Marathon Challenge

I just watched NOVA's Marathon Challenge, where NOVA picks a dozen sedentary people, most of whom are overweight to obese, and trains them to run the Boston Marathon in nine months.

First of all, I found myself almost overwhelmed with emotion at the end when the runners were finishing the race. I say "almost" cause my being a fucking American Badass prevented any actual tears from appearing; but I was strangely choked up. It's not like I got super-attached to these people personally; the whole doc is only 50 minutes. There's just something about people finishing a marathon, isn't there? To affect me, who is such a hardass I will punch a kitten in the face just for eyeballing me. Plus the dudes who finished hours before the last of the group sticking around to cheer on people that are still basically strangers is amazing to me - I'da been off in some café eating briscotti and hittin some major tailpipe in the ladies.' But that's me.

Also, turns out that training for a marathon does not mean you will lose weight. Which is amazing to consider - these people go from running 0 miles to 5 miles to 10 to 16 to 20 to the marathon, and most lost 0 pounds. "Diet trumps exercise" according to the show. Shocking - if you told me that in a few months I'd be running a marathon and still would be 225 lbs (cough) there's no way I'd believe you.

Most amazing is that this even happened for these couch potatoes in the first place - like a smoker whose lungs can return to pink if he really quits, it seems it's never too late to hit the "reset" button and get your ass healthy. Amazing. Although if I woke up tomorrow with a marathon runner's body and the lungs of Lance Armstrong, there's still no way I'm running 26 miles unless the finish line is at a Desperate Housewives Mini-Skirt Easter Egg Hunt.

Course, it's also possible to get plowed over by a bus at any moment. Life, eh?