Are Trail Runners Getting Tested For Doping

How doped up are athletes in general?  

According to a 2018 article published in the Journal of Sports Medicine, in an anonymous online survey, up to 57 percent of several thousand world-class amateur athletes admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs in the past year.

It begs the question: has the sport of trail running finally caught up with doping or has it stayed clean?   

Let’s find out.

The first trail running PED tests in the US were at the 2018 Mountain, Ultra, and Trail National Championships. However, the Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc (France) started testing in 2015 and disqualified one runner who tested positive for EPO.    

Anti-Establishment

How did trail running as a sport manage to stay out of the “Establishment” for so long?

Two reasons:

1. Trail Running is not an Olympic Sport.
2. Trail Running is non-Federated meaning it’s not incorporated into any Federation, Association, or Governing Body of sports.

Read on to find out the reasons as to why trail runners put their foot down and said “No.”

Opposition To Federation Control

Trail runners and Trail Running Organizers as a whole have been massively opposed to trail running getting incorporated into the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF).

Why?

Once incorporated, the IAAF will have the authority to DICTATE the rules and regulations of trail running, in doing so, trail running will lose its freedom as the sport that it is and is meant to be. 

Meaning that once incorporated, it’s the IAAF who would stipulate the in-competition and out-of-competition rules, including drug testing, which is how the first tests in France (2015) and more recently in the US (2018) happened.

The US event was put on by the US Track and Field Federation. According to the Federation rules, dope testing was a requirement for putting on the event.

However, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc testing was put on as a non-federated event. If not federated, why the testing you may ask? Perhaps it was some “virtue signaling” from the Organizers to add “prestige” to their event?

Which begs the question: Dope Testing. What is in it and who is benefitting?

Follow The Money

You know the old saying, “Follow the Money?” The only reason why Federations want to get into Trail running is because of its growing POPULARITY and they see the MONEY. Money, of course, also means taking control of the sport and dictating the rules, as mentioned above.

Trail runners feel opposed to both the idea that a ruling body of any kind should not only dictate the rules of the sport but also make money off a sport that essentially started out as “unlimited”- subject to only its own “rules” and not that of any “outside control.”

The Uncontrolled Nature Of Trail Running

Trail running as a sport is similar to Mountaineering – it cannot be controlled. For instance, if the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) controlled Mountaineering, then the use of Oxygen bottles on Mount Everest would be banned as being performance-enhancing.

Unlike the majority of sports, trail running, by its very nature, is different in that it doesn’t happen in a “straight line” from start to finish. With its unpredictable, varied, and tough terrain, you could almost call it an obstacle course.

Enters the Federation, and the first thing they want to do is to turn your event into what they think a running race should be, according to their rules for road events.

For instance, the Federation will stipulate road and mile markings, the distance between water tables, and a road that is wide enough for race referees to monitor the athletes.

And of course, the mandatory random dope testing of the runners after the event.

Fancy this happening for your favorite trail running races?

My guess is that Lazarus Lake of the infamous Barkley Marathons would tell the IAAF the same as what he tells everyone on the start line of his almost impossible event.

“Good Luck, Morons”

Lazarus Lake (Barkley Marathons)

The Uncontrolled Nature Of Trail Runners

Trail runners are often get labeled as the “alternative tribe” of the running community. The non-conformist, much like the free-loving hippies from the sixties.

In my view, there are possibly three types of Trail Runners:

1. The Adventurist: Always on the lookout for the next adventure. At heart, they’re pretty “safe”- can’t quite call them “wild”- although they tend to be borderline. They go out there, try out something new, take their chances, give it their best shot, and then come back home all safe and sound, smiling. This was great. What’s next?
2. The Naturalist/ Minimalist:  These are the guys I admire. They live off the grid and get rid of all the shit/noise. Think of the likes of Anton Krupicka in his minimalist short shorts and shoes, no socks or shirt. Imagine trying to control these bearded wild bunch with their solo FKT runs, their tents, camper vans, and baked beans for breakfast, living by their own code: Never say never.
3. The Extremist: The “loonies” of the trail running tribe. The Ultras.  They know no boundaries, and they have no limits. Think the Barkley Marathon crowd. They keep pushing their limits and simply won’t stop until they’ve achieved their goal or finished themselves off in the process. They run unforgiven terrain – rough mountainous and hot, arid deserts- you name it. Endless miles, testing their very limits as an athlete, as a human. They thrive on pain and suffering. Their motto? Never say die. They always come back for more.

At the end of the day, whether you’re an Adventurist, Minimalist, or an Extremist, at heart you’re a trail runner first and foremost, with the need for adventure, time in nature, and a touch of the extreme, pulsing through your veins.   

Should the “rules” of our sport be changed to fit the closed-minded ideas of someone who doesn’t even run on trails?

The History Of Doping In Sport

Doping in sport is nothing new. It goes as far back as the ancient Greeks who staged the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C.  Even in 700 BC there was an awareness that heightened testosterone would increase performance. Ever since athletes would go to extremes in their quest for glory. 

From eating sheep testicles, hearts, mushrooms, and drinking all sorts of “magic” potions and herbal concoctions to sniffing cocaine and even ingesting a mixture of brandy and Strychnine in later years during the early 20th-century sporting events.

Whatever it took to stay upright and finish the race.  Even if it meant facing sudden death.   

Since then, performance-enhancing drugs have become much more sophisticated and science-based, meaning that doping today is still rife in sport across the board, despite the threat of getting caught out by random testing.

Punishment

Doping has always come at a price.  Even during ancient times.  When found out cheating with a performance-enhancing drug of sorts during the race, the disgraced athlete would face public humiliation and shame.

Offenders were punished corporally with a beating of a stick or a whip.  This was a heavy punishment, not only physically, but also psychologically. The punishments at the games probably had a religious significance: the athletes had sworn to Zeus to compete honestly and, if they cheated, they insulted the god by their behavior.

You can read more here about how cheating athletes were punished in ancient Greece.

The Need For Secrecy

Every doping program needs organized secrecy.  In ancient Greece, the honor of keeping the secrecy code was the responsibility of the judges and priests who ensured relevant materials and information were kept well hidden.

As you can see, an organized code of silence is nothing new. Read more about where it all started here.

Bribery

Ancient Olympics was related to bribery or foul play. Today we call it “match-fixing.” There often was direct bribery between athletes or between those close to the athletes to influence the results.

In 388 B.C., during the 98th Olympics, a boxer named Eupolus of Thessaly bribed three of his opponents to let him win. All four men were heavily fined, and up went six bronze statues of Zeus, four of which had inscriptions about the scandal and a warning to future athletes. 

Here is the link to be able to read more about the first recorded incident of match-fixing in elite level sport.

The Role Of The Team And Coaches

By the time the Olympics were modernized some 2,000 years later, questionable beverages and edibles were still very much a part of the doping athlete’s preparation, with teams and coaches developing their own recipes for their athletes in the build-up to their competition.

Big Brother Steps In

In 1928, 32 years after the first modern Olympics, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) recognized the ensuing problems and became the first international sporting federation to prohibit doping by athletes.

Over the ensuing years, you had more and more sporting federations incorporating their own anti-doping regulations. With each sport managing its own program and having its own different list of banned products.

This made an event like the Olympic Games very complicated because they had to manage multiple different lists of substances. It became a mess when announcements were made, only to be reversed when authorities realized they were looking at the wrong list.

There is one example that springs to mind, and that was the highly publicized Probenecid case in 1988.

To combat all of the confusion, almost 11 years later the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was presented with the Lausanne Declaration. This agreement blended the anti-doping codes of all sports into one.

The trouble was that each sporting federation was still responsible for the testing within their sports, which created a potential conflict of interest. The organization that negotiates massive sponsorship deals does not want any scandal showing up in the media about their star athletes.

Ideally, this combined anti-doping code should be administered independently of all the sports. And so it came to pass that nine months after the Lausanne Declaration the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) was born.

WADA Banned Substances For Trail Runners – 2020 And Beyond

To make things simple WADA has split the list of banned substances into broad categories. You can find the full, updated, list of all banned substances here. To save you some time, I’ll list the categories of substances that have the biggest impact on trail running with a couple of examples of each.

• Peptide Hormones: These include EPO and Growth Hormones.
• Cannabinoids: All cannabis products and synthetic substances that contain or mimic THC.
• Anabolic Agents: The full range of anabolic steroids. Nandrolone is common in male athletes and Winstrol in female athletes. Clenbuterol strips body fat, converting it to energy for endurance sport.
• Stimulants: These are commonly found in cold medications like Ephedrine for instance. Caffeine was once on the list but not anymore. They are really effective at masking the feeling of fatigue.

If you plan to take part in an event where testing will be happening, like UTMB, then the onus is on you as the athlete to know what is on the list.

The Exceptions

What makes the WADA system more tricky to administer is that almost all of the substances that are on the banned list are also treatments for known medical conditions.

Therefore if an athlete has a legitimate medical condition or illness and needs a specific medication there needs to be a way for that athlete to be treated. I remember when I ran track and field. I had a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting. My antihistamine medication contained a banned stimulant.

In order for athletes to be treated for these legitimate conditions without risking their careers through a positive drug test, there needs to be a way for athletes to get permission to be able to use their medication. That is why WADA set up a system called a Therapeutic Use Exemption. It is what allowed me to get my bee sting medication.

The process of therapeutic use exemption or TUE as it is commonly called is both necessary and unfortunately open to being gamed to get an advantage over rivals.

There was a documented case some years ago where testosterone was prescribed by a doctor to treat the asthma of a 14-year-old male track athlete on his way to a national championship title.

In many countries, junior athletes that compete at school level events cannot be tested without the prior consent of their parents. This, too, creates a loophole that can be exploited.

In 2009 I met a medical doctor at the local business forum where I lived at the time. He informed me that routinely parents would bring a child and tell him to prescribe whatever their child needs to secure a lucrative professional sporting contract.

The Fallen Hero

Lance Armstrong, one of the biggest known cheaters of all time, simply stated, “Everybody was cheating, I just got away with it (for longer)” when he finally came clean in the controversial Oprah Winfrey Interview in 2013. During the interview, he stated that his “mythic, perfect story” was “one big lie”, and attributed his denials to being “a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted, and to control every outcome.”

Does flaunting the rules to “control every outcome to get whatever he wanted” make Lance Armstrong a hero or a villain?

“We want an edge.”

Patrick Hunt, professor of archaeology at Stanford University

The Big Question

What do you think? Should trail runners be subjected to dope testing or not?  Would you feel pissed off when you were to find out that the guy who snatches victory from you was cheating, doped up on EPO, or Salbutamol? Or should trail runners just chill, enjoy the sport, and stay free of “Big Brother dictating” the rules of the sport?  

Share your thoughts on this controversial topic in the comment section below and also tell us how you boost your performance during your race the natural way.