"Biggest Loser" producers say: "We apologize"

UPDATED to include Dane Patterson's apology.

A followup to my Thursday story about the fabricated account of "Biggest Loser" eliminee Dane Patterson running a marathon, when in fact he only ran 23 miles: The producers of "The Biggest Loser" are taking full responsibility for the misrepresentation.

Here's the apology put out late Thursday night by Reveille, the company behind "TBL":

"As the Executive Producers of 'The Biggest Loser' we would like to make an official apology and set the record straight with regards to the claim in last night's episode that Dane completed a marathon in Arizona.

"After seeing on various online blogs that this information may be inaccurate we investigated the claim and found that Dane had not indeed completed the marathon unaided. From our internal investigation we learned that Dane ran the first 17 miles before receiving a ride from the field producer for 3 miles before rejoining the race at the 20 mile mark whereupon he completed the race.

"We are incredibly proud of Dane for running 23 miles and losing over 130 lbs on his weight loss journey so far and wish him luck as he continues his new healthy lifestyle. We have also taken the necessary action to ensure that there is no future misrepresentations and sincerely apologize for misleading our loyal viewers and it was certainly not our intent but an unwitting mistake.

"We hope they will continue to be inspired and motivated by all of our contestants and follow them as they continue to change their lives."

Update 6:18 pm: This from Dane Patterson. He actually did finish the race, in a manner:

"I always intended to run the full marathon. At the 17th mile, I knew I would not make it in time to cross the finish line before it closed at 6 hours, so I then received a ride from the field producer, who wanted to show me crossing the finish line. He drove me for three miles, and then I ran the rest of the way. After all the filming was done I went back and finished the last 3 miles later that day with my wife and cousin Blaine. I apologize for stating that I ran the entire marathon before I actually ran the whole 26 miles. I am proud of the feat of just running 26 miles in one day."

My thoughts ...

The word "internal investigation" tells me that someone didn't tell someone that Dane had been picked up at the 23-mile mark, and so a little visual fib became a big lie in the eyes of the blogosphere. (Though it was an unrelated screwup, whoever shaved two hours off Dane's supposed finish time didn't help things.) I believe the commenter whose wife was an eyewitness to the tail end of the marathon, and who said that had Dane not been filmed crossing the finish line when he was, by the time he'd completed 26.2 miles there wouldn't have been a finish line, because the race officials would have packed up and gone home.

(Update: Let me rephrase that, since a runner pointed me to the race results which clearly show laggards being counted. Rather than getting sidetracked on a discussion of whether Dane's race time would have counted or not -- it appears it would have -- let's stay with the main point: Someone at Reveille decided to cut corners and came up with a justification for it. And I can still see where they were coming from. But clearly, and everyone agrees on this, it was a bad call.)

At any rate, it sounds like Dane is planning to run another marathon in April, which would be one more than I've run.

Comments

[Ric]

As a 62 year old marathoner with 21 marathons I took personal offense to Dane accepting his finishers medal and waiving it around. I'm glad this was corrected and apologised for. And I'm also sure that if there hadn't been an outcry no apology would have been forth coming. Dane should finish his next marathon and redeem himself. My comments in no way are meant to disminish his working at getting in shape.

[DKC]

I think the producers are certainly free to plead ignorance, just not of the facts.

[Ms Chicklet]

What I want to know is why the show's producers felt this sham was necessary. Dane had worked his behind off at the ranch, losing 100 pounds in eight weeks, and was continuing to lose weight. Why wasn't that enough? Why did they feel the need to lie to and manipulate the viewers with such a fraud? And why did Dane and his wife go along with it, if they're soooo honest?

[Ryan]

As a 62 year old marathoner with 21 marathons I took personal offense to Dane accepting his finishers medal and waiving it around.

How ridiculous. Marathons are an individual sport. Be proud of your own accomplishments without hanging them on the actions of others. Dane accomplished what he felt was the running of a complete marathon (i.e., he went back and ran the three miles). You don't hold a monopoly on what counts as a marathon. Run your marathons and let others run theirs without trying to pull them down.

[Kristina]

"How ridiculous. Marathons are an individual sport. Be proud of your own accomplishments without hanging them on the actions of others. Dane accomplished what he felt was the running of a complete marathon (i.e., he went back and ran the three miles). You don't hold a monopoly on what counts as a marathon. Run your marathons and let others run theirs without trying to pull them down."

Exactly, I agree with you 100% Ryan. You are a great person as opposed to Ric who seems to want to base how he feels about his accomplishments off of others. Even if Dane didn't go back and run the 3 missed miles...he STILL ran 23 miles...that's more than I can say and I'm 5'3 113lbs, yet I am totally out of shape. I am more than proud of Dane!!

[Maggie portorreal]

I have never ran a marathon and never thought i would ever be interested in participating in one...Until now..setting aside this whole issue with Dane..to learn that Ms Chicklet (from previous comments) is 62 years old and has ran 21 marathons is inspiring to me. I have been overweight for a long time and have just recently lost an extreme amount of weight and as of today I have set a goal to participate in a 5K ! Thanks for the inspiration! As for Dane... Good job on the weight loss and the 23 miles..hope you learned a valuable lesson from all of this.

[Hilary]

I feel bad for Dane, I think he bowed to pressure when he was obviously struggling. The end of a marathon is a psychological battle more than anything. If I was offered a ride in one of the 7 marathons I've run, I might have taken it. But I would have regretted it just as I'm sure he does. I was flabbergasted by the snipet of his finishing time when I saw it and it upset me for days. I have worked my butt off to just run a 5 hour marathon, and to see that 3:53 time just about made me throw my shoes out the window. For that I am angry with NBC. There are a lot of slow fat marathoners out there who would have been totally proud of Dane finishing as the sun set. Who cares when it happens! I hope the guy who gave him a ride is out looking for work right now. He obviously doesn't have the point of the show in his heart.

[Marathoner]

I credit Dane with his accomplishments and losing the weight he did in this competition. I am infuriated and offended by the scam that he and the producers pulled on the viewers in saying he completed this marathon. Completing a marathon is one of the hardest things I've ever done and I've done it 6 times. There is no shame in not finishing or not meeting the time limit. It's hard!!! If you haven't invested the time in training and participating you don't know what you are talking about in your comments. What if this was a round of golf and he put in a par score, he really bogied three holes but went back afterwards and replayed those holes to meet par? What would you say then?

[Ann-Marie]

Anyone who has not competed in a marathon,triathlon, or any kind of 5K race would not understand. I completed my first triathlon in October. Yes, the races are governed by USAT but for my own self worth, I would never think of cheating. You sign up for the races for yourself but you owe it to your fellow competitors to run a fair race WITHOUT ASSISTANCE!! We are all in charge of our own actions and Dane should be ashamed!

[Ann-Marie]

Look up the definiton of "Sportmanship"

[Dave]

I was shocked when they showed and said the time was 3:50 something and that's a very quick pace. I knew that just didn't seem correct and thought it must be incorrect. I also sometimes get shocked that some of the people are running at 12 miles an hour during gym workouts. I'm in better shape and i would have a hell of time running that quick. It's a great show but let's not stretch the truth.

[Aaron Barnhart]

Debra Sapp-Yarwood wrote me ...

"I find it interesting that you only heard from marathon enthusiasts and not, with one exception, weight-loss maintainers (and the one you heard from was a marathon enthusiast foremost, in addition to being a weight loss maintainer).

"Speaking as a member of the 3% club of radical weight-loss maintainers, I think the one fellow's response that they should have filmed him crossing after the finish line had been broken down, to no cheers, was spot on for another reason. That is a perfect metaphor for weight loss maintenance. When you're losing weight, there are all kinds of people noticing your "results" and complimenting you and asking advice and on and on. You're a celebrity. On the other hand, maintaining a great deal of weight loss is a lonely pursuit. No one gives a shit. People think that, of course, you're going to maintain all that loss. Who wouldn't be motivated to do that? The big ugly elephant in the room, however, is that empirical research (where people are actually weighed regularly and not trusted to report their success or failure on surveys) shows that only 2 to 3% of the people who lose radical weight (variously defined, but I would qualify based on all the studies) using behavior without surgical assistance, maintain those losses for more than 2 to 5 years (again, depending on the study -- I'm at six years).

"No one asks maintainers for advice, because they think they need advice only on how to lose weight, not how to maintain weight loss -- that will be a big no brainer once they've done the hard work, or so they think. Maintaining radical weight loss is something you do for other reasons than a cheering crowd. So sad they didn't show that on Biggest Loser, but not surprising. It wouldn't sell much soap, would it?"

[Chris]

I think that since "The Biggest Loser" is a show intended for entertainment, and it never states anywhere that what is being shown is factual or historical, the producers should be allowed to show whatever they feel is entertaining.