Dean vs. Pam.
After thinking about the Badwater 135 some more, I did a little googling around each of the people profiled on the show: Dean Karnazes and Pam Reed.
What was interesting was who was marketing themselves and how.
Dean Karnazes: Clearly sees his obsession as a marketing opportunity to capitalize on in order to support his life style, not excluding the health food company that he runs as well. He's got a book that just came out, and a website that basically tells you how much of a total bad ass he is. And to be honest, it's not pretentious at all, yet very bad ass. This guy is no joke.
Pam Green: Googling on her brings up almost nothing other than a handful of articles written about her, including one that highlights the fact that she was going to try and run 300 miles this past weekend without stopping (basically an out and back course of 50 miles that she'll do 6 times). She's just as much of a bad ass, but not clearly as well positioned.
So then the question becomes, at one point did Dean tip and become the marketing machine? Has he always been like that? When 60 minutes contacted him or vise versa -- did he contact them?
Based on the 15 minute exposure, it seems to be no accident. Dean has been setting himself up for this for quite some time.