Badwater 135; Discussion Thread

Paulson (PEDs or not) loses to Dauwalter 9 times out of 10. Courtney ran Western States at a faster pace than Ashley ran this roid road race.

Your articles speak that you edited many times to remove any responsibility from yourself. You were so eager and pleasure seeking to falsely accuse Ashley and then went back and deleted and edited parts of your articles. Hence why SlowTwitch recorded you as "Marathon Investigations Accuses Ashley Paulson"

And in that first post, the user states that I never said she cheated - despite what they named the thread. Any edits were clearly noted and related to the data Camille posted.

Always blaming Camille. When are you going to man up for once and stop blaming everyone else except yourself? You've done this so many times, not just with Ashley.

Not blaming Camille. You mention edits. That was the part of the first article that was edited.

I ultimately came to the conclusion that Ashley’s result was legitimate and stated that as clearly and definitively as I possibly could.

I am done here. I stand by what I wrote. If you read the actual articles, and my posts from the time, you’d see that I never accused her of cheating. Her result was met with instant, public skepticism and I reported on that that prior to the final article.

She's still a proven drug cheat and that will never change.

It was proven to be a contaminated supplement She voluntarily turned over all containers and such related and an investigation was done where it was tracked back to the manufacturer. It was not listed in the ingredients. That does not make her a drug cheat.

She got banned for cheating and taking drugs,no matter how much she lies about it they are the facts.

If it was proven to be contaminated they would have rescinded her ban.

They did. It was reduced from 4 years to six months. Six months to allow time for her body to no longer have any potential benefit from the substance. Regardless of the reason why, it would have been unfair to other competitors to allow her to compete while it may be benefiting her.

Also got caught course cutting aswell,suppose that was somebody else's fault also?

She is a drug and course cheat.

That's the problem with cheating. Once you got caught, nobody believes you, no matter how good the performance was.

I was wrong! Crushed!

and now the overall winner of the Badwater 135.

Is she the first woman to do this?

No, Pam Reed won twice in 2002, 2003 (beating Dean Karnazes in '03).

All years back. Look at what she has done since them. Running at the front of races. She was with the leading pack until very late in Badwater this year and they were tracking her through the end. She has just proven herself, yet again.

Drug cheat.

So, let's review.

After 2022, the Haters said:

"She cheated!"

No credible evidence was ever presented and every objective analysis concluded the opposite. She had a great rookie run, finishing third and winning the Women's Division. Not a shred of reasonable evidence contradicts that, and the Race Director agreed.

"She'll never run another ultra. It would expose her!"

She ran in and won the Women's Division at the Zion 100. She had a great year, running several 2:4x marathons, and had some great triathlons. She is hoping to qualify for the Olympic Trials, so that drove her agenda for a lot of the year.

"She'll definitely never show her face at Badwater again!"

She just did. And she not only became the first female winner in twenty years, but she paced it perfectly, ran with the pack for a long time before moving up, picking off the leaders, and winning handily. All while being observed and very clearly "on the radar."

"She could never run that fast!"

Not only could she, but she just ran even faster. She crushed the field with a 21:44:35, about 44 minutes ahead of the top man and far better than her previous time (24:09:34). Her time would have won every iteration of the race except one (Ishikawa ran 21:33 in 2019).

"She could never beat legends of the sport like two-time winner Harvey Lewis!"

Yeah, she can. And did. She just beat him by 5 hours and 42 minutes. Yes, he did put in a huge effort in a race in Australia a few weeks ago. But the point remains. She can put him in her back pocket and smile while doing it.

"A rookie can't do this, especially a woman!"

Sonia Ahuja, at age 47, just finished 4th in her debut. The reality is that rookies, including women, can do very well at this race. Simen Halvik (the top man) was also a rookie.

"She failed a drug test!"

Yep, that's still true. It was a tainted supplement, her ban was reduced to the time it would take to clear her system, and this could happen to anyone who ever bought a supplement at GNC or had a protein shake from Jamba Juice. And as the winner of Badwater, they certainly could test her if they care to. Frankly, I hope they did.

So, she did just serve the haters that steamy mug of Shut the F Up. Let's see if they're smart enough to drink it. I kind of doubt it.

Did we ever figure out the last time she was tested?

She did run a 2:45 at 2020 Olympic Trials..

1. Badwater has never really been known to get the fastest people at it. Not sure how many sub 2:45 marathon women have attempted it.

2. Keep in mind as of 2018 Badwater is a night start. This means you avoid the hottest part of the course (Start to Mile 45ish) in the blazing mid day sun. Completely different conditions, tbh. Upper 90s and dark versus 125+ and straight sun.