Biggest Loser

I've been a huge fan of the Biggest Loser since the very first season.  I love the idea of helping people learn proper nutrition and how to exercise.  The people on the show are obviously on the extreme end of the health/weight spectrum.  Although I consider myself to be reasonably fit and to generally eat right, I still find inspiration from watching the contestant's struggles and I do learn little tidbits from each season.  But, I have to say, I do have one major issue with the show and that is how they portray the act of running a marathon. 

First of all, that 26.2 mile course featured in the episode looked like the worst marathon course of all time.  Totally flat, totally boring, loops in the desert.  No cheering crowds, no variety of scenery and only a handful of participants.  Sounds incredibly tedious and painful to me. 

Second, these people all seemed to be wearing brand new gear.  NO veteran runner of any distance would run their first marathon in new clothing.  Heck, I will only break in new clothing on runs of less than five miles.  New clothing often brings uncomfortable chaffing and blistering and is totally unrealistic in a long distance event. 

Third, there appeared to be absolutely no aid, water or energy supplements consumed along the way.  I saw only one brief glimpse of one contestant running with a water bottle.  I fear that this gives a very false and glib impression that one can run a marathon without any hydration or electrolyte replacement.  For those of you who have never run long distances, this is a sure way to become dehydrated, have a horrible racing experience filled with muscles cramps and, worst case, even suffer from serious health issues like heat stroke.  I have run three marathons and each had an aid station roughly every mile.  An aid station is more than just medical support - they are generally staffed with a dozen or more volunteers handing out water and a Gatorade product at a minimum.  Some stations will also have easily digested snacks like gummy bears and popsicle sticks loaded with Vasoline. 

There are so many more details that go into running a marathon but these are my three main 'beefs' with the Biggest Loser marathon.  Their representation of the event as something where you put on some brand new running gear and run loops in the desert without any shade, water or Gu is ridiculously inaccurate.  It could even be incredibly dangerous should someone decide that their glib portrayal is correct and attempt something similar themselves.