What percentage of D-1 XC runners are doping???

A friend within the program recently told me about the Virginia Tech men's team and their affinity for European brand "supplements". He even mentioned a story about how Thomas Curtain didn't train for 4 weeks last track season, but took the "supplements" and then went out and ran a 13:30ish 5k a week later. Needless to say I wasn't suprised to see Curtain be the one to take down King Ches at PreNats this week.

If you exclude "recreational drugs" not taken for performance reasons, I'd say the percentage of the top 100 runners in D1 XC runners is closer to 0% than 1%.

The pressure to perform and the reward is simply not as great as post-collegiate.

While I finished 101st at NCAA many years ago and was part of what I thought was a very clean team I still had my suspicions of teammates and other teams.

We had one teammate who admitted taking 5 caffeine pills before a 5k and I saw him have the shakes on our cool down. No, he didn't run well and I think I beat him by more the 25 seconds.

I was always suspicious of the schools that would allow a culture of eating disorders for women. If the schools didn't care about their health then why would stop there?

Lastly, I was always on every "random" drug testing list. I swear it was not random as the coaches and administration knew I would pass. As one poster stated earlier a kid could just go to bed earlier or run a second run if they wanted to get better. That was me in college. I didn't drink as I went for academics and athletics. Was on every school, conference and NCAA drug test and was tested 7 times one year. They knew I would pass the drug tests and I was "magically" on every list to be tested.

rekrunner wrote:

If you exclude "recreational drugs" not taken for performance reasons, I'd say the percentage of the top 100 runners in D1 XC runners is closer to 0% than 1%.

The pressure to perform and the reward is simply not as great as post-collegiate.

This is what I think if I get what you are saying. I think HS runners on the scholarship track INTO college would be more tempted to cheat via doping.

There is no testing and the rewards are ASTRONOMICAL.

We're talking $100k+ worth of tuition to the best schools, free campus housing, etc... Once they get there, there is little incentive.

As for percentages? I don't know. But probably more than college.

This is ridiculous, maybe there are 1 or 2 people in the top 100 that are, but they may not even be top 30-50 guys. I don't want to say nobody is because there are sick people out there that could force their children into it. I've been in races with many of the top guys and been around for 3 years now and never would get the vibe they are doping.

I doubt that many D1 runners dope, but everyone knows that D3 is definitely saucy.

It's easy to see how few NCAA D1 XC guys dope by observing how poorly most guys run at nationals. If they were doping, they'd have their best not worst performances of the season at NCAAs.

No fewer than 75% of athletes will run slower Thant they did in late September. Fact,

Top 100 is not that good. You should ask this about the top 10.

Less than 1%.

lol... this is like villainizing healthy eating/sleep because it give you an advantage. totally illogical argument. If it's legal, and you think you would benefit from doing it, and your coach is fine with it, there is no difference between taking supplements and extra training, extra core work, or any other (obviously) legal performance-enhancing efforts

The number of D1 athletes who “dope” is probably 0.01%

I was a 3:40, and 1:48 guy and was nowhere near the best on my team and NONE OF THEM WERE DOPING.

As the level of competition increases, people get better.

Blaming doping is a pu$$y excuse. If you’re getting your ass kicked…you’re either not training hard enough or you have no talent.

Side note, it takes $$& to dope and most distance runners I know are just scraping $’s together to get a post race case of beer and some Taco Bell.

Grow some hair on your balls and train…

H'm. Well I would start with the coaches. If the coaches doped in their own running careers, then they will typically share the practice with the athletes they coach. Never fails.