Did anyone watch this? What did you think? If you didn’t see it, was about a group of non-runners who trained over the course of 9 months to complete a marathon. Everyone made it except for one who had to drop out due to slow healing stress fractures. She is a T1 diabetic; and the show made a point of how diabetics heal slower than others. Other people I know thought the show was inspiring, or had issues with insinuating that it is that “easy” to train for a marathon, or were ticked because novice runners got to run Boston, the holy grail of marathons. I found myself a bit depressed by the fact that the only person who didn’t make it was diabetic.
I’m sorry I missed this. It sounds like it would have been a good show to watch, given my own intentions of eventually running a marathon.
You can watch the program on-line here:
So far I’ve only watched the first segment. Thanks for making us aware of this program.
Ken
Don’t be depressed, just recognize that for most diabetics a marathon represents MORE than just an athletic endeavor! Although I am no more than a citizen athlete, I have completed 4 marathons. The first two were back in the dark ages before home blood glucose monitoring; the second was when I was still unaware of it but 6 weeks pregnant; and the last was on my 40th birthday all by myself in a strange city because my training partner dropped out at the last moment. All four were MAJOR accomplishments for me (my fastest time was 4h10m, so you can imagine how many hours it takes to train at that pace) but, more importantly, represented my ability to take control of my health by doing something that took commitment. I hope I will always be training for something–at least I always want to stay one turn ahead of the depressing side of diabetes! ONE diabetic didn’t make it. How many on this site alone HAVE made it? I bet that would be a much more impressive number!!
Ken, glad you found the show!
Renee, thanks for posting! Wow, four marathons! I cannot imagine training without the aid of blood glucose monitoring. Your last time looks pretty fast to me! Keep posting and inspiring us.
I guess the diabetic gal who didn’t get to run depressed me because I was also sidelined w/ an injury at the time, and missing my 1st half marathon for which I had trained all summer. I’m easing back into it now though, so hopefully that’s not the end of the story, but just the beginning for me and for the gal in the show.
I’m definitely going to check out this show, or look for a repeat on-line. I’m curious to see how they presented the runner with T1.
I’m currently training for my second marathon (L.A.) with Team in Training sponsored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Next year, though, I’ll be looking for a program that supports diabetes research. If you know of a way, drop a line here!!
Terry
I watched the on-line version of the show last night and even clicked into some of the sidebar articles. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the last episode (5 of 5) pretty inspiring.
One thing I didn’t like was the implication throughout the show that running injuries are inevitable. Shin spints, knee pain, yadda yadda yadda - it’s just ain’t so if you take care of yourself, watch where you run and focus on good form.
People are built to run, I believe, and the documentary basically confirms.
Terry
Renee,
Your post just made my day 
I’m struggling with the winter season blues (too cold, too wet, too windy, treadmill is too boring, etc., etc.) and your post gave me a little inspiration to keep my training going.
Ken
Carol, you’re an encouragement to me. I know your injury was a major set-back, but you’re at it again and that’s inspiring to me. We 40+ year old plodders need to stick together
Ken
Ken, YOU are the inspiring one! Thanks for your posts, I always look forward to reading them. I NEED to workout in some way, or my control spirals down. Besides, I just don’t feel as good. Having said that, it is SO easy for me to come up with a perfect (at the time) excuse to put it off. Right now I had planned on using my bike to get to work, but now I am thinking that it is too icy. Had I made that decision earlier, I could have walked. But no… Like I said, keep writing, I need the inspiration from everyone on this site!