Christian Hesch doping article in the NY Times/Competitor.com

Jeff Wigand wrote:

Attention at races. Attention on letsrun.

Best punishment you all here can levy is to never talk about him again.

+100

Everything he has said here and on Twitter since this broke has treated it like some kind of lighthearted joke, like he's still one of the boys and that it doesn't really matter. He is loving the attention. Part of me even wonders whether he really doped at all or whether this is all some ploy just to get attention. Don't give it to him.

dj plus one wrote:

Jeff Wigand wrote:

Attention at races. Attention on letsrun.

Best punishment you all here can levy is to never talk about him again.

+100

Everything he has said here and on Twitter since this broke has treated it like some kind of lighthearted joke, like he's still one of the boys and that it doesn't really matter. He is loving the attention. Part of me even wonders whether he really doped at all or whether this is all some ploy just to get attention. Don't give it to him.

Oh come one now. I agree he loves attention, but it is idiotic to suggest this is a "ploy" to get more. I hope you are not serious!?

Obviously he much, much, preferred the "I'm a bad ass runner and cool dude who kicks ass at road races and gets prize $" attention than the "I'm a former doper and cheater and fraud who is sorry" attention. THAT is why he cheated, to get more of the former type of attention, not the latter.

Not sure when he co-opted my handle, I've been using this for years. Typical goddam cheater!

Gotta admit, I am starting to wonder whether distance running is as dirty as cycling. Is there any good reason to believe otherwise? Are runners naturally more honest or ethical than cyclists?

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

You don't judge people?? Of course you do. Every day, every moment, you judge other people's actions to be prudent, right, wrong, smart, dumb, honest, dishonest, hateful, loving, etc, etc, etc. Don't lie to yourself and the world about this, that is exactly what you do.

To clarify, I should have said "I'm not going to judge the person by their choice." As in his choice to cheat. He also chose to admit it. Do I judge the action? Of course. I don't like cheating any more than you do. Do I judge him as an athlete? Yes, he needs to get out of the sport. But a wrong choice does not define him as a person. If you think it does, you are the delusional one. Or have you made no mistakes in your life?

T-Rex--

Have you ever known someone with narcissistic personality disorder? I've known two. They don't care what kind of attention it is as long as they're the focus. Yes, I think he was probably doping, but there's no question he is loving the attention more than anything else. It is a form of mental illness.

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

Oh come one now. I agree he loves attention, but it is idiotic to suggest this is a "ploy" to get more. I hope you are not serious!?

He very much enjoys the attention he's getting now for this cheating stuff. Nobody is going to write a NYTs article about a road whore...unless he gets caught doping.

What a douche.

.

Makes me wanna puke. Even the bush-leaguers?

Hey Hesch, good luck getting a real job now, ya pathological creep.

Here is a more accurate portrayal of how Hesch's "confession" came about:

http://news.runnersworld.com/2012/10/15/road-ace-christian-hesch-doped-facing-ban/

Christian - Part of coming clean is, in fact, coming clean. Trying to trash the reputation of a very good reporter by suggesting he was "making up information" or in any other way treating you unfairly isn't coming clean, it's telling more lies at the expense of yet another innocent person.

Not only that, but the young writer you contacted to do the NY Times piece (in an effort to control how this story was released) will have to answer for printing false information in his story - of course, he failed basic journalism by taking your word for what happened, so he's kind of on his own.

If you really want to apologize and "confess," you might start by telling the truth - and by refraining from causing more damage along the way.

What a fecking douchebag -

"Easing into the finish chute in his Team USA jersey, Hesch stopped a foot away from the finish line, laid down on his stomach on the road, took a whiff of the asphalt centimeters from his nose and performed five push-ups, a pre-victory celebration.

With Lemma sprinting toward him, Hesch smiled and got back on his feet. He broke the finishing tape with his hands above his head."

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

You don't judge people?? Of course you do. Every day, every moment, you judge other people's actions to be prudent, right, wrong, smart, dumb, honest, dishonest, hateful, loving, etc, etc, etc. Don't lie to yourself and the world about this, that is exactly what you do.

To clarify, I should have said "I'm not going to judge the person by their choice." As in his choice to cheat. He also chose to admit it. Do I judge the action? Of course. I don't like cheating any more than you do. Do I judge him as an athlete? Yes, he needs to get out of the sport. But a wrong choice does not define him as a person. If you think it does, you are the delusional one. Or have you made no mistakes in your life?

Ok, fair enough, that is a better clarification.

I won't judge him as evil, because yes, we all make mistakes, and his, in the big scheme of things, is not near the worst. However, I judge him as dishonest, and a cheater, and one who's ego pushed him to rob others of $ and attention, and in the sports world (and other places), that's a pretty despicable, selfish thing to do.

Unlike you, I don't separate one's actions from themselves. One is the sum of their actions throughout life. But some actions hold more weight than others. There have been people in this world who have led fairly good, even exemplary lives at times, but then, due to some fit of rage or weakness, committed a horrendous act (maybe murder. And no I am not equating what CH did to murder). Unfortunately for them, no amount of good deeds can really wipe away that one act. Sometimes it is true in the other direction: one truly heroic and lifesaving act can make up for a life of degradation.

The point is: we are our acts, and sometimes our worst or best ones, rightly, define who we really are (and are windows into our souls).

For Hesch, who in many ways in his life was defined and respected and got love because of his athletic ability, this act of cheating in that arena really matters. it says a lot about him. (Just like Lance, though in Lance's case, I think he actually had more excuses. Not defending him, but just seeing it as more likely he would have become a cheater than CH).

anyway, I still wish him the best in his redemption from this. In the big scheme of things, he could live a great, even heroic rest of his life, and be a selfless, wonderful person who helps others, and that would certainly wipe away the stains of what he has done here. Maybe this event will actually turn him in that direction, and allow him to make a positive out a very big negative (drug test pun not intended).

For anyone who has lost prize money to Hesch during this period, I encourage you to take his ass to small claims court to try to get that money back.

He has 343 twitter followers. I'd like to see that number somewhere closer to zero. If that number goes up I'm going to be very disappointed.

to me it is that amateur (or almost amateur in this case) running is a pure thing and hesch goes and pisses all over it.

this seems worse than a pro doping to me - regional sub elite doper hesch is hard at work wrecking my sport. This affects me, while dopers at the pro level affect some level of running I can only watch on tv.

The same excuse was used a few years ago by Liza Hunter-Galvan of San Antonio (and New Zealand). Somehow they think it's not really cheating if you dope to make up for training you missed with an injury.

Everyone is focusing on the negative action that happened, Hesch doping. But we should recognize and focus on the very positive thing that happened here. A teammate of Christian's found the EPO and didn't look the other way even though it would have been very easy to do. He then talked to Christian about it and gave him the option to turn himself in. When Hesch refused, the teammate did exactly what he said he was going to do and turned him in to the manager of Nike Team Run LA. How many people in that same situation would have taken the easy way out and just forgotten about it? Good for whoever that anonymous teammate is, he did the right thing.

He should receive a lifetime ban. He is already thinking about making Masters money.

He's at least a notch above Lance.

ecin wrote:

"Hesch maintains that he never raced on EPO but used it to recover from injuries."

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

I think he is using that to cover up something else. Lets say you are him and walked into the pharmacy in Mehico. Such a deliberate and premeditated doping program. You would think he got HGH too. But no. It was just EPO for recovery. We all know HGH is for recovery.

B0sl wrote:

Also, I would love for Christian to out those California runners that visit Tiajuana pharmacies. I would love to see the names of those Cali punks. They think they run with a different set of rules since they live so close to the border.

I was reading through this thread looking for a post like this. It sounds like So Cal has a drug problem and Christian should be step 1 in cleaning it up. He should name names so the cheaters are outed.

I doubt that cheating at this level of running is confined to Cali but I can't imagine anyone around my local area doing this. Maybe I'm naive.