Posted: October 26, 2007

Athletics (RWire): What Does It Take to Run One of the World's Toughest Road Races?

NOVA's "Marathon Challenge" follows 13 out-of-shape people as they prepare for the 2007 Boston Marathon BOSTON - How do you run 26.2 miles if you have trouble making it around the block? With good coaching, discipline and lots of group support - as NOVA shows when it follows 13 sedentary people through a nine-month regimen designed to prepare them for the grueling Boston Marathon®, on Marathon Challenge, airing Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 8:00pm ET/PT on PBS (check local listings). Created in cooperation with the Boston Athletic Association®, which granted NOVA unprecedented access during the 111th Boston Marathon®, and Tufts University, the film takes viewers on a unique adventure inside the human body, tracking changes in the runners' bodies. Every year thousands of athletes from across the globe flock to Boston to run the city's marathon, known worldwide as the ultimate test of stamina and endurance. Marathon Challenge also features special participation by Olympian and three-time Boston Marathon champion Uta Pippig who helped coach and inspire NOVA's runners throughout their training. Donald Megerle, director of Tufts' Annual President's Marathon Challenge, served as head coach for the group, which ranges in age from 22 to 60 and includes prospective runners with a wide range of medical histories and backgrounds. The common factor: none has ever run a marathon before and all are out of shape. Marathon Challenge gives a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges, frustrations, and joys of renouncing a sedentary lifestyle to train the body to do what it evolved to do millions of years ago: run long distances across the open savannah - or, in this case, along greater Boston's picturesque roadways. In the course of the program, NOVA covers the physiology of running with stunning inside-the-body computer graphics showing how the body adapts to the demands of long distance locomotion. Also featured are noted sport medicine experts Timothy Noakes of the University of Cape Town, bio-anthropologist Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University, and author and nutritionist Miriam Nelson of Tufts University. To meet the 13 marathon novices and for more information on the show, go to: PBS.org. Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director (805) 696-6232; Fax = (805) 659-0016 Ryan@RunningUSA.org www.RunningUSA.org. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest