Masters Runners - busted

Imagine my surprise yesterday evening, another article about a runner being busted for having performance enhancing substances in their system.

This time I was flipping through the pages of my just arrived edition of the Running Times magazine and saw the article on Masters Runners and performance enhancing substances.

A 68 year old woman was tested and found to have banned a substance in her system. Additional, the article also pointed out a few other examples where 40+ runners were caught with substances that shouldn't have been in their systems.

As I read the article I found it really hard to convict these people of the crime that they were being accused. Based on my understanding the banned substances were either suggested by their doctor or they were prescribed for medical reasons. In one case, the runner didn't even know that the banned substance was in the medicine that he was taking.

Being in the 40+ group myself makes empathizing with these people far easier. We all want to lead as healthy life style as possible. Therefore when a doctor tells us that we need a certain medicine, I for one would tend to believe him.

However, we cannot let them totally off the hook. Competing in USAT&F events, we are expected to know the rules going in to the events so when our family doctor prescribes a medicine, we need to ask questions. This is the only way to make informed decisions.

Additionally, the USA T&F provides for exception to certain drugs based off medical reasons. Again based off my reading of the article none of these people filed for this exception.

All I can say is - word to the wise, when seeing your family doctor and being prescribed a drug, ask questions. This is especially true if there's a USAT&F event on the horizon and you even remotely expect to participate in the event. Sometime asking permission is better than asking for forgiveness.

 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner