Drug Doping In Athletics

Recently, one of Ireland's greatest long distance runners has had his A sample testing positive. We await Martin Fagans B sample. He tested positive for EPO. This drug increases the amount of red blood cells, which means more oxygenated blood cells, which means you can run for longer without the muscles shutting down due to lack of oxygen. This is the simple

I had a lot of respect for Martin. I admired him, and looked up to him. It was a case of if an Irish athlete can run like that well there is hope for other Irish athletes. I never had a lengthy conversation with him, but he is a lovely guy. However, a drug cheat is a drug cheat. He had a decision and made a bad one. I do feel sorry for him, but I see it in two ways. If he ran a race by using EPO, and we were non the wiser, we would celebrate. If he medalled in the Olympics we would see him as a hero. It would be a different story. He would have been on a Sports Grant, and buying drugs with it. However, we can't say whether he would have continued taking EPO. I know he was suffering with depression and maybe wasn't in the right frame of mind. We know the facts that he took drugs, and everything after that is reasons as to why he took drugs. It's a cut throat attitude I know, but read on.

The second way I look at it, and is personally, a more important one, is that I have to take vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes to break down and absorb the nutrients from the foes as I can't digest the food myself. I also take several nebulisers, an anti biotic every second day and inhalers. For what? Just To be on a level par of a person who doesn't have Cystic Fibrosis. I have to run, whether I like it or not, just to stay out of hospital. After all this, I still have to train my arse off to try compete with other athletes who don't have to take 30 tablets a day to survive. This is why I feel so strongly about doping in sports. I felt I went through a tough patch, feeling down/worried with not being able to run, coughing up bloody, getting injured and so on. It's scary coughing up blood for no reason. I know I'm not at the same standard as Martin.

It's hard for other Irish athletes because they had a direct relationship with him. So it's hard for his friends to read something that is so 100% against what he did. I thought about what if one of my friends started to take drugs just to compete at a certain level. I would have the same response. I can see the lure of doping in sports. I just don't understand as to why they would do it. Being the best in the world/Europe/nation but because of drugs?

Anyway, I'm going to forget about it. In the last Olympics another Irish athlete was caught, and with the same drug but people don't seem have any sympathy for him.
I haven't updated the blog in a while. I have been lacking inspiration, and I didn't want to just write random stories up without any true meaning behind them.
I'm running 8 miles a day, with one 10 miler and one 15 miler. Building up the miles nicely. My chest feels better then normal. The weather is a bit mad, so it feels like my chest is bipolar. One day it would feel great then the weather changes and my chest will feel stuffy. It's annoying. I normally go to Portugal during January. However, this isn't a normal season for this month. It's warmer and damper. I feel like I should go away next week. I'm missing the warmth. It's so much easier to train in weather like that.

Finally, I'm going to leave it at that because I am very tired and have a long run in the morning

Adios