Tuesday, September 15, 2009

To test or not to test...

There is a raging debate going on over at Slowtwitch.com right now. Seems that if you get a Kona slot as an age grouper that you will now have to sign a waiver, and be subject to out of and in competition testing just like the pros. (And since apparently the governing body has never seen fit to look into TUE's for age groupers, you can imagine some of the teeth gnashing that is causing...)

Me, I think its a great thing. I think everyone who competes should be tested at some point in time. I remember one year at the Pittsburgh Marathon, a local high school coach placed in the money and was tested. And failed. He let out a cry that he shouldn't be subjected to the testing that the pros go thru, since he wasn't a pro. (and I think he may have lost his coaching position...)

I also remember a little ethnic running enclave from the DC area who used to pop out to races that had money but no drug testing. As they didn't live in their home country, they were not subject to out of competition testing, and since they didn't do races here that did drug testing, they weren't subject to in competition testing. It was quite a little scam, but there wasn't much anyone was going to do about it. Drug testing is expensive.

One of my friends had an agent whose husband was eventually busted... Oh, the stories she would tell from some of the houses she stayed in. Drugs being sterilized on the stove...

But if you think that age groupers don't dope, you are in Lala Land. One of my former co-workers was on a pub team softball team... He told me what he took. And I told him that his balls were going to shrink to the size of marbles...

Do I think age groupers should be tested. Yep. People put too much time and effort to have some crappy cheater take away what they rightly earned. I don't agree with the whole rules apply to some people and not others. Its wrong. If you test positive, the results should be public, your peers should know. JMHO... what do you think?

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