So who did the best? In truth they all did extremely well, but we thought we'd give awards for the fun of it. The final weigh in would be the moment of truth.
Coming in sixth place, our injured athlete on Slimfast, who battled pain all year but still lost 20 pounds. At 210 pounds, Gio fell 15 pounds short of his goal weight.
In fifth place, our ladies man under hypnosis ladies man Marc Merlis also tipped the scales at 210. His total loss was 35 pounds, yet 15 pounds short of his goal.
in fourth is our homecoming queen. Though Kathy refused to weigh in, confirmed Kathy had hit her goal, and dropped hard earned 40 pounds.
In third place, after 10 months with Jorge Cruise, Eleanor was just 10 pounds short of her goal, but had lost a truly impressive 60 pounds and plans to lose another 60.
As for our top two, hey, that's a judgment call. Nonetheless we're saying second place goes to our Atkins man and football tough guy, Rick Burnes who not only tackled losing 100 pounds by the reunion, he surpassed it. He slashed 16 inches of his waistline, and dropped a whopping 108 pounds.
Back at the reunion, we played a tape with the results of the diet challenge. And there was only one story for which the room fell silent. It was the story of our marathon lady, the woman who took on the biggest challenge of her life, for her kids, and relied on her faith to get her through. The Maui Marathon would turn out to be a grueling test, mile upon mile, hill after hill, all in 90 degree heat.
When we found Lynn walking at the 16 mile aid station, we were concerned. Lynn tried pressing on, pacing herself, toughing it out until mile 21. It was the furthest she had ever run. They say this is where many runners have hit the wall.
When we got to the finish line, 5 hours into the race, when Lynn had hoped to finish, she was no where in sight. And we found ourselves wondering, did we really think a 43-year-old mother of seven who'd never really done anything athletic in her life could run a 26 mile race?
But for those who know her, there was never any doubt. In 10 months, Lynn Frank had gone from out of shape and overweight to official finisher of the Maui Marathon. Not only had she reached her goal of losing 35 pounds, she ran a marathon in five hours and 23 minutes. Lynn's incredible finish brought her class to its feet. And for that we think she deserves the title winner of the Dateline Diet Challenge.
They did say that WW had confirmed that she reached goal and she looked great. Hmmmmm, maybe that darned old bloat fairy was visiting her instead of one of us for a change?
