Nova Special - Training for the Boston Marathon

Boston Qulaifier wrote:

desert rodent wrote:

Yeah, I know, a 10k doesn't sound so impressive at dinner parties.

Quote of the day.

Sure it does, because the people at those parties would just be impressed that someone runs. They have no real idea of the difference in the races. I'm sure most of them, upon hearing someone is running a marathon, would ask how for that is. 10k, 26m it's all the same to them.

cmass coach wrote:

Hey Adam, They ran with the group one day per week, the rest was on their own. most are still running 11 out of 13, that alone is worth it. Now there are 7 traing for next years Boston and you still find fault.

And how many runners out there belong to clubs and train with a group, or do workouts together.

The point of this project was to show the average couch potato that they can change their lives, it seems to have worked. I'd call that a success.

And no, i don't think anyone or everyone should be given a number to run a marathon, but i did run a 2:23 in my first Boston with a free number, so it can't be that hard.

Were you as much of an a**hole then as you are now? Way to shamelessly plug yourself there at the end.

I'd bet the farm on it.

Sigh . . . it took about twenty minutes and ten posts for this thread to devolve.

Going back to the original posts:

cmass -- hats off and thx to your wife. I have run Boston (with a sub-3:20 qualifying cutoff) and enjoyed the show tremendously. It could easily have been 2+ hours. If they get a chance to do it again, here's my only editorial comment: More Uta please; that woman runs beautifully.

I'm not sure why we have to argue about the other points (people will argue, I'm not sure why). I think it's bad karma to denegrate anyone who runs, at any speed. And if the worst problem the world has is too many slow novices running marathons, well that would be a pretty swell world. If people don't like charity runners getting into Boston, direct the vitriol at the BAA for letting them in. I can't be too hard on the charity runners for asking (even if one thinks it is akin to the HS chess club president asking the head cheerleader to the prom . . . the chutzpah is still worth something).

tell your wife that it sucked badly. it was piss poor and boring and very predictable. YOur wife is stupid as piss for making such a thing.

Thanks for your intelligent reply mister fantastik, it means alot.

Sorry to Adam about the reply, got a little testy listening to some of the crap, especially the guy doing 100 per week and running 2:50, unfortunately i felt the need to let him have it, my bad.

I didn't see the special but I gather that it was professionally done and probably a lot more entertaining for us runner types than Survivor. To the guy who’s wife produced it he must have been very proud. But I still go back to the question, “Why Boston?”For most of my daily life I try not to distill runners vs. joggers. I give them advice and try and be as supportive as possible but there are times that I just need to enjoy my sport free and clear of them. They are not me and, chances are, they will never be me. I don’t hate them but I don’t love them either, somewhere between Webb and a couch potato. So now that all of that is said and done, I still don't understand the reason to desecrate Boston. To some of us Boston is our refuge from the penguins, our inspiration to achieve, our reason to put forth effort year after year, our reason to hang onto the dream of coming back. These penguins get all the other marathons, road races, headlines, heroes, etc.; can't we just have one place that means something to us and not them? BAA is not perfect and they become a little less perfect every year but it’s all we got. Why couldn’t you pick NYC, or Chicago or some other marathon designed for these types of reality shows? It’s not that materially more expensive to got elsewhere.Somewhere along the line we runners need to police ourselves. BAA clearly won’t do it for us so when you come on here all giddy about these penguins gutting out a 5 hour marathon of course you will get a negative reaction. Your reaction to these posts clearly single you out as an dickhead. That's ok though because I know a lot of running dickheads, I'm one for not loving my chubby jogging cousins. So when someone calls you out, don't act all high and mighty, just try to understand where we are coming from.

Accountability? wrote:

If you had bothered to watch the program, you would have noticed that the researchers and coach working with the runners are at Tufts University in Boston, and Nova is produced at WGBH in Boston. So for logistical purposes, and because they are not working with an unlimited budget, what would be the logical marathon to run?

cmass coach wrote:

Thanks for your intelligent reply mister fantastik, it means alot.

Sorry to Adam about the reply, got a little testy listening to some of the crap, especially the guy doing 100 per week and running 2:50, unfortunately i felt the need to let him have it, my bad.

Producer's wife. Where do these newbies go from here? They have already scaled Mount Everest. I didn't here a single one of them mention Falmouth - they probably don't even know it exists.

Personally, I found it interesting viewing...until race day.

What would make a great show would be to take a 3:30 marathoner and make them a 2:30 marathoner

Rodent, one of the Nova group ran the BAA half and they run some other local stuff. Several of them still meet two times per week to run. Most of the group ran the New bedford half last march before Boston.

They have also gotten other family members and friends to join them. This has had a big effect on them. Too bad the letsrun crowd is too full of itself to see that.

cmass coach wrote:

Too bad the letsrun crowd is too full of itself to see that.

Awww, well let me apologize for all of letsrun for not fawning all over them. Do you always get this defensive when someone doesn't agree with your every word, or if they offer a different perspective?

Don't apologize, just shut up. I don't care if you don't agree with me. But why do people come on here and ridicule these people? They took part in a TV show as ginnie pigs, it could have been a disaster for any one of them. Instead they have become runners, become healthier and encouraged their friends and family to do the same.

It is not about my perspective, heck, i don't consider myself a jogger, but i don't dump on joggers. I'm 50 and can run about 16 min. for 5k but i don't race because i think 16 min. is slow. But i still run and i respect those that do race, regardless of their times.`I even respect those joggers that just run to keep the pounds off.

If i saw you out running i'd probably even respect you.

cmass coach wrote:

Well Old fart, all who started the race finished. Maybe you set your limits too low. Their goal was to finish, they achieved it.

I'm getting the feeling that you or your wife were involved in the program. If so, I agree with another poster - it was professionally done and I enjoyed most of it.

I still think it is not wise to try and go from 0 to marathon so quickly. Maybe it was your idea, maybe not. But its symptomatic of America. We want to do the grandest thing we can think of, and we don't want to take very long to do it so we can cross it off our life list and move on to the next.

Hillary took years to ascend Everest. Now its routinely done by many who have a lot of money, a little time, and no patience for the devotion it should respect. I see the marathon in similar terms. I'm no elitist - I'm a midpack, 4hr marathon old fart. I took several years to build up to it. People can do it faster - the show demonstrated that. But I still think the public would be better served if this were not portrayed as the way to do it.

cmass coach wrote:

Don't apologize, just shut up. I don't care if you don't agree with me. But why do people come on here and ridicule these people? They took part in a TV show as ginnie pigs, it could have been a disaster for any one of them. Instead they have become runners, become healthier and encouraged their friends and family to do the same.

F*** you. Everyone has to listen to your opinions, but they can't express theirs? For someone who is 50 you act more like you are 15.

Disaster? What kind of disaster? They quit? they got a boo boo?This is the kind of drama you inject into this that pisses people off. If someone dies, that's a disaster. Dropping out of training or a race is part of the deal of being a runner. Don't make it sound like this was some kind of life or death thing you idiot drama queen.

cmass coach: do the names Larry Olsen and Ken Mueller mean anything to you?

"Q-angle"? What the...?

q-angle, angle of the femur between the knee and hip, becomes a problem when girls become women.

Larry legend and Ken Mueller, why?

et tu Brute wrote:

So now that all of that is said and done, I still don't understand the reason to desecrate Boston.

The problem is not that anyone is "desecrating" Boston. The problem is that you have the ridiculous idea in your head that Boston is somehow "sacred".

It is not. It is a big commercial marathon just like the rest of them. The day that Boston offered prize money is the day that that fantasy should have been buried.

any way it might be on TV again? or be able to watch it online?