Biggest Loser Half Marathon

yep I pointed that out to my wife when I saw it. CHEATER CHEATER PUMPKIN EATER!!!!

Also noticed that at least one contestant called it a "marathon". Think it was Felipe.

Yeah, plus I heard her say something like 10 laps to a mile? Running at UW-Oshkosh like Cathy did would be bad enough. But on a small high school size track...huge props from me.

I missed it.

i did notice that. i'd assume the distance not run was pretty substantial. it was probably only a few meters per lap but if she cut the track on 100+ laps, that would take off a decent amount of time.

She cut off about 3 lane widths at the beginning and end of the home straightaway each lap. Assuming lane width is about 3 meters, and not taking into acount that it's curving, let's just call it 6 meters per lap over the course of 105 laps(they probably called 1600m a mile). That's about 630m total that she cut off, which, at her pace, is probably 4-5 minutes.

I can't believe I wasted the time explaining that.

Wow. I clicked on this thread expecting it to be something about the Los Angeles Marathon now offering a half.

What amazed me is that the "winning" time was 2:25. I don't know what I was expecting, but I would have thought that the winner could have at least maintained a 10-minute mile pace. Of course, it's hard to correlate expectations for somebody dragging around that much weight (although some of them have made substantial progress).

She did it at 200lbs, Sione at 280 or something, 2:25 isn't that bad considering where they came from. I had a beef with all of them running in different conditions, we all know what huge difference that can make in your time!

What I do not understand is they devote a ridiculous amount of money to provide these contestants with the best food, the best trainers, the best gyms, and the best conditions so the contestants will succeed no matter what. I hate that part about the show because it teaches people at home NOTHING.

However, the challenge of putting these overweight contestants into a half marathon run on an indoor track, or, in Tara's case, on a high school basketball court? Isn't that asking for injury? Why in the world wouldn't they find one of the thousands of half marathons that occur every single weekend across the USA, put them all in the race, and then see who really is the fastest. Plus, then they have encouragement, competition from others besides BL contestants, water, and the other amenities that a race has to offer.

I do not understand why they wouldn't do this. Plane tickets and race entries would be a drop in the bucket in terms of how much money they spend on this show.

I agree! A high school gym??? I'm a pretty strong runner and I doubt I could run a half by doing circles in a gym.

Plus, most were wearing beat-up cross trainers.

What a weird show...

The cousins in Phoenix ran at south mountain park which is very hard to

Find flat ground even if doing multiple out and backs.

I KNEW I could count on the LetsRun forum to already have a thread going about this. I also pointed it out to my wife as we watched last night. I stepped away when they did the results of the half marathon and applied the sugar cookie penalties, so I didn't see that part, but my wife said that it didn't seem to be done in the way they explained - especially after only 1 person admitted to eating the cookie and that person gave Tara the 5 minute penalty so she lost. Weren't there others that they showed eating cookies?

Made me wonder if they figured out that Tara hadn't actually run the correct distance, made sure that the final edited version of the show had her not winning and then they moved on...

What banked track was used for the one contestant? Couldn't totally piece that one together.

I also question how smart it is to have people between 200 and 400 pounds running a 1/2 marathon as a challenge - especially when many of them had to do it on small indoor tracks...but Jillian sure seems pretty darned high on herself - cue the "Wouldn't YOU listen to me if I was your trainer?" outbreak she made last night....

Indy Guy wrote:Weren't there others that they showed eating cookies?

... Jillian sure seems pretty darned high on herself - cue the "Wouldn't YOU listen to me if I was your trainer?" outbreak she made last night....

I thought they showed at least Aubrey eating a cookie too. And when Jillian said that, both my husband and I yelled "NO!" at the TV. These people are going to end up destroying their knees by running that distance with that amount of weight. No trainers in their right mind would suggest they do that.

I was appalled at this challenge. Talk about a perfect recipe for instant shin-splints or worse. I'm not sure how many miles/week they are already doing but there's no way the contestants were in a healthy shape to be running 13.1 at once.

To justify running 13 miles in one day I would say you would need to be running at least 20 miles/week already and have already run distances close to 13.1. It was clear from there reactions that none of the contestants have run anywhere near this amount. I think it was downright irresponsible of the BL to put these people in a dangerous position.

I also noticed Tara cheated and did anyone notice that Laura walked into the cookie/time reveal with a boot on her right foot! When they showed her in the next shot this was removed. Clearly showing that the BL didnt care who got hurt by there contest.

My gf and I also shouted no to jillian at the end. I used to like her but now its clear she doesnt care about the contestants.

As for Ron, this guy is the ultimate game player and its downright impressive even if you dislike him. He is clearly only in it to help his son but at times he can be so genuine about losing the weight. His ability to diet will only keep him in the game so long though.

Indy Guy wrote:

What banked track was used for the one contestant? Couldn't totally piece that one together.

I think it was Boise State

"Laura walked into the cookie/time reveal with a boot on her right foot! When they showed her in the next shot this was removed. Clearly showing that the BL didnt care who got hurt by there contest."

I saw that too and it reinforced the conversation that i was having with my wife about how irresponsible it was to have them do that. By the team I mentioned it they had cut to a different shot and low and behold-the boot was gone.

What's wrong with having them run a 5 or 10K? From where they're coming from, that is a respectable accomplishment with much less risk of injury.

You're spot on about Ron--unfortunately once he goes under the yellow line it'll be lights out for him.

did anybody catch the guy running with one of the people on an INDOOR track with a fuel belt...douche...

The black team will start to cannibalize themselves soon. very soon.