Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue Oct 1
Throughout the years, I had struggled with a combination of being excited for new races and new goals, but also really longing for a time when I didn’t have a single race on the calendar and I could just run for the hell of it. Through my life, running has been everything from an anti-depressant and stress relief to simple expression of joy, but throughout endless training cycles and chasing goals, something had gotten lost. For lack of a better word, I’d lost my running mojo.
Doping: Like most people, much of yesterday was spent digging through the findings that resulted in Alberto Salazar and Dr. Jeffrey Brown being banned from the sport for four years. Hot takes:
-It’s about damn time. Al Sal’s cheating and Brown’s medical bulls*t have been going on for years with no consequences.
-We’ve been talking about Dr. Brown on this show for a long time and questioned Nike MUT runner Pat Smyth about his relationship and “thyroid problem.”
-As Mario Fraioli is fond of saying, you are responsible for who you associate with and what gets put into your body. If there’s consequences, you live with them. Read the rest of Mario’s excellent analysis right this way.
-Phil Knight has some big decisions to make. Disband OP entirely, push forward as if nothing happened (likeliest scenario), or at the very least, allow current athletes to opt out of current contracts and seek new sponsorships.
Here’s LetsRun’s take on AlSal and Brown. Good stuff.
And Matt Hart’s take on this in the NYT. Matt’s been at this story a long time.
Steamboat: Perspectives and stories from an all night Run Rabbit Run aid station.
Yahoo News: Polish daredevil decides not to ski down Everest. Good decision.
Curious: Is anyone taking part in Sober October? With all the new NA beers out there, this should be easy, right?
Twitter: We had an interesting discussion on Twitter yesterday about why comped gear is disclosed, but race entries and travel comps are often not. We didn’t come up with any real answers or solutions other than transparency is paramount.
Just remember, when you see someone repping a race, ask yourself whether they’d be there, sharing there experience if they’d paid for it on their own.
WebMD: Extreme exercise messes with our decision making abilities. This answers a ton of questions, doesn’t it?
Well I’m certainly intrigued. A 50k across London where runners (or teams of runners) are given “objectives” to solve along the way.
Guardian: Nine year old kid starts a 5k, then wins the 10k. Mom almost has heart attack. DQ the little fella. *
PodiumRunner: How this one stretch can improve your running.
There’s an event in New York that hosts logging sports and a 50 miler. Who’d be the best “multi-sport” athlete for this? My money’s on Tommy Rivers for the fellas and probably Amelia Boone for the ladies. I’ve seen some of those OCR obstacles!
Lame: Pennsylvania creates new, special, and secret tax on craft breweries in the state.
Snowbrains: Trail runner in Utah attacked by Bison while on an established trail and seemingly doing everything right.
*kidding?