They alluded to this season's first episode in the article, but I think it served as a wake-up call about how out-of-shape a lot of people are, not that they're pushing them too far. It was a mile, no one said they had to run it. Just walk a mile. I bet if you asked any of those people before they started, they'd say "Oh, I could walk a mile!" It sounds so simple. But then you got the reality of how bad a condition they were in. I hear my dad say things like that all the time, and then he's sucking wind after going up a flight of stairs. Maybe that was the wake-up some people needed to say "Gee, maybe things aren't as rosy as I like to think they are".