"The Boston Marathon is going to be huge this year."
If this prediction from Don Megerle, Director of the Tufts President's Marathon Challenge, comes true, it may be partly due to PBS.
Megerle isn't just coaching the Tufts team this year, but also a team of selected runners whose progress will be documented in an episode of Nova, the WGBH television series.
Only two of these 13 runners are part of the Tufts community (two are Tufts alums), but all will train at Cousens Gym every Sunday morning. The catch: none of them have any long-distance running experience.
The hour-long piece, titled "Marathon," will focus on the runners' physiological progress and will air on PBS in 2007.
Megerle will train this group separately from President Lawrence Bacow's Marathon Challenge team, which he also trains.
Yet the prospect of 26.2 miles is a daunting undertaking, but the runners are well on their way.
The training is already in its 16th week, and team members are now running eight miles each session.
During the week, the runners are on an interval training program that alternates between walking and running. Some runners also are on personal diets to either maintain or lose weight, Megerle said.
Megerle is both proud of the progress the group has made so far and confident that most members will successfully complete the marathon - but prospects of injuries are clouding the horizon.
Both Carol Brayboy (J '85) and teammate Melissa White, Director of the Tufts Fund for Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, are coping with injuries.
Still, both are training when they can and still hope to complete the marathon.
White, who learned of a stress fracture just a few weeks after training began, said that her healing process has been especially slow because she has had diabetes for the past 25 years.
"But every time I feel that I am being left in the dust, this amazing group of people cheers me on and reminds me that I am part of the team and that they will help me through this," she said.
Brayboy, whose hip has been troubling her for a few weeks, has felt both the physical and emotional effects of her injury.
"I hate to stop once I'm in the middle of a run, but then I'll limp all the next day," she said. "My body has never been through this before and I have to give it patience. It's all about learning about your body and its limits - both in a physical and an emotional sense."
Participants say the camera time and interviews make the already-difficult task of training more complicated.
"It can get tough," Brayboy said, "especially if you're trying to finish a really tough run and you're having a difficult time. Afterwards, you might be exhausted or you might want time to yourself to reflect, but the cameras are always there."
The production team also films the runners at doctor's appointments and at home with their families.
"They make a full schedule for you every day," Brayboy said.
Brayboy, a single mother with three children, often has to make time to go on her daily runs and frequently sacrifices her regular attendance at church on Sunday mornings.
Still, Sundays are her favorite days to train. "I love running with a group. If you're running on your own, it can be very difficult to get motivated and get yourself out the door," she said.
"The group bonded incredibly," White said. "While we each come to this project with our own individual struggles, there is a palpable sense of team that keeps us together."
Outside of the weekly training runs, team members e-mail each other consistently during the week "to ask for advice, vent about our latest challenges, and be each other's cheerleaders," White said.
"It's really an interesting group," Megerle said. "Each one comes with an interesting story."
Brayboy says her experience in training has been a "lifelong lesson that applies to everything."
"There are no limits when you really want to do something," she said.
