WHY IS PAULA RUNNING SO FAST?

Maybe they should hand out EPO pills at track meets because they are going to take them anyway.

Athletes (the good ones) should be forced to take mandatory drug tests periodically throughout the year. The ones found guilty should be permanantly removed from the sport. The ones that "avoid" the test should be banned from the sport for a period of time. This strategy could simplify everything.

Why would any athlete be opposed to rigorous drug testing and rules? As far as I am concerned, any who do are on drugs.

Most likely, not all of the best runners are on drugs, but wouldn't it be nice for someone to get fifth place in an important event rather than not qualifying for even the finals because the event is stacked with drug cheats.

There are other places besides first and the clean ones are getting pushed out down to the bottom because of cheating.

I don't see how shoddy testing and drug rules do anything positive for the sport.

I would hope a runner like Paula would take every preventative step to avoid sabotage because "my toothpaste was spiked" should not be an adaquate defense.

I say make all performance enhancing drugs legal. Think about it, drug cheats are always one step ahead of the tests. If you're will to kill yourself with drugs, more power to you. Then we could end this senseless debate about people being on something when there is absolutely no proof that they are.

"I am willing to have any official search my room for drugs"

Who cares, you haven't run fast enough for anyone to accuse you of doping. Get over yourself.

Hilly

Broken Runner wrote:

Maybe they should hand out EPO pills at track meets because they are going to take them anyway.

...............

I don't see how shoddy testing and drug rules do anything positive for the sport.

I think you have to inject EPO.

Shoddy drug testing rules have the following benefits.

1

If no one is disqualified the general public will assume they are all clean. While if you catch the cheats the public will assume the rest were cheating as well.

2

Many records are not reachable without drug taking or a big improvement in training. If you want record attepts every week through the summer the easiest way to do this is by allowing the best athletes to take drugs.

3

People make money selling drugs.

FASTERTHANU wrote:

I say make all performance enhancing drugs legal.

how would you define a performance enhancing drug?

I'm with the earlier poster who stated it's likely that all top end competitors in T&F are on "something". Sprinters and throwers, no doubt at all. Distance runners, well, the fact is that drugs, whether steroids or anti-depressants do not work equally as well in all individuals. While there is probably a higher percentage of the E. African populations with the genetic predisposition to be good distance runners, there is also the chance that they react better physically to drugs like EPO or even steroids. Any body-builder will tell you that the combination of roids and HgH work better in black lifters than in those of other races, in terms of building muscle size. The black lifters have more receptors. The white lifters have more potential for strength, this is why d-bol probably works better for them, maybe they have more receptors. Maybe the Kenyans et al have more "suitability" for endurance drugs because of their physiological make up. Not all of them are on drugs - but to say they are all clean is idiotic. No positive tests doesn't mean a thing. How many top of the world American sprinters test positive when it's a given none of them are clean?

Someone wrote in another thread that the third world competitors also enjoy a shield due to political correctness. I would suspect this is true. It's usually the European athletes nabbed on off season spot tests (or the hated Chinese), or questioned as to why they aren't where they are supposed to be, while a Kenyan, Moroccan, etc. will get a shoulder shrug from the IAAF if he can't be "found" right away. As for Americans, our sprinters have coaches that claim their charges went to Vegas for the day or something, and it doesn't make page 25. That shoe money/TV coverage handle has a lot of pull. On the few occasions T&F is on the tube, you'll see 45 minutes of Marion or Green working out, laughing, doing charity work, fighting an uncaring world, and then 20 seconds of running between the two of them. Maybe you'll get to see the guys who don't use EPO or anything else because they can't get away with it, you know, American collegiate runners, in the last 200 of the 5k. They aren't "protected" like the sprinters, and certainly aren't as marketable, in the media's eyes, as some screaming idiot street thug that runs the 100 in less than 10 seconds.

So, maybe Paula has simply improved. Maybe she's found a way to do the same thing as many of her competitors without getting popped. It's all conjecture, most would say.

JASON!!! JASON!!! JASON!!! Pound those pills!!!!

just screwing around....

I think you'll find that her 400 time is 97, hardly a record performance! ;)

Paula is the one person we can be sure never takes drugs. She always asks to be drug tested and passes every time. She is just simply religous about running. She eats, sleeps, runs, and gets massages/treatment. That her whole life!!! Nothing is left to chance and she trains her tits off.

And that comment about Paula's pace being equivalent to a guy asking for 61 mins at the half is bullshit. The gap between womens and mens marathon times have been decreasing for decades. If you made comparisons like that 30 or 40 years ago you would be saying it was eqivalent to a guy asking for 55 minutes or something.

Jason and Broken Runner, you guys are right on! It is ridiculously obvious that Paula is on something. And the truth is that the governing bodies could take steps and measures to clean up the sport, but why would they? World records are great for interest in the sport, which leads to more revenue. Imagine you are a beaurocrat in the IAAF, would you vote to spend millions of dollars to implement some anti doping measures or would you rather spend the money on five star hotels for your entourage? It's easy to tell what they have decided.

i'm thirsty wrote:

how did he do the all red thing?

Maybe its just me, but I tend to think human/athletes are generally law-conforming and proud in achieving their best legally. The world is not overly saturated with deviant behavior regardless of the occupation; therefore, it is safe to assume that FEWER athletes used ban substances then the ones who do. This train of thought must rang true; otherwise, all other occupations must have predominately crooked individuals: banks, fast-foods, CEO, hospitals, etc. (Or is it just Track and Field athletes who are supposedly lacking morals and scrupples)?

Vipam

JasonInKunming wrote:

I think that we, as Americans living in a free democracy, have a DUTY to question the leaders of our world. The leaders of both politics and sports.

What's this "we" crap, Jason? You live in China. Nothing free or democratic about that place. one of the last bastions of communist oppression left in the world.

When a woman must rely on men, and very fast men at that, to merely pace-make for her, and their are no women who can be hired to do so, it should make you wonder.

"Should make me wonder"? Should make me wonder what, exactly? Oh, but you're not accusing her of drugs or anything, right? I mean, we know that because you said it and everything. And this time, you really really mean it. right?

Women CAN pace women, and their are many Africans and Japanese who could be hired for this purpose.

Wrong again. Sigh... do you even bother to check these "facts" before you post them Jason?

There are only 5 women in the WORLD who have ever run a ratified 1:07:30 or faster half marathon. Two Africans (Lornah Kiplagat, Esther Wanjiru), Two brits (Radcliffe, McColgan), and Elana Meyer. No Japanese have ever even come close. And even if they could get one of these women, what are the odds that she would be in PR shape and both able and willing to set such a pace? Not very good. So they use men.

Hey, don't take my word for it, look it up on the IAAF site yourself.

The half-marathon time that she's requested for London (about 1:07:30+) would roughly equate to a man doing about 1;01....an insane pace even for Khannouchi and Tergat.

The problem with most equivalence charts, is that they assume women's world records are as settled as mens. They are not. Men have had more than half a century longer than women to get their world records down. So no, a 1:07:30 is NOT equivalent to a 1:01 half for the men. It is not even in the same universe as that.

Based on most equivalance charts, she "set the world record" for most all distances above 400 meters. You will probably agree with me that the 400 and 800 world records were drug-assisted. THAT ALONE, SHOULD MAKE YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT SHE'S UP TO.

We do know what she's been up to, years and years of hard training after years and years of disappointment.

Am I accusing Paula of using drugs? No, absolutely not.

Of course you are you disingenuous ass. You have accused Radcliffe of using drugs time and time again. This board is full of such posts by you. And mainly you are just pissed because your beloved Yoku Shibui didn't beat her at Chicago, after you kept telling us how she would.

I said tons of shit in the past, but it was only to stimulate a worthwhile discussion on this issue.

Ah, so you were just kidding before with all the dreck you have posted here but THIS time you really mean it and we should really believe you, is that right?

Let's be clear. The reason you have "said tons of shit in the past" is because you are (no offense) completely full of shit. It is overflowing and you need to get it out of you. So you dump it here

Do you want Civil Rights and Due Process, or do you want a DRUG FREE SPORT OF RUNNING? I want a drug free sport, at all costs!

Civil rights and a drug free sport are not mutually exclusive anyway. False dichotomy, Jason. But if I had to choose, then I want Civil Rights and Due Process first. A drug free sport second. What kind of moron would support storm troopers in the night just to be sure that Yoku's latest 10k time was legit? Sorry, "all costs" is a bit too sweeping a term for me, Vaam Boy. It is the hyperbole of someone who doesn't actually think very deeply about matters.

Regardless, if you want a drug free sport, I think that includes stuff like "Vaam". If you're that good, you shouldn't need supplements like that.

The reason that I advocated the French Police to search Paula's room, is that this is the type of activity that will eliminate drugs.

No, what will eliminate drugs is random, frequent, out-of-season testing. Allowing the storm troopers to ransack your belongings will only serve to piss off housekeeping. If I am a drug user and I know the police can and will come in whenever they want, do you think I'm going to be so stupid as to keep the drugs in my hotel room? Drug users throughout sport watched very closely what happened to those bikers. And they learned.

I am willing to have any official search my room for drugs, because I don't have anything. You are welcome to look yourself.

Get yourself into a position where any performance you might do could actually matter on the world stage and this promise of yours might actually mean something Jason.

Is Paula willing to go this far? I HOPE SO. HOWEVER, if she is going to go this far, to castigate others like Yegarova who barely escaped a ban (and was obviously completely guilty), she should hold herself to the very highest levels of scrutiny.

She already does. She has, in fact, insisted on drug tests when even the officials themselves told her she didn't have to have them. Let's see Yegerova ("Miss Technicality") do that.

Vipam. You seem like a nice guy and really love track and field but it is painfully obvious you have a lot to learn about the world. Corruption is everywhere in all fields.

I'd like to think that Paula and others are clean as well.

This thread makes me think of the Salem witch trials though.

Vipam wrote:

otherwise, all other occupations must have predominately crooked individuals: banks, fast-foods, CEO, hospitals, etc.

You hit it! Where have you been--in a cave? It is the way of the World (which is the title of a very good short story by Voltaire that I highly recommend).

For instance, I have a landlord that chaged me a deposit. Chances are when I leave this place I'll have to be thrown out--this is OK with him cause he has my deposit. I will further do damage to his property in a schizophrenic rage--such as put my fist through the wall a few times before I leave. He does not care--he has insurance to cover that. The insurance man doesn't care--he is happy to pay out the money to repair the damage. But unbeknowst to them--I intend to really get mean and threaten my landlord with bodily harm. This will make quite a few people happy--the police will have something to do, lawyers for both sides and a judge to decide whether I really meant anything by my threat. If I get thrown into jail--it is no big deal. Jailers and higly paid bondmen, bailiffs etctera will all get into the act because I am good and concerned citizen much like Flagpole only I operate in a different way. Meanwhile--to pay my bond--I will have my girlfriend prostitute for me. This will make her happy to find someoone new--and anyone will do. It will make the john happy as well--everyone will be making good money because of all this except for me and the john. He won't care because he is having sex for the first time in a while--and I don't care just as long as I get the opportunity to get my anger out--I am angry at specifically Flagpole. And it will be a day or week--just like any other day or week. Who wil stop this mad and vicious cycle? The only people who can stop it are the goody-two shoes since they started it. I knew an old man who swallowed a fly, I don't know why he swallowed a fly--I guess he'll die (but that's good too for the hospital, morticians, florist, greenhouse etc).

Great post, Avg Joe... I'm with you on every point.

". What kind of moron would support storm troopers in the night just to be sure that Yoku's latest 10k time was legit? "

and this made me almost fall on my ass laughing...

i concur... adv joe's post was truly phenomenal. so much so that it may or may not have caused j to drown his sorrows in asian sensual massage, but ah, only he knows that, and he isnt telling, mr uspatriotic kunming (wo)man.

woah, man.

woman.