It can make you feel awesome when out with your friends on an all-nighter. It can leave your body broken and weak. Some people need it to go about their everyday lives and become unmanageable without, others binge in large amounts before going for months cold turkey.
It has brought me some of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my 28 years and at times my whole life revolves around it. When I next get my fix, recovering from my last hit or searching for harder experiences because the stuff that Joe Average gets just doesn’t do it for me anymore.
Many use it heavily within a normal life and their colleagues, family and friends none the wiser.
It has changed my life, probably irreversibly.
Running. That’s my drug of choice these days, although it wasn’t always.
Drugs are such a taboo subject, in society and sport, that talking about them can be frowned upon and many would rather sweep problems under the carpet, into dark alleyways, rather than confront them and look for solutions.
Social media is making the subject of drugs in sport much more debatable in the public arena, with top level sportsmen and woman able to get into the discussion and voice their opinions openly, which is great. It is something we should all talk about- not to throw scorn on those who have made mistakes- but to figure out what caused a kid who just loved cycling to take any means possible to win the Tour de France. What made the fastest man in American history want to cheat to get even faster? Was it his fault, his coaches, his sponsors, the media or ours?
The Running Charity works with young people who find themselves experiencing homelessness and drug addiction but rather than throw laws, fines, imprisonment and social disgust at these young people, they take the right attitude and offer a different option.
For many running is an escape from daily life or previous troubles. Ultra running is full of stories of redemption and new found-meaning, so why would we not use this as a way to help others bring structure and control over their own existence?
Before I started running I was a very heavy drinker, often going on benders for a week or more until my pockets were empty and my friends tired of picking me up off the floor. Running gave me a direction and purpose that was missing at the age of 23 and if I can get a GB vest after years of being a liability on every night out, then what’s to stop anyone else?
Drugs in sport is not only born out of a necessity or addiction but to that of winning, where it becomes so important that nothing else matters. Athletes such as Tyler Hamilton talk about the disappointment in the eyes of their parents, friends and loved ones when coming clean. The living a lie had been so much easier.
It can be hidden in the same way that someone addicted to a substance would hide it from friends and family, cutting the ties and support networks until there isn’t anywhere to go. Homelessness can often be an unintentional consequence. There are stories of deep depression for athletes who can no longer get that fix of winning and how they have had to find another way to win or something else to fill that hole.
When I went along to The Running Charity and joined in with a session, I saw how it provided such a network of support, a friendly environment and a sense of direction and achievement through running and fitness which can sometimes be missing in life. I found this, for myself, in running clubs and the ultra running community, but others wouldn’t even think to go that way.
We shouldn’t be hiding away from either of these discussions or blaming individuals for making choices that we ourselves have never had to make. It is within all of us to take those paths if our circumstances were different, so judging people’s past actions is not really beneficial.
Drugs in sport and society deserve to be talked about and need to be seen without preconceived misconceptions and scorn towards individuals. I experimented during university and I’m pretty sure none of those things would help me win a running race- although it was fun watching someone try whilst full of horse tranquilisers. Thankfully I took a different direction in my final year by signing up for my first marathon.
Next time you read about someone involved with drugs, whether in sport or life, take a second to think why they took that particular path and if and how you would have acted differently in the circumstances?
We’ve not all got the patience of Ghandi, but if he had been a sub 11 second 100 metre runner in his teens, how different could his life have been? Maybe he’d have a 4 year ban on his record too?
Easy now,
Robbie Britton
Team GB athlete & endurance coach
@ultrabritton
www.robbiebritton.co.uk
Feature photo | Matias Novo