Today I will be meeting the contestants for the very first time. I am wondering about their attitude, how they will look, and mostly how they will react when we tell them they will not be in a huge mansion… but they will be busting it over 550 miles and staying in tents. I especially wonder how they will respond to the 33 degree temperature outside.
Well it is around 7:30 am and I am on my way to the Boston Pier to meet the contestants and do the first weigh in. After some set up and production details Lorrie and I ran some lines and thought about how to greet the cast so we wouldn’t freak them out too much. We decided an energetic real approach was the way to go. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I saw the group of contestants round the corner and walk heavily down the pier towards us. It is so cold I can’t feel my hands and I am either crying from the excitement or my eyes are watering from the 30-40 mph wind gusts from the nor-easter that is heading straight for us. Oh my gosh the wind is brutal coming off of the water. But once I made eye contact with the first contestant… I couldn’t feel any wind, or any cold… all I could think about is I have a chance to help these people find a part of their self that has been lost for many years.
I had so many thoughts racing through my head… The excitement of this meeting was enormous. The anticipation and mystery of the not too distant future was unfolding right here in front of me. The next hour is almost a blur. Lorrie and I called one soon-to-be marcher at a time to the scale. I was blown away with the weight of these people. The lightest one was morbidly obese at best. My goal yesterday was for all of them to finish… After meeting them, I have the same goal - only the realism of the fight that it is going to take is almost more than I can bear. A 500 pound man that can’t walk to the mailbox is about to start a journey to Washington DC. Lorrie and I proceed to tell them the rules. Before we got to what they will be doing and not doing (staying in a mansion) we told them of the cash prize of 1.2 million dollars.
All 12 contestants were overwhelmed with such a huge number. Surely they realize that with a huge gift is going to come a huge responsibility. So… like a bomb dropping, we tell them what the 1.2 million will cost them. When these 12 marchers found out they would be walking and not working out in a gym… when they found out they would be tent camping and not staying in a mansion… when they found out they would have no access to cell phones, newspapers, TV or any other outside influences they were completely and literally flabbergasted! Yet, after some consideration… they all were in. “In for it” is more like it.
I knew once I sank my teeth into them it was going to be on like “Donkey Kong”. Once I make up my mind to invest in someone… they have my entire heart. Good intentions are not enough to take 12 obese people over 550 miles of hard rugged freezing terrain. I am scared… scared because I will have to invest more of myself emotionally in them and this project than I have ever experienced before. They may be out of their comfort zones physiologically… but I am out of mine from an emotional stand point. My only hope lies in… if I can believe in them 100% to complete this gargantuan task, and I can get them to believe in me as their trainer… then in 10 weeks they will…will… believe in themselves! I hope they rest well tonight. By God they are going to need it…
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