Drugs, drugs and more drugs...

So I guess I am not the first person to add my comment on this subject!

Just google the words, "drugs in sport" and you'll find over 750,000 references, so where would you begin anyway?

The main question is, why would I even want to delve into this topic, when it's been beaten over the head more times than Igor the

Queen Street

bike thief has flipped used bikes...

(:

I guess it really started a few years ago, when I did some on-line writing for CBC Sports Online, over in Europe ahead of the Tour de France:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/columns/tourdefrance/

I pursued the story believing that here was a true hero that surely must be accomplishing these amazing feats of endurance on pure talent alone. After speaking with some of the locals in England and France (bike shop owners, ex-pro riders) the truth seemed different. In their opinion of course! At least the general consensus was that Lance, if he was taking "something", still dusted the competition quite handily and deserved to be called the champion that he was.

Maybe Peter Fonseca was right, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"...

But let's rewind the tape a little...

When Ben Johnson won the Gold Medal in 1988, I and some friends ran around York University like fools, celebrating his victory (he trained indoors here all the time and we as students felt like he was one of us)...

Two days later we felt as angry and frustrated as everyone else, and the Olympic tarnish had begun. Despite this I would eventually find myself at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, how could I not see this sports spectacle for myself. Having completed 4 marathons already, I felt like I belonged, and proudly showed off my Canadian colours, revelling in the double-gold medal victory that Donovan Bailey brought home.

(I even tried to make money selling souvenir 100-meter

t-shirts back in Toronto, I still have a few, send me $10 and you can have one)!

As I started paying attention to the marathon scene in earnest, I had started hearing the drug stories again, regarding certain distance athletes and whether or not they were "clean" or "dirty". Having now be-friended Peter Fonseca, Canada's top marathoner (and 18th place finish in Atlanta), and hearing his take on the issue, it made me start to see sport in a different light. Peter trained often in Europe, with some of the best Italian, Portuguese and Spanish athletes, and he seemed to think that many of his slightly faster peers were indeed taking unfair advantages to gain that small edge.

At the same time, other major sports starting facing drug questions, so one had to wonder if there was anything or anyone pure left in sport?

Then of course when you start to ask questions, and poke your nose around, you can quickly become pretty disillusioned with professional athletes, even so-called "amateurs" like many Olympians. One of the reasons why I started to gravitate to these sports (running, cycling) was that I became dis-illusioned with the big-money salaries going towards the major sports stars - NHL, NFL, Baseball, NBA.

Yet, many of these athletes didn't seem to be great role models, and there always seemed to be a strike, a walk-out, a trade to another, higher-paying team, etc. I much preferred to spend my limited time supporting athletes who worked so hard and in many cases earned far less than the big-league, North American sports stars.

As an athlete and sports fan, whom would I root for, and where would my loyalties lie?

Fast-forward to recently, I have now become an avid cyclist, in no small part thanks to Lance Armstrong and the excellent t.v. coverage that followed his 7 Tour victories. Does it really matter that they are now catching these cheats on a regular basis?

Have they really done anything in the NBA, the NFL, the CFL, NHL or Major League Baseball?

Could you imagine the Stanley Cup Champions getting tested and then losing the trophy?

Would they really strip the awards and titles away from the top stars after-the-fact?

At least in the Tour, no one is safe and as we now know all too well, even the winners are caught, thrown out immediately and disgraced forever.

Makes me fell a little better, what about you?

PD

peter@mynextrace.com 

Blog entry july

so I guess I am not the first person to add my comment on this subject!

just google the words, "drugs in sport" and you'll find over 750,000 references, so where would you begin anyway?  The other question is, why would I even want to delve into this topic, when it's been beaten over the head more times than Igor the bike thief has flipped used bikes...

(:

I guess it really started a few years ago, when I did some on-line writing for CBC Sports Online, over in Europe ahead of the Tour de France:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/columns/tourdefrance/

Of course, when Ben Johnson won the Gold Medal in 1988, I and some friends ran around York University like a fool, celebrating his victory (he trained indoors here all the time and we as students felt like he was one of us)...

Two days later we felt as angry and frustrated as everyone else, but despite this I found myself at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, proudly calling myself a Canadian and revelling in the double-gold medal victory that Donovan Bailey brought home.

(I even tried to make money selling souvenir 100-meter

t-shirts back in Toronto, I still have a few, send me $10 and you can have one)!

When I started running marathons in earnest, in 1995, I started hearing the stories again, regarding certain distance athletes and whether or not they were "clean" or "dirty".  Having befriended Peter Fonseca, Canada's top marathoner, and hearing his take on the issue, made me start to see sport in a different light.  Peter trained often in Europe, with some of the best Italian, Portuguese and Spanish athletes, and he seemed to think that many of his slightly faster peers were indeed taking unfair advantages to gain that small edge.

Then of course when you start to ask questions, and poke your nose around, you can quickly become pretty disillusioned with professional athletes, even so-called "amateurs" like many Olympians.  One of the reasons why I started to gravitate to these sports was that I became dis-illusioned---------------

Quest blogger / Olympics

In light of the up-coming Olympic Games in Beijing, I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you some great thoughts from a friend and client, Barry Shepley.

Barry will be doing television work during the games, and was on-hand as the Team Canada Triathlon Coach at the 2000 Sydney Games. Subscribe to his weekly emails so you don't miss anything! barrie@personalbest.ca

From mud huts to African mansions

One of my fond memories of the Sydney Olympics was meeting the world's greatest distance runner, Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie. He saw my Canadian jacket in Sydney and asked me if I knew Ethiopia's previous great runner from the 80s, Miruts Yifter (5000m and 10,000m gold medalist from the 1980 Russian Olympic Games).

Yifter had left Ethiopia in the early 90s and was living in Toronto. Ironically not only did I know Yifter, but had him to a few functions and track running sessions with my athletes. Gebrselassie was so excited that I knew his personal idol that he asked me to have a picture taken of the two of us and to give it to Yifter when I returned to Canada. It remains one of my favourite pictures of the Sydney Games.

Haile Gebrselassie wasn't born with any benefits. He lived in a mud hut with no electricity and eight brothers and sisters. Without shoes, young Haile would run 10km to school in the morning and 10km back home through the trails and high altitude thin air. As a young runner, Haile started to win running races in 1987 and was picked up by the great Ethiopian running coach Dr. Yilma Berta. Gebrselassie's break through was his gold medal in the 10,000m track race at the Atlanta Olympics. Haile returned home from the Games to marry his life-long sweetheart and start their lives of making a difference to others.

Haile and his wife fund an orphanage but, rather then just giving people money, he believes in giving them education and helping them realize their dreams. "I don't want to just give them fish, I want to teach them how to fish." says Gebrsellasie of the philosophy they use at their orphanage. Haile backed up his Atlanta gold-medal with another gold in Sydney 2000. Over the years he has set 20+ world records around the world. Of all the world records that Gebrselassie has achieved, the one he is most proud of is the World Record in the marathon set in the last year. By 29 seconds, the man who ran in his bare feet as a child and grew up without electricity, set the fastest time ever produced in 2 hrs 04 minutes 26 seconds on the streets of Berlin.

The recent biopic of his life showed how he still runs with a very tight left arm. This is the arm that would hold his school books for the 20km of running to and from school for over a decade of his development years. With a huge concern about the impact of pollution on the lungs of athletes in Beijing, Gebrselassie has decided to not race in Beijing in August (hoping to get another chance at a future opportunity to break his own marathon record in the next 18 months). Like many of the athletes who have used their athletic prowess to help others, Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie continues to make a bigger impact off the track then he does on.

ed. note - when I was running fast and training like a madman, I joined the Yifter group on many occasions at Riverdale Park. It was intense, to say the least...what I learned most though was to have fun, be different and once the work was over, stop. None of this long cool-down crap.

Hard to disagree with "Yifter the shifter" as they called him, read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miruts_Yifter

PD

peter@mynextrace.com 

Bird bath etiquette

Never heard of an endurance sports bird bath?

Read on, you may find yourself in the same washroom one day!

I was first introduced to the concept when I first started running, but I believe it was already in my nature and disposition to act thus when I played competitive tennis and golf. Both sports had the added element of post-match socializing, and as often as possible I preferred to clean myself up before sitting down for the apres sport time (beer, salty snacks and commisserating over that missed shot)

Especially after a 5-hr round in hot and humid weather, or a three-setter, a marathon practice session with Chris, my long-time tennis buddy. He never did, which is why I sat down-wind....

Running can produce amazing endorphins as we know, but also quirky habits among us. The lucky few can complete a 30-45-60 minute run, or longer, and immediately sit down in the same clothes and hang out sipping coffee.

Me, I almost always prefer to change out of my wet clothes, and into something cool, cotton and dry, except on some fair-weathered fall days, or in early spring. If I really sweat, I like to clean off a little with a wet face-cloth, which is where I first heard of the proper term, "bird bath"....

(:

Showers are not always available, especially when you run in so many interesting, out-of-the way places like I do.

So...

Back to the public washroom in High Park the other weekend morning....

A place I have found myself many times, changing into something else, and it's a crowded scene here on a hot and muggy mid-summer morning. The usual suspects are here, including my friend (name withheld for obvious reasons) who, of European background, has no problem getting buck naked to change his clothes...

Rule #1 - not a good idea in a WASHROOM (not a changeroom gentleman) to strip down in front of the guy who just came in to wash his hands....

Before I can say FULL MONTY, another guy props his leg up onto the counter, and starts LATHERING and SCRUBBING his legs....soap, water, energy, effort...

Rule #2 - the bird bath is exactly how it sounds, discreet, elegant, simple, it's not called ELEPHANT BATH for this reason, so anything other than face, neck and hands, arm pits, the crotch area....you get the idea. It's even okay and advisable for some to pop a little deodorant back-on, especially those who forgot in the morning as they headed out the door..

(think of yourself as a cat, or a dog, NOT)!!!

Rule #3 - if you really have to get naked, or use the entire washroom area as your personal, public cleansing station, then lock yourself behind the bathroom stall door where we can avoid the un-sightly and un-attractive...

Got it everyone?

Good.

Keep running....

PD

peter@mynextrace.com

I just found out..

..From a friend, who did that horrendously hot Chicago Marathon last year.

The race that was cancelled in mid-stream due to the weather:

http://mynextrace.com/Article528.htm

http://mynextrace.com/Article525.htm

I wasn't paying too much attention to all the minor details, I just heard the bits and pieces from many media reports and friends who "were there".

Is there a t-shirt yet on this infamous race?

"The Windy City meltdown - I was there"

"My parents were at the disastrous 2007 Chicago Marathon and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"....

(:

So....

My friend told the story of his experience, not being allowed to finish, corralled at mile 16-17 and forced to finish a few miles later, and then they received a finisher's medal!

WHAT!!!

Are they mad, or just super-disorganized....

Or too worried that 20,000 refunds had to be administered???

PD

peter@mynextrace.com 

Vacation alert

I'm back from a "writing" holiday....

Sorry for the lack of notice.

Lots to talk about now, including:

- What's the limit on bird baths (post run or ride cleaning in the public washroom)...

- Playing through pain (have we all pulled a tiger)

- Shoes, shoes and more shoes ("peter, yu left your shoes at my place...on purpose again")

- Cause rides and the cost / return

Stay tuned, keep enjoying your summer!

PD

peter@mynextrace.com