Runner caught cheating

Anyone see the New York Times article abou Christian Hesch, the runner who was caught cheating? He wasn't an elite athlete but was still able to make his living off racing, netting about $40,000 a year.




He looks kind of squirrely in this photo, eh?

According to the article, he drove down to Mexico, bought, erythropoietin, known as EPO, a blood booster, and injected it into his system.

He did this for two years.


He says that he noticed results pretty quickly and that his red blood cell count increased and that racing felt like flying.


"Your running feels like what you imagine when you see all those Kenyan runners floating down the road,” Hesch said about competing with the aid of EPO. “And two to three weeks in your cycle, you start feeling like that yourself.”


He kept winning, too.

What kills me is at the end of the article he says that he could easily race those same times without the drug doping.

“I can and have run all those times perfectly clean," he says. "It’s not that difficult to run these times, and it doesn’t take any outside help.” 

Right, buddy.

I don't know about you, but stuff like this burns me up. Most of us train hard and race hard and still will never win a major race. Yet we do it. We put in the time honestly. We accept our shortcomings.

We don't make excuses.

This dude lied and cheated. I'm glad he was caught, and I hope they make him repay all of his prize earnings. I hope he has to get a "real" job, too, like the rest of us poor slobs who work full-time, raise children, etc., and still find time to train and race.

But still, it causes me to wonder: The next time any of us lines up at a regional race, will any of the competitors have the added edge of blood doping?

It's a scary thought.