Uta Pippig, two-time Olympian and winner of three Boston Marathons, three Berlin Marathons and one New York City Marathon, will be seen in “Marathon Challenge,” a one-hour NOVA special that airs nationally on PBS, October 30, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. EST.

“Marathon Challenge” examines what it takes for a novice runner to complete the Boston Marathon, a road race widely believed to be among the world’s toughest. (More information about the documentary is available at 
www.pbs.org/nova/marathon.)

In the summer of 2006, NOVA began following 13 such hopefuls as they took their first steps toward running the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon in April 2007. The aspiring marathoners represented diverse backgrounds and lifestyles. The one unifying element was that none of them was a marathoner before.

For “Marathon Challenge,” Uta joined NOVA’s coaching team that was comprised of Tufts Marathon Challenge Coach Don Megerle, and a core group of Tufts University experts including nationally renowned nutrition scientist Miriam Nelson and exercise physiologist Roger Fielding.

Over a nine-month training period, exercise and nutrition scientists and doctors at Tufts University used sophisticated technology to monitor the physical transformations that the participants underwent. In the film, intimate one-on-one interviews reveal the highs and lows the runners experienced along the way.

“Marathon Challenge” was filmed in cooperation with the Boston Athletic Association which granted NOVA unprecedented access to the 111th Boston Marathon^® course. The program takes viewers on a unique adventure inside the human body and mind during a nine-month training period leading up to the Boston race. As such, “Marathon Challenge” is both a human story and an intriguing scientific exploration of the way the human body responds to intense exercise demands.

Uta Pippig, is founder of Take The Magic Step, LLC^®, a corporation established to accommodate robust demand for, and further expansion of Take The Magic Step™ Health and Fitness concept launched by Pippig in April 2005. She is also on the Board of Advisors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)AgeLab, which was created to invent ideas and technology solutions to improve health in people as they age.

Contact:
Michael Draznin
Michael Draznin Consulting
+1 917 921 1039 tel
michael@drazninconsulting.com