OMG, I totally wish Paula Radcliffe gets caught/outted.

Paula is clean.

Paula can´t run 2:15 when she works as an escort.

Other than the crazy WR times, where is the evidence that Paula dopes? Where are guilty associations? Is there even any circumstantial evidence?

People have pointed out her association with Albuquerque, NM. That is circumstantial evidence.

What about her inability to perform in multiple Olympics? Do we think the Russians are dirty?

I think people believe that the 2:15:25 itself is circumstantial evidence because it's such a gross outlier. Sadly, I can see why this is the case. To imagine a clean runner being three minutes faster than anyone else in the marathon strains credulity, to put it mildly. The only reason I'm not 100 percent convinced that she doped is the weird way women manage to be so greatly separated at the front of the elite pack (this goes for other distances, the NCAA, whatever) compared to men. And I think the "women's top-level running is still in its comparative infancy" explanation expired years ago.

If a man were that far ahead of #2 -- over 2.2 percent -- in any track or road event, he'd be laughed out of the sport. This would require someone breaking the 10,000-meter record by 35 seconds or the 400 by almost a second. (I realize that there are valid reasons to assert that there's a nonlinear relationship at work as distances get longer, but still.)

People. Stop already! Unless someone is proven guilty, we must assume innocence. Performance alone should and can not predict drug use. I presume Paula was clean and performed what she did by hard work alone.

There is such naive skepticism regarding human potential and performance. I'm sure if epo was around when Sir Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute barrier he would have been suspected of using, but we know after his breakthrough many men went on to break it for no other reason then they know it was possible.

Cynics will continue to assume that what seems magical in terms of human excellence had been achieved by some artificial means or even claim it never happened. It is too bad there are cheats, because now we frame all great moments of human excellence from that perspective. Despite the claims from contrarians, Men did walk on the moon.

Human potential is by far more untaped then what we all may presume. Assuming otherwise potentially cheats oneself of the opportunity to fly high through ones belief and hard work, because he or she may think they need to short cut the system to get there. I may be called naive, but I am continuously inspired by what people can do and have done that would have seemed impossible before it ever happened.

Her 2:15 was assisted to the finish by pacers. I think this bumps to at least mid 2:16 if she runs the last 10 to 12K on her own, bringing her record within shooting distance perhaps for a talented Kenyan/Ethiopian in their prime.

Doesn't exonerate, but at least brings things within comprehensibility.

rojo wrote:

I will admit statistically her record is absurd compared to other women. But the fact that she has been so outspoken her entire career against doping and to have seen her work so hard for the one week we spent with her, we are 100% believers she is clean. I think very few people are ALL IN in terms of doing everything to be good and she is one of them.

this is one of the most ridiculous comments i have read on here (and that is saying something). the fact that you saw her work hard for a week makes you 100% certain she is clean??? give me a break. i would bet that LA massively outworked her. he had to have because training to win the tdf takes A LOT more work than training to run a marathon, even if it is a WR marathon. hard work is completely irrelevant with respect to cheating.

High Wire wrote:

Her 2:15 was assisted to the finish by pacers.

Not true, all video evidence I have seen shows that she is running next to them, not behind. She was really THAT good.

And guys, stop talking about how soon her record will be broken. We won't live that long.

Here is the facts. Over the last 10 years we have learned that anyone at the top of sports doped. We have also learned from people like Eddie Merckx that doping has been going on for a very long time. It is interesting to me that the Brojo's will bash the Chinese women as being dirty and then claim on and on that Paula is clean. Or to say that she acts differently or trains harder. Anyone who dopes has the ability to train harder so that is a strike. Also anyone who dopes says you can test me all that you want. Some people are smart enough to get out of the game before they are caught. Technically if we want to go with innocent until shown evidence Lance is innocent. He hasn't tested positive.

In the end it is naive to think that someone can be at the absolute top of a sport and completely dominate and be clean.

Also for someone to state that if they are famous then they won't dope because they have so much of a country on their shoulders. People will do whatever they have to, to hold onto fame. Also with a country at your back it is a lot easier to get around drug testing is it not?

I can also say I don't care if Lance doped. If he didn't we would be talking about someone else. So Brojo's drop all of the hatefulness. You have a running website but yet you as of late report more on Lance Armstrong than you do the Houston Marathon (your wrtie up sucked). A problem, yes I think so!

Letsrun Gunner wrote:

You have a running website but yet you as of late report more on Lance Armstrong than you do the Houston Marathon (your wrtie up sucked). A problem, yes I think so!

Idiot, if you were in the business of operating a web site that relied on advertising that relied on the number of visitors to that site, and you were fairly certain there was a crossover interest to your target audience, what would you do, not give them what they want?

What makes Paula's 2:15 even more absurd is the ridiculous head bobbing and flailing arms. The extreme inefficiency cost her MINUTES, which would put her time in the range of Shorter.

To say that she can't have doped because you saw her train hard is silly. Nobody denies that Lance trained hard, also. To say that she can't have doped because she denies doping is silly.

I don't know the answer, but I'd say 99% that shes a doper.

Danekin wrote:

What makes Paula's 2:15 even more absurd is the ridiculous head bobbing and flailing arms. The extreme inefficiency cost her MINUTES

Despite appearances she was very very efficient in energy terms.

Wrong. Moving that head around like that uses tons of energy.

Go out and try to run with your chin touching your sternum and then cycling your head back to a full upward tilt every step. That ain't efficient.

In the end it is naive to think that someone can be at the absolute top of a sport and completely dominate and be clean.

I'd agree with that, except you are forgetting one thing - at the height of her career Paula regularly and VOLUNTARILY had blood drawn and stored under seal. This procedure was witnessed by a lawyer and the blood samples are secured where she has no access to them.

If you believe she's guilty, start a campaign to get the samples retested. Given what we know about Lance's doping regime, the retests can use much more sensitive filters to catch micro-dosing, they can check for designer steroids (thanks to BALCO), etc.

Why not?

She could been selective about the times the blood was drawn, knowing that she was off-cycle. Anyone can say, "Hey look at me. I'm not robbing a bank right now, and this proves that I have never robbed a bank."

Ike low wrote:

She could been selective about the times the blood was drawn, knowing that she was off-cycle. Anyone can say, "Hey look at me. I'm not robbing a bank right now, and this proves that I have never robbed a bank."

That's stupid - if you've taken EPO then the presence of the drug isn't actually necessary to prove guilt. The size and age of the erythrocytes in the sample will be out of whack.

If you are going to take a blood builder, you want the effects to be available to you on the day of the race (if you haven't got those extra erythrocytes then you aren't going to be able to run as fast) - and it was reported that when she had blood drawn for her contract with the London Marathon extra samples were taken and stored.

There would be some evidence of drug use in those samples at least - even if not traces of the drug itself.

Lots of other drugs than EPO that she was probably on. She could have used EPO (or other drugs) for training, then gone off for competition. We don't know what she was on, or what her masking protocols were. If she wasn't doping, then there is only one person in the world who knows for sure, and that is Paula. Not her friends, family or anyone else. Her times are crazy, especially given her poor mechanics. Only a fool would think that she did this clean, but until she admits, we'll never know for sure.