Published: January 07, 2007 12:32 am      

‘Biggest Loser’ state contestant runs half-marathon

‘Feels awesome’ after Run-to-Read event

PRICKETTS FORT — Last April, Chris Blackburn weighed 326 pounds and never exercised a day in his life.

On Saturday, Blackburn ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 27 minutes and 2 seconds.

The Buckhannon resident, two-thirds of his former self at about 220 pounds, ran in the Run-to-Read Half-Marathon, which benefits Literacy Volunteers of West Virginia.

Blackburn’s motivation to transform himself into a healthy-eating, exercise junkie came from being the West Virginia contestant in the hit NBC reality series “The Biggest Loser,” hosted by comedian Caroline Rhea. The show ran last fall, and the finale was in December.

“It feels awesome,” he said Saturday after crossing the finish line at the race, held on the rail-trail at Pricketts Fort in perfect 60-degree running weather, compared to last year’s cold and snow.

Before Saturday, the most Blackburn ever had run was 10 miles, but he expressed confidence on Friday that he could do the half marathon.

“From what I’ve been told, they say if you can get to 11 miles, your mind carries you through the last three miles,” he said.

Blackburn convinced his friend, Justin Steele of Fairmont, who works at Global Science & Technology, to run in the race with him. Steele completed the half marathon in just over two hours, and then retraced his final steps and ran with Blackburn, who came in about 25 minutes later.

Steele, who has known Blackburn since their freshman year at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where Blackburn now works as assistant director of admissions, was one of the few friends who knew Blackburn would be going on television to deal with his weight.

“He ended up taking control of the situation,” Steele said.

Last April when he became a contestant on “The Biggest Loser,” Blackburn had trouble completing a 4-mile walk led by two personal trainers hired to whip everyone into shape. But he started walking on a treadmill, then alternating between walking and jogging, until he worked his way up to daily 4-mile runs. Now he works out twice a day six times a week, adding in circuit training four days a week.

His goal was to complete the half marathon in under two and a half hours, which he did by about three minutes. The overall winner, David McCollam, 27, of Philippi, a former cross country runner at Alderson-Broaddus College, finished in 1:13:34, almost exactly half the time Blackburn did.

But for Blackburn, who has dealt with weight issues all his life, running 13 11.5-minute consecutive miles — stopping only once at around mile 10 with a leg cramp — was a huge victory.

“I said I’d do it in under 2:30, and I made it,” he said.

While Blackburn ran the race, Steele’s mother, Roberta, waited at the finish line along with Janice Glance of Fairmont, whose 22-year-old daughter, Lisa, also was competing.

At one point, Glance appeared to hear the unfamiliar ring of a cell phone which turned out to be her daughter’s. She answered it anyway.

“She’s running a half marathon right now,” Glance told the caller. “I’m at the finish line waiting for her to finish. I’ll have her call you — if she can breathe.”

Lisa Glance finished in one hour and 53 minutes. Like Blackburn, she too had convinced a friend to run and after catching her breath, she ran a mile back up the trail to run in with Jeanette Caster of Maidsville. The two work together at Mylan in Morgantown.

“She talked me into it,” Caster said. “I run 5-Ks. This is hard. I got to eight miles and I said, ‘I’m not going to make it.’”

But she did, in two hours and 18 minutes, even though her knee started bothering her. “I did some speed walking,” she admitted.

Blackburn got on to “The Biggest Loser” because he happened to be visiting friends in Columbus, Ohio, when the show was holding a casting call. After a lengthy interview process, he flew out to Los Angeles for the final interview, and he became West Virginia’s representative on a show that had contestants from each of the 50 states.

“The next morning, we started shooting,” he said.

At the beginning of the process, the 50 weighed in on a giant scale in excess of 14,000 pounds.

Blackburn’s elation at making the show soon dimmed when he and 35 other contestants learned they would be competing from home. The remaining 14 stayed at “The Biggest Loser” ranch for as long as 12 weeks, learning diet tips, participating in challenges and facing an elimination each week, a la “Survivor.”

But Blackburn now believes that he stands a better chance of sustaining his weight loss because he did it in the “real world,” although he did stick around in L.A. for a week of tests and instruction and also e-mailed and communicated with the other at-home contestants.

“When I was in Weight Watchers, a lot of people had lost some weight and were doing it as maintenance,” he said. “But to be in a group of people all going through the same thing really helped.”

Overweight most of his life, Blackburn’s size had started to bother him. Weight issues run in his family, and “The Biggest Loser” doctors found him to be on the verge of diabetes and hypertension.

Many competitors experienced weight loss of 10 to 15 pounds a week, although in the beginning, Blackburn did not. The ultimate winner, Erik from New York, went from 407 pounds to 193 in eight months, winning $250,000. The at-home player who lost the most weight, Poppi from New Jersey, went from 232 pounds to 115 — a size 22 to 2 — and won $50,000.

“She’s a really good friend of mine,” Blackburn said.

Everyone’s weekly progress can be monitored in photos and videos on the show’s Web site, www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/.

The huge weight loss and life transformation that many contestants underwent in a short period of time astonished many. Steele remembered seeing Blackburn in August, a month after the two went to Myrtle Beach, and realized how much weight his friend had lost.

“I asked him if it was OK to lose that much weight that quickly, and he said that when people are that big, the weight falls off quickly,” Steele said. “Plus, the weight also is stressing the heart, which is more dangerous.”

Blackburn also became friends with Nikki, the contestant from Ohio, and had planned to run a marathon with her in April. But Saturday afternoon, as he shook out his legs and recovered from the run, he was not sure about that.

“I couldn’t imagine adding another two miles to that,” he said. “I might hold off on a marathon.”

Although he admitted that in three months, that could change, especially after all the changes he has undergone in the past nine months. His goal is to get down to 185 pounds.

As for the rest of the day, however, Blackburn knew what he would be doing.

“I am going to the Chinese buffet,” he said. “I am not going to lie. I just worked off 2,500 calories. I can eat whatever I want.”

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.