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