PEDs

Funny, the article mentions that someone looked at all the people in Mesa and assumed many of them are juicing. But that never occurred to me. Am I just naïve? I can't say 100% it never happens, but it has never been my go-to excuse for why I don't win. And what if it's not prevalent? What if we institute testing and don't catch anyone? Will we stop testing? Or will half of us just say "we need to test even harder because we CAN JUST TELL that person X is cheating!" I think it's a can of worms that we don't really want to open. Also: there are plenty of 14-year-old girls out there faster than me. And let's just assume that I have fifty pounds of muscle on pretty much all of them. And lower body fat percentage. But they still can kick my ass. If someone beats you in a swimming race, they are probably a better swimmer than you. Accept it. You make solid points most of which I agree with. Is there a threshold that would make you want to start testing? As examples, perhaps one person drops 10 seconds in a 200 from any recorded masters time to win a national championship from the “B” heat or someone else breaks 19 world records in a single year. 99% of the USMS world would say “wow” to the previous hypothetical scenarios. 1% would say “wow, but I would like some more information as well.” Both, either, or neither could be legitimately earned but nobody really knows for sure. I know a witness of at least possession in a highest level masters athlete and I know some that were previous elite youth that refuse to compete because of the “wild west” attitude in USMS. I am not necessarily advocating for testing (I used to be able to pee at will for these guys but now I believe with my gargantuan prostate and level of shyness, I would need about 2 hours and a lot of sweet talking to my unit to produce a few drops—I may be in the minority, but I stopped trying at a baseball game where 100s of strangers are urinating in the same trough!) I do not believe we have the stomach or the will for testing but for some, the threat of at least some random testing might be somewhat of a deterrent and for others a modicum of peace as they wonder whether there is fair competition.

Funny, the article mentions that someone looked at all the people in Mesa and assumed many of them are juicing. But that never occurred to me. Am I just naïve? I can't say 100% it never happens, but it has never been my go-to excuse for why I don't win. And what if it's not prevalent? What if we institute testing and don't catch anyone? Will we stop testing? Or will half of us just say "we need to test even harder because we CAN JUST TELL that person X is cheating!" I think it's a can of worms that we don't really want to open. Also: there are plenty of 14-year-old girls out there faster than me. And let's just assume that I have fifty pounds of muscle on pretty much all of them. And lower body fat percentage. But they still can kick my ass. If someone beats you in a swimming race, they are probably a better swimmer than you. Accept it. You make solid points most of which I agree with. Is there a threshold that would make you want to start testing? As examples, perhaps one person drops 10 seconds in a 200 from any recorded masters time to win a national championship from the “B” heat or someone else breaks 19 world records in a single year. 99% of the USMS world would say “wow” to the previous hypothetical scenarios. 1% would say “wow, but I would like some more information as well.” Both, either, or neither could be legitimately earned but nobody really knows for sure. I know a witness of at least possession in a highest level masters athlete and I know some that were previous elite youth that refuse to compete because of the “wild west” attitude in USMS. I am not necessarily advocating for testing (I used to be able to pee at will for these guys but now I believe with my gargantuan prostate and level of shyness, I would need about 2 hours and a lot of sweet talking to my unit to produce a few drops—I may be in the minority, but I stopped trying at a baseball game where 100s of strangers are urinating in the same trough!) I do not believe we have the stomach or the will for testing but for some, the threat of at least some random testing might be somewhat of a deterrent and for others a modicum of peace as they wonder whether there is fair competition.