Since the theme for the year is battle of the ages, the fifteen contestants, who are dropped in the middle of the California desert on their first meeting, are separated into three teams based on age: under thirty, over fifty, and those in-between. Each team will run a mile race across the desert as a team to be able to choose their team trainer: Anna's blue team, Bob's black team, and Dolvett's red team. At the end of the race, they learn that they will all be back to that spot just before the finale to run a marathon, the winner of that race to become an automatic finalist no matter if he/she has already been eliminated. The first workout is an eye opening experience for most, but especially for an ex-professional athlete who ended up being in worse shape than he ever imagined. In the middle of the week, one contestant receives some bad news from home, which ends up being a focusing experience. The first weigh-in yields mixed results, which in turn leads to the first eliminated ...