Matt Carpenter

Thanks for the link.

Good 4 min embedded video of Matt training & his family in the article.

Thanks. I've known Matt for over twenty years, but I learned a few things about him that I never knew before.

Yeah, I learned that he is not being drug tested.

one who shall not be named wrote:

Yeah, I learned that he is not being drug tested.

It was surprising and a bit weird to see that mentioned in the article. Whatever anyone may think about Matt, he has always struck me as a very principled person with great respect and even reverence for the sport, and I cannot imagine that he would ever knowingly violate doping rules.

Thats exactly what people said about Tim montgomery and marion jones, I dont put it past Matt carpenter one second and I think all athletes should be tested. When you run like that at altitude it makes people wonder if you have used drugs, I dont think its wrong to think he has used no matter how well you know him

Matt Carpenter is very competitive, and he is running unusually well, and he is not being tested. That is all.

BULL, I posted before seeing your post, and I concur that he cannot be above suspicion.

i don't really think matt carpenter is using ped's....doesn't seem plausible considering his chosen niche.

as a funny side note though, i was in an ultra with him about 15 months ago, and i couldn't figure out who the middle age dyke was that was keeping up with the elite men, i.e. uli steidl, hal koerner...i thought man this old chick is tough....it turned out to be matt carpenter. it was kind of weird. steidl beat him in the end, but he had a nice mullet though.

one who shall not be named wrote:

Matt Carpenter is very competitive, and he is running unusually well, and he is not being tested. That is all.

I wouldn't say that he's running unusually well. It may be that he's not slowing down as much as most guys in their forties, although I'm not sure that's true. I'm not aware of any races in recent years where he has come close to his best times of fifteen to twenty years ago. In any event, Matt seems to be training as much as ever, so I wouldn't expect him to slow down as much as most 40+ guys.

Yes, but what allows him to put in all that training? This is speculative, but one cannot rule out PEDs. That is all. I would bet that he does not use, but I wouldn't assume anything.

BULLoney says:

Thats exactly what people said about Tim montgomery and marion jones, I dont put it past Matt carpenter one second and I think all athletes should be tested. When you run like that at altitude it makes people wonder if you have used drugs, I dont think its wrong to think he has used no matter how well you know him

People said that Tim Montgomery always struck them as "a very principled person with great respect and even reverence for the sport"? I must have missed those comments, which I assume were made sometime before he began his second career, as a professional felon.

I don't see anything in Matt's performances that would even hint at doping. It's not as though he's suddenly beating Paul Tergat or Haile G.

Why do you think that all athletes should be drug-tested, anyway? Who would pay for that? Are you thinking that it could just be part of the federal stimulus bill to assist out-of-work lab technicians?

one who shall not be named wrote:

Yes, but what allows him to put in all that training? This is speculative, but one cannot rule out PEDs. That is all. I would bet that he does not use, but I wouldn't assume anything.

When I started back running in my forties, I found that I could run up to 150 miles a week with no more difficulty than I could ten years earlier, and I was a lot more casual about running than Matt is. The miles just get slower as you get older.

Of course, one cannot rule out PEDs for anyone, including all of those 4:30 marathoners. I just haven't seen anything in Matt's history that suggests doping.

What does he do professionally (besides running)?

Same here. At 56, if I wanted to run 150 miles next week I could do it. It would take longer than it did thirty years ago. But I could do it.

I'm making no judgement about Matt Carpenter at all when I write this, but someone said they don't think that PEDs would be helpful given Carpenter's niche. I would think that something like EPO would be extremely helpful if you're racing at extreme altitudes.

one who shall not be named wrote:

Yeah, I learned that he is not being drug tested.

The "no-drug-test" thing reminded me of another NYTimes story from last year about John McCain and a female lobbyist. They reported that "some top aides" were "convinced" there was a romantic relationship between them. Then the article moved on to some other issue, never confirming nor denying that McCain had a potentially damning relationship with a lobbyist.

The doping paragraph of the article is evidence of the very common attitude among the media and the general public about athletics: that doping is extremely common, and that doping in athletics is somehow worse than in other sports. You wouldn't see an article about Troy Polamalu's incredible size and ability to recover from injuries enhanced with a barely-on-topic interjecting paragraph: "The NFL has had considerable criticism about the lack of randomness of its drug tests as well as the lack of frequency in off-season tests. The punishment, a two-game suspension, has been criticized for being a slap-on-the-wrist." But back to Polamalu...

Bo Diddley wrote:

The "no-drug-test" thing reminded me of another NYTimes story from last year about John McCain and a female lobbyist. They reported that "some top aides" were "convinced" there was a romantic relationship between them. Then the article moved on to some other issue, never confirming nor denying that McCain had a potentially damning relationship with a lobbyist.

Yes, and that implication was printed mere days after the NYT had already ENDORSED McCain as the GOP candidate. I guess they fully vetted him in the next week? Just like the majority of the media... set up the easiest sparring partner for your beloved second coming of Christ and then hit him with a bunch of blows below the belt. But the media's somehow magically "protected" from and above suspicion themselves by the nature of what it is they do? Just throw some punches below the wasteline, raise suspicion, and then let the story take on a life of its own. Just what they are doing to Carpenter.

Matt is not a member of USATF, right? He has been quite vocal about it, unless I am confusing him with somebody else.

If that is the case then there is really nobody who has the authority to drug test him. I guess the races could if they wanted to pay for it. Doubt he is raking in big cash from this ultra-running and EPO is expensive.

Matt is great, no argument here; but he's fortunate Jonathan Wyatt never showed up for the Pikes Peak Marathon.