You may have read about the Nova Marathon Challenge at this year’s Boston Marathon. Tufts University coach Donald Megerle and 3-time Boston winner Uta Pippig took a dozen people off of the street and trained them for the marathon over a span of 9 months.
Throughout the entire process, one person who was diabetic sustained multiple stress fractures and had to quit. She was replaced with a former NFL lineman, Steve DeOssie. Of the 13 people who were involved in the program, 12 of them made it to the starting line, and all 12 of them finished the race. All of the participants were sedentary and (technically) overweight before starting the program, and other than DeOssie none had spent much time exercising since college, if ever.
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