Posts Tagged ‘marathon’

NBC’s Biggest Loser Damage Control

Stung by The Biggest Loser marathon controversy, NBC’s Al Roker interviewed Dane Patterson and trainer Jillian Michaels on The Today Show this morning. Here is the full segment. It still seems as though NBC and Patterson are more upset about getting caught and having to deal with the stink than sorry about trying to deceive their viewers.

Biggest Loser: I’m Keeping the Medal

The Los Angeles Times TV blog quotes Dane Patterson:

“The medal was given. I would not give that back. I’m proud of it.”

Also:

“In my mind I ran the full 26 miles.”

Cool. In my mind, I’m running Boston next month.

Biggest Loser Contestant Pulls a Rosie Ruiz

It isn’t often you get both the reality-TV and running worlds angered about the same thing, but the scandal involves Dane Patterson, who was voted off this week’s episode of The Biggest Loser. Each episode ends with an update of how the eliminated contestant has fared since leaving the show. Patterson, who set a show record by losing 100 pounds in eight weeks, was shown completing the Arizona Desert Classic marathon with his wife on January 31. A caption read that Patterson ran the marathon in 3:53.

I watched the show and thought it was strange, because the televised footage didn’t seem to show them traveling at a sub-9 minute mile pace. It certainly seemed to be an amazing feat, considering Patterson was still in the 300 lb. range.

As it turned out, it was too good to be true. Race participants revealed on various web sites and blogs that the Pattersons actually completed the marathon in 5:53, but only after being driven in an NBC van over an extended stretch of the course so that they could cross the finish line under six hours. Race directors were notified the same day and the Pattersons were disqualified. None of this was mentioned on the NBC broadcast.

NBC issued a statement, and is conducting an investigation. Meanwhile, the press is starting to run with the story, and the NBC Biggest Loser message board already has a couple hundred comments under the heading, “The Great Marathon Debacle.”

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times weighs in with the latest version of what happened.

Geb Says, “Calgon, Take Me Away!”

Winners of an Adidas contest got to hear secret marathon tips from world record holder Haile Gebrselassie after his victory in the Dubai Marathon. Surprisingly, Secret #1 was not “Run faster than anyone else.”

Even more surprising was Geb’s suggestion of “taking a long hot bath” after a marathon. That’s the opposite of what you usually hear.

The Kenyan Secret

I’ve told you about my pre-run doughnut exploits and now it seems there might be some basis for my relative success. The Santa Fe Reporter ran a lengthy and interesting profile of the Kenyan marathoners who live and teach at a training camp in New Mexico. Americans are astonished by the Kenyans’ unorthodox diet, which apparently owes more to Michael Phelps than Kip Keino:

Marc Esposito, a 31-year-old director of physical therapy at Santa Fe’s Therapy Solutions, LCC and amateur marathoner, has grown close to the Kenyans, especially Ndambuki, since beginning to help out at Camp Marafiki in 2007. Esposito is convinced the timing and quantity of the Kenyans’ glucose consumption plays a significant role in their running success, beyond the particularly lean physiques, large lung capacities and concentrations of slow twitch muscle fibers that genetics and training may have bestowed. “I really think there’s something to it,” he says. “They ingest an incredible amount of sugar every day.”

This is bad news for the bagel industry.

Disappearing Marathon TV Coverage

Here in Sacramento, television coverage of the California International Marathon used to be huge, if relatively uninformed. Three years ago there was four hours of exclusive coverage that included Dick Beardsley and a local track coach for color commentary. A camera on a rigged motorcycle followed the leaders for much of the race. Two years ago, coverage was cut to three hours, with no commentators. Yesterday, we had two reporters, one at the halfway point and one at the finish, giving updates during the morning news.

They had no idea who was leading, where they were, or what was going on. They couldn’t identify the winner when he finished, and didn’t know the time of the female winner when she finished. But, boy, did we get a lot of updates about weather along the course and road closures.

Budget constraints are understandable, but if you cover something live, cover it. Otherwise just get some clips and show them on the six o’clock news. This was an embarrassment.

Marathoners Still Irked by L.A. Date Change

The Los Angeles Times published two articles about the reaction to the news that the Los Angeles Marathon is being moved from Presidents Day to Memorial Day. Hundreds of commenters vented their anger and frustration, prompting the Times to publish a column by writer/runner Tina Dupuy about the move. She quotes a friend in her running group as saying:

“Great. First we don’t have a football team, and now we don’t have a marathon.”

One commenter on Dupuy’s column was even more succinct about the decision: “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”