Sage Canaday Reports Cam Hanes to USADA After 58-Year-Old’s 2:39 Eugene Marathon

lazarus bake wrote:

Why is Sage such a miserable person? Seems like every year there's another more successful person he launches a tirade against. Around Pike's Peak it's always Matt Carpenter. Before he had a beef with Seth DeMoor. Last year it was the Roaches and Jason Koop. Nick Bare and Kofuzi before that. Attacked a Type 1 diabetic during the Spring Energy debacle. Not it's Cam and Truett. Probably a half dozen more I'm missing.

Congrats on going after Cam, but that's literally going after the lowest of low hanging fruit. Won't make any difference because in the grand scheme of running/ultrarunning, Cam is a nobody and this doesn't actually change any outcomes. If this issue somehow sinks Cam (lol), the next influencer will just keep quite about their PED use. It's like going draconian on a single street-level drug dealer and thinking you are personally responsible for the end of the world's drug issues.

lazarus bake wrote:

Why is Sage such a miserable person? Seems like every year there's another more successful person he launches a tirade against. Around Pike's Peak it's always Matt Carpenter. Before he had a beef with Seth DeMoor. Last year it was the Roaches and Jason Koop. Nick Bare and Kofuzi before that. Attacked a Type 1 diabetic during the Spring Energy debacle. Not it's Cam and Truett. Probably a half dozen more I'm missing.

Congrats on going after Cam, but that's literally going after the lowest of low hanging fruit. Won't make any difference because in the grand scheme of running/ultrarunning, Cam is a nobody and this doesn't actually change any outcomes. If this issue somehow sinks Cam (lol), the next influencer will just keep quite about their PED use. It's like going draconian on a single street-level drug dealer and thinking you are personally responsible for the end of the world's drug issues.

S. Canaday wrote:

EPO BRO wrote:

Sage's recent results wave HUGE red flags to me.

Out of nowhere he has had a massive increase in performance in late 2025 and early 2026.

Lets look at the facts as posted on UltraSignup.

1. Sage is a pulmonary embolism survivor

2. Post pulmonary embolism Sage's marathon time has slowed down significantly, from a pr of 2:16 to a 2025 Boston time of 2:26.

3. Oct 2025 Sage ran 13:34:56 at Javelina at the age of 39 which was a massive improvement compared to his 2016 Western States time of 17:16:00 at the age of 30. The Oct 2025 performance is the best trail 100 mile performance of his career.

4. Feb 2026 Sage ran 7:52:42 at Black Canyon at the age of 40 which was only seconds slower than this 2016 Black Canyon time of 7:52:26 at the age of 30. The Feb 2026 performance is the 2nd fastest 100k of his career and only 16 seconds slower than his fastest time 10 years prior.

5. Sage's name does not appear in the USADA testing database.

Lets put it like this.

At the age of 39/40, post pulmonary embolism, professional runner is running the best times of his professional career, and the runner's name does not appear in the USADA testing database.

This is all speculation that could easily be dispelled if Sage can produce four simple things

1. Results of random drug testing leading up to Oct 2025 Javelina race.

2. Drug test results taken on site at the conclusion of the Oct 2025 Javelina race.

3. Results of random drug testing leading up to Feb 2026 Black Canyon race.

4. Drug test results taken on site at the conclusion of the Feb 2026 Black Canyon race.

You’re joking right? First of all test me any time any place…..I have nothing to hide (I also post 100% of all my training on Strava fyi).

You know I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised that my lungs seem to be less of a limiting factor post PE in the last few years (making gains!). Part of it is stringing together some consistent training blocks with actual specificity in training (80-100mpw), not using that low carb Spring Energy crap and actual real fuel, and not having my Hr drop off too much between the ages of 36-40 years old now (genetics and good diet?). I’ve also added some significant strength training sessions to my routine.

But objectively let’s look at this:

First off the Black Canyon 100km Course I ran in 2016 was about 3-miles longer with more climbing and more single track compared to the current course. It was a much hotter day in 2016 than this year (which was surprisingly cool). I was not super dialed in 2016 as I entered on a whim after a 2:20 at Houston and then a media trip to the mountains of China (where I barely trained). At Black Canyon this year I had a very good race, had a super dialed crew (including a Pacer) and had guys around me the whole way. It was still far from an “equivalent to 2016 performance” though. Training camp out there in January really helped me nail my splits and pacing/fueling strategy.

Secondly, uhh you’re comparing a Western States 100 time to a Javelina Jundred Time? Really?! I mean in both races I did puke my guts out but realize Western States 100 was much, much hotter and has like 3 times more vertical gain on the course (not to mention more legit single track at altitude) compared to Javelina’s profile.

I’m honestly not sure if they did any testing at Javelina or Black Canyon…heck apparently they haven’t even been doing real USADA testing at Western States until maybe like last year? But yeah everyone could use some more testing.

At this stage in my career (being 40 and after the pulmonary embolism) a barometer for a “good ultra race” for me nowadays is usually just trying to hold off the top Female finisher. I barely did it this weekend at a 50km in Australia (granted it was a “UTMB major” and Yao and Ruth are pretty much the best in the sport besides Litchner and Tove) and I barely did it at Black Canyon. Tara Dower passed me with 4-miles to go at Javelina though.

In any case I do think if I really focused on a good fast road marathon in good weather conditions I could maybe still run a sub 2:25 or so. Maybe not. Supershoes sure help. I’m an open book though. I’ve also always competed clean to a T and strictly follow WADA code my whole life.

Eugene Spectator wrote:

ShoeTubersHaveNoEthics wrote:

[...]

But I'll go further than this: a fifteen, probably soon to be twenty, minute decline in Boston Qualifying times over 15 years isn't solely about the shoes. At best, the shoes are worth ten seconds a mile. That's less than five minutes over a marathon. In my view, the rest of the decline outside five minutes has a lot to do with widespread PED use amongst the general population.

[...]

My guess is somewhere between 15-30% of all Boston qualifiers are on some sort of banned substance (some of this may be legitimate medicine treating a legitimate condition, but where they've failed to get a TUE). I also think TUEs should be public for all runners.

I think you're greatly overestimating the prevalence of doping in the hobbyjogger crowd and greatly underestimating the other stuff that's been going on in the last few years. There definitely are people that dope for non-elite marathons, but it's not 15-30%. The big reasons are (imo):

1. Super shoes worn in training allowing for more hard sessions

2. Super shoes worn in races giving a direct performance boost

3. Better fueling practices in training and races, improving recovery and preventing as many massive bonks

4. More popularity in running (particularly training hard), means a bigger population and naturally that'll bring in extra fast people

5. More people doing structured training - say what you want about Runna and the Garmin automatic workouts, but they're better than nothing if you don't know what you're doing.

Doping is prevalent in the hybrid athlete bros, but they're not a big enough chunk of dropping BQ times to be worth 15-30%.

lazarus bake wrote:

Why is Sage such a miserable person? Seems like every year there's another more successful person he launches a tirade against. Around Pike's Peak it's always Matt Carpenter. Before he had a beef with Seth DeMoor. Last year it was the Roaches and Jason Koop. Nick Bare and Kofuzi before that. Attacked a Type 1 diabetic during the Spring Energy debacle. Not it's Cam and Truett. Probably a half dozen more I'm missing.

Congrats on going after Cam, but that's literally going after the lowest of low hanging fruit. Won't make any difference because in the grand scheme of running/ultrarunning, Cam is a nobody and this doesn't actually change any outcomes. If this issue somehow sinks Cam (lol), the next influencer will just keep quite about their PED use. It's like going draconian on a single street-level drug dealer and thinking you are personally responsible for the end of the world's drug issues.

Precious Roy wrote:

lazarus bake wrote:

Why is Sage such a miserable person? Seems like every year there's another more successful person he launches a tirade against. Around Pike's Peak it's always Matt Carpenter. Before he had a beef with Seth DeMoor. Last year it was the Roaches and Jason Koop. Nick Bare and Kofuzi before that. Attacked a Type 1 diabetic during the Spring Energy debacle. Not it's Cam and Truett. Probably a half dozen more I'm missing.

Congrats on going after Cam, but that's literally going after the lowest of low hanging fruit. Won't make any difference because in the grand scheme of running/ultrarunning, Cam is a nobody and this doesn't actually change any outcomes. If this issue somehow sinks Cam (lol), the next influencer will just keep quite about their PED use. It's like going draconian on a single street-level drug dealer and thinking you are personally responsible for the end of the world's drug issues.

Sorry, but letting our sport be taken over by a bunch of pharm-ed up influencers who make money off of cheating while people who work their butts off and run clean get nothing is not an option. Speaking out against cheaters carries with it a price that a lot of people in the sport do not want to bear. It is easier to keep your head down to make sure whatever money you are making from sponsors and social media is not interrupted.

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