FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RUN ONE OF THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST ROAD RACES?
NOVA PUTS 13 OUT-OF-SHAPE PEOPLE TO THE ULTIMATE TEST
NOVA Presents Marathon Challenge Tuesday, October 30, 2007
at 8pm ET/PT on PBS
www.pbs.org/nova/marathon
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 8pm 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 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.
Now in its 34th year of broadcasting, NOVA is produced for PBS by the WGBH
Science Unit at WGBH Boston. The director of the WGBH Science Unit and
senior executive producer of NOVA is Paula S. Apsell. Funding for NOVA is
provided by The DOW Chemical Company, David H. Koch, Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television
viewers.
NOVA is closed captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described
for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at
WGBH. The descriptive narration is available on the SAP channel or stereo
TVs and VCRs. Marathon Challenge will be available on DVD wherever videos
are sold. To order direct from WGBH Boston Video, visit shop.wgbh.org or
call 800.949.8670.
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