Run to Win

Track coach Trevor Graham has been banned for life from any competition sanctioned by USATF, IAAF, or the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Graham is the person that broke open the BALCO scandal by mailing a syringe of “the clear” to USADA. Numerous athletes that he has coached have been caught doping or have admitted to doping in the past, and all claim that they got their drugs from Graham. He has been convicted in a federal court and is still awaiting sentencing.

“There has been a belief out there that coaches, doctors and other people who support athletes were somehow outside the long arm of the rules,” USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a phone interview. “This is a strong reminder that they’re not, and that we’ll use our authority to hold coaches accountable if they assist and aid athletes in doping.”

Graham has been operating under a temporary ban for the past couple of years, but I can not imagine any athlete wanting to work with him even had he not received a lifetime ban. There have been numerous race organizations, especially in Europe, that have refused to allow athletes coached by him into their events for the past few years.

Hopefully this sets a good precedent for following the rules and competing cleanly, both from an athlete perspective and from their coaches and trainers.

(More Info: USATF - ESPN)

Michael Johnson holds the 200m and 400m world records, and until recently had 5 Olympic Gold medals. That’s about to change, though, as he is voluntarily returning one of his Olympic Gold medals now that he knows it wasn’t not achieved legally.

In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 3 of the 4 runners on the 1600m relay were coached by Trevor Graham. In Graham’s latest trial, Antonio Pettigrew admitted to receiving performance enhancing drugs from Graham. This means that Michael Johnson was the only clean athlete on the relay team.

Johnson said he is “deeply disappointed in Antonio and in the sport of athletics. I now realize that there have been a significant number of athletes and coaches in this sport who have cheated and taken the short cut, and many of them knew who else was cheating.

“But now, I feel that I have been naive.

“I know the medal was not fairly won and that it is dirty, and so I have moved it from the location where I have always kept my medals because it doesn’t belong there. And it doesn’t belong to me.”

This has to be quite the blow for Johnson, and I’m sorry that he has to give up his medal. He is doing the right thing, though. I hope that it serves as a good example for the next generation of athletes and that they stay clean.

(Read More: ESPN - Photo Credit: Sprintic)

There is a lot happening this week in the world of running, so today I have a quick round up for you rather than providing a series of short articles on each one.

Trevor Graham found guilty of lying to investigators

Things are not looking good for Trevor Graham, a track coach who has had multiple athletes admit or found guilty of cheating. He has so far been found convicted of lying to federal investigators about his interactions with a known steroid dealer and his facilitation of providing drugs to his athletes. The jury was not able to come to a consensus about 2 other charges against him.
(Source: ESPN)

California Dreamin’ Racing Series

The San Francisco, Long Beach and Surf City marathons in California have teamed up in a combined marketing effort to create the California Dreamin’ Racing Series, which will have a “competition within a competition” for competitors that want to run either the full or half marathons in each of the 3 races from this August through next February. There will be separate prizes and awards, and each finisher of all 3 races will receive a jacket and a large finishers medal with the logos of the 3 races. It is acting as a miniature Grand Prix type of race series.
(More Info: Press Release (pdf) - Home Page)

ING New York City Marathon Lottery closes on Sunday

Still considering paying the exorbitant fees to run a marathon in New York City? Well, if you want a chance to get through the lottery then Sunday is your last day to put your name in the hat. Guaranteed entry applications had to be in on May 1^st, so there is no way to get a spot in the marathon now without passing through the lottery. I enjoyed running the race, but the fees are just too high for me to consider running it again, unfortunately.
(Click here to apply)

Fantasy Track Meets » This Weekend

There are two track meets this weekend that will be counted towards your fantasy teams if you are participating. The IAAF meet in Berlin on Sunday will kick off the series at the international level, and the Reebok Grand Prix on Saturday is the 2^nd event in the USATF Visa Championship Series outdoor meets (it is actually the 3^rd meet in the Series but only the 2^nd fantasy meet.)
(Click Here for more information - Set up your teams: IAAF - USATF)

Fitness for Moms Carnival

I have been featured in the latest edition of the Fitness for Moms Carnival, which includes a short description of my article about how to find people to run with. The latest edition casts a spotlight on various articles about health, mothers, and working out.
(More Info: Go Workout Mom)

Summer Track Meets

Summer is almost upon us, which means that the high school and college track meets are just about done wrapping up and there will be time for us old fogies to get out there and burn up the track! The USATF lists over 200 open and masters track meets in the country over the next 3 months, and there are a series of 5 races being put on by the Maine chapter of the USATF. See if there are any near you and then dust off your track spikes! Looking at the dates for the Maine races, I don’t think that it is very likely that I’ll be competing too much this year. I already have commitments for all of the Wednesday night races and I will likely be running a different race the weekend of the championship meet.
(More Info: USATF Event Search - Maine » Summer Series (pdf) - Track Championships (pdf))
http://www.meusatf.org/

One of Trevor Graham’s athletes that has tested positive for steroids has had her career restored after appealing the drug tests. Her case has been under review and appeal since 2006. LaTesha Jenkins can now compete again now that she has both won her appeal and WADA has dropped it’s appeal of the overturned charge earlier this week.

The decision makes it official that Jenkins is the first athlete to beat the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on a drug charge. The two-time world medalist tested positive for the steroid nandrolone at a meet in Brussels, Belgium, in July 2006.

A three-person U.S. arbitration panel had ruled against the USADA in December. It said results of her test were compromised because both European labs testing her sample violated international standards that require the tests be run by two different technicians.

While it is hard to give any athlete that is caught and that was coached by Graham the benefit of the doubt, I am glad that Jenkins has managed to come out on the winning side of this argument. While I hope to see effective measures against doping put into place, I don’t want that to come at the expense of the athlete’s rights. Any time that a lab does not follow every rule and law for the safe and secure handling of any samples from an athlete, then that sample needs to be disregarded.

(More Info: ESPN)