An Interesting Find: Majority of Dopers Busted by USADA Are Masters

Huh???

Interesting blog post here, from someone not competing but giving a glowing* account of their experience using TRT to turn the clock back a surprisingly long way, apparently:

mrmoneymustache.com

My Unexpected Journey to Hormone Replacement (TRT)

Mr. Money Mustache

– As a man of Science, I’m supposed to hide my enthusiasm about this somewhat controversial subject, and instead direct you only to the peer-reviewed studies. But man, I feel like I’ve …

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I've long wondered about what % of athletes (masters or not) are cheating at amateur level, and what they are using. TRT is just one option, but you can see the way the writer justifies their decision, that it's not hard to imagine some runners reasoning to themselves that it's not so bad if they use that too, just replacing what their body used to make naturally. What's the harm, I shouldn't have to cope with lower levels of testosterone vs my competitors just because of my genetics, I'm just levelling the playing field, etc

But my hunch is that many within that group (TRT users) would feel injecting EPO is going too far (even though your body makes EPO too...) because they associate that with all the cheating they've seen over the last 30-40 years in endurance sports (most visibly cycling)

*pardon the pun

You should try reading something before you comment on it.

I did a round of corticosteroids a while back. It was incredible how well I ran. I can see why Rupp and the Norwegians loved the stuff. Removing inflammation provided a noticeable performance boost in my old joints.

Actually, that's good advice for you. You should take a 50 year hiatus from letsrun and grow up before posting again.

Why would they bust their stars?

Interesting. Most of my male friends 45+ are all on TRT for ED/maintaining testosterone levels and mood.

None of them are competing/they only run for fitness, but wouldn’t be surprised if this were the new norm among most masters runners in the general public.

I am a competitive master's runner. I obsess like a pro runner about making sure I don't put anything into my body that is on the banned substances list. I have to think that master's athletes who are testing positive know when they go on testosterone replacement therapy, or whatever else, that it helps their athletic performance and that it is banned. But they just hope they never get tested. And if they do test positive they feign ignorance and pretend they didn't realize they were cheating, and expect others to accept that they are therefore ethically blameless even though they aren't.

It would be really interesting to test every athlete in USATF masters races. My prediction, based on nothing other than my doping spider sense: a ton would light up, and the bulk of the positives would be well off the podium. But in races like club cross they would be certainly peeling some points off of team scores.

No wonder your country is going down the toilet. Maybe that needs to be reined in a little for the sake of saving western civilisation?

Testing is expensive, so not much benefit in testing amatures/masters, only elites to take back prize $. So it is rampant. One year I was a part of usatf xc nationals, I pushed for testing in masters xc as there was a former convicted doper racing. 0 tests there, only the elites.

Exactly.

Yeah exactly. MMM was rationalizing that his TRT is just "bringing him back to normal" and sit eems like this is how some masters runners would be able to convince themselves they aren't cheating.

As a 50+ year old still competitive runner, it saddens me to read some of the testimonials in this thread but it serves as a reminder to find joy in your own individual accomplishments and try not worry about what others are doing.

Let's not pretend there is some grand master plan by USADA, USATF, or any other governing body to not catch cheaters. They aren't organized or invent enough money to come up with some plan at doing that. They are just half assing the testing and way behind the times and only catch people that are doing drugs that were popular in the 1980s.

But are the people you mention taking whatever they are purely for improved athletic performance or for overall improvement of their health? If it's the latter they're having to choose between doing something that improves their day to day life or not compete because if they do the former thing it's cheating.

Probably easier to catch them,and also masters runners are less likely to sue USADA.

But these people doing are pointless. It's over stupid trinket age grouping.

But do old people use inhalers more often than young people? I am a master now but used a steroid inhaler for asthma when I was younger daily, plus a rescue inhaler occasionally. I'm sure I would have tested positive, too.