Found this on NOVA’s site. Looks like it will be pretty cool.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/marathon/
Tom
Awesome. I love Nova.
Being Nova, I bet this will be fantastic. Your post deserves a bump.
This looks like it will be great. Back in around 1983 a very similar project was undertaken in England with 8 subjects, not all of whom made it to the start line. 13 subjects should make for a broader, more varied study. It was made available on video with the title “The Marathon Challenge”.
I will definitely watch it, but I have some reservations.
I wish TV would not use qualifying events as the backdrop for these specials.
Using Boston and Kona to highlight this and that, without the person qualifying cheapens the event.
As a person who has not qualified for either and would not buy my way in, I just don’t like it.
People see the special and ask me if I have done that event and I have to explain that that for “normal” people you can not just enter. You have to be the top 5%(or less) in your age group of all marathon/im finishers to even be allowed to enter.
Note: I understand boston and kona have special non-qualifying entries for the locals and I don’t disparage those in any way. Not being able to enter the race that goes through your backyard would suck.
Next on NOVA: “Marathon Challenge”
http://www.pbs.org/nova/marathon
Tuesday, October 30 at 8 p.m.
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 normally sedentary people through a training regimen designed to prepare them for an ultimate test of stamina and endurance. Created in cooperation with the Boston Athletic Association(R), which granted NOVA unprecedented access to the 111th Boston Marathon(R), and Tufts University, “Marathon Challenge” takes viewers on a unique adventure inside the human body, tracking the physiological changes that exercise can bring about.