New York City Marathon Runners Range From Celebs To Weight Loss Winners: Low-Carb Fitness Advice [Video]

As strong winds gust in New York City, marathon professionals have their eyes set on the $100,000 first-place prize. But not everyone is a pro. Some are running for charities, while others are celebrating their health. As the 44th running of the New York City Marathon takes place, the 50,000 runners also include celebrities such as actress Teri Hatcher, revealed Forbes.

Mary Wittenberg, chief executive of the New York Road Runners Club since 2005, cheers for the celebrities. She points out that when it comes to completing that marathon run, the rich and famous are just like the real folk. They pant, push, and perspire to complete the race.

“The celebrity must do this, another person can’t do it for them,” emphasizes Wittenberg.

In addition to Hatcher, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, former NFL running back Tiki Barber, and former Top Chef winner Richard Blais are determined to complete the marathon for different charity causes.

What’s it like behind the scenes and on the course? Watch below.

But the New York City marathon will be particularly challenging this year. By 7 a.m., the gusting winds of 35 to 45 miles per hour caused the wheelchair start to shift to the Brooklyn side of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. All the other runners, however, will begin on the Staten Island side of the bridge, reported USA Today.

The course record has been held since 2011 by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya. His time was 2 hours, 5 minutes, 6 seconds. But the winds will make it tough to beat.

In addition to celebrities and professional runners, some participants are taking pride in their ability to complete the race. Among those are weight loss winners who began running as a way to regain their health, noted the Today show.

Frank Pizarro is one of those individuals. And although he doesn’t look like the stereotypical lean and mean runner, Pizarro hopes that his size will inspire others. At 37, Frank weighs 270 pounds and is five feet, eleven inches tall. And the act of completing a race like the New York Marathon makes him feel healthy, strong and proud, he declared.

“It’s a myth that it’s hard to run if you’re fat. If you go slowly, you’re not going to hurt yourself. You walk if you have to. Then maybe you trot for a while. The first time I ran five miles, I felt like Superman.”

For those running a marathon, the best diet for fueling up and recovery has become a controversial topic in recent years. Low-carb diet experts, such as Dr. Jeff Volek and Colette Heimowitz, VP of Nutrition at Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., argue against the traditional carbo-loading theory. Instead, Colette told New Jersey Online that endurance runners can do even better by shifting to a high fat low carb ketogenic diet such as the Atkins weight loss plan.

“A low carbohydrate diet can be used to help athletes train harder, perform longer, and recover faster. Low-carb eating allows the body to burn fat for fuel and fat stores are considerably larger than carbohydrate reserves.”

The Atkins diet also has become popular for celebrity weight loss, as the Inquisitr reported. Among those following the diet are Kim Kardashian and Kendra Wilkinson.

[Image Via Standupny.com]