Thursday, April 10, 2008 -- Brighton, MA
Sent by Kate Becker, NOVA Promotion, 617.300.4383 | kathryn_becker@wgbh.org
NOVA Presents Marathon Challenge
|
| Jonathan Bush runs the Boston Marathon - Photo by Joel Laino |
Former Olympian and three-time Boston Marathon winner Uta Pippig offered advice and inspiration to Team NOVA as veteran Tufts University coach Donald Megerle guided the novices through an onslaught of physical and psychological challenges. With stunning inside-the-body computer graphics, Marathon Challenge reveals how the body adapts to the demands of long distance locomotion.
Created in cooperation with the Boston Athletic Association and Tufts University, "Marathon Challenge" is an inspiring story for runners and for all who dream of pushing themselves to their limits.
The show will air Tuesday, April 15 at 8 PM on most PBS stations.
To check your local listings, please visit: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/schedule-local.html
To learn more about the runners, their training regimen, and the physiology of fitness, visit: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/marathon/
About NOVA's Marathon Challenge
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 former Olympian and three-time Boston Marathon winner Uta Pippig, the renowned elite runner, 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.
Team NOVA includes Betsey, a hospital administrator who became severely overweight while recovering from surgery; Jonathan, a hard-charging CEO and father of five whose marriage is breaking apart; Sama, a reformed smoker mourning the recent death of her mother to a hit-and-run driver; Larry, a social worker and 14-year survivor of a serious heart attack; Xenia, a woman in her 40th year struggling with being an aging sedentary physician, who wants to practice what she preaches to her own patients; and Steve, a Harley-riding former NFL linebacker, who sees a marathon as a novel challenge for someone more used to running short distances and then tackling an opponent.
Together with their seven other teammates, they undergo a battery of physiological tests by Tufts scientists to gauge baseline levels for weight, cholesterol level, maximal oxygen uptake, and other health and fitness factors.
These same tests are performed again at the completion of the training to chart each runner's response to increased activity. And increase it does, albeit slowly and under the watchful eyes of Pippig and Megerle, who shepherd the novices from relaxed workouts to demanding long distance runs.
Injuries and family problems take a toll, but the group meets faithfully every Sunday for nine months to prepare for the race to end all races. Physical conditioning is only part of the process; equally important is the psychological support that team members get from their coaches and from each other. "We have a lot of fun. It's almost like a love fest." says Pippig.
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.
As marathon day approaches, the forecast calls for pelting rain, gale force winds, and the possibility of snow, conditions that daunt even experienced marathon runners.
On the day itself, April 16, 2007, those who have made it through training arrive at the tail end of the storm in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, sheathed in ponchos with dry shoes in plastic bags. Then at 10:30 a.m. the starting gun fires and they join 20,000 other runners for the epic race to Boston, a journey that few on Team NOVA ever dreamed possible.
