The Debate Over Running While High
For Ultramarathon Runners,
Marijuana Has Enormous Benefits—But Is It Ethical?
The grueling sport of ultramarathon
running has fostered a clandestine mingling of two seemingly opposite camps:
endurance jocks and potheads.
By Frederick Dreier in the Wall Street Journal
The grueling sport of ultramarathon
has fostered a mingling of two seemingly opposite camps: endurance jocks and
potheads.
“If you can find the right level,
[marijuana] takes the stress out of running,” says Avery Collins, a 22-year-old
professional ultramarathoner. “And it’s a postrace, post-run remedy.”
The painkilling and nausea-reducing
benefits of marijuana may make it especially tempting to ultramarathoners, who
compete in races that can go far longer—and be much more withering—than the
26.2 miles of a marathon. Ultramarathon is one of the fastest-growing endurance
sports; there were almost 1,300 races in the U.S. and Canada in 2014, up from
293 in 2004, according to UltraRunning Magazine.
Ultramarathons last anywhere from 30
to 200 miles, and typically crisscross mountainous terrain and rocky trails.
Runners endure stomach cramps and intense pain in their muscles and joints.
Competitors often quit after a sudden loss of motivation, matched with the boredom
of running for upward of 24 hours straight.
“The person who is going to win an
ultra is someone who can manage their pain, not puke and stay calm,” said
veteran runner Jenn Shelton. “Pot does all three of those things.”
Shelton said she has trained with
marijuana before, but she made a decision to never compete with the drug for
ethical reasons, expressly because she believes it enhances performance.
The phenomenon isn’t easily
quantified, because even in Colorado, which legalized marijuana, ultra runners
declined to go on the record with their marijuana use. But marijuana is a
common topic on endurance-running blogs. Often debated is whether marijuana can
improve performance, particularly because of its much-heralded capacity for
blocking pain. The drug is now legal for medical use in 23 states plus the
District of Columbia, and a sizable portion of legal medical users cite chronic
pain as a reason.
“There’s good science that suggests
cannabinoids block the physical input of pain,” said Dr. Lynn Webster, founder
of the Lifetree Pain Clinic in Salt Lake City. Cancer patients have also used
marijuana to treat nausea from chemotherapy. For distance runners, nausea can
ruin a race, preventing them from ingesting needed calories and nutrients.
In a nod to the growing acceptance
of marijuana as a recreational drug, the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2013
raised the allowable level of THC—the drug’s active ingredient—to an amount
that would trigger positive results only in athletes consuming marijuana in
competition. That essentially gave the green light to marijuana usage during
training, not to mention as a stress reliever the night before a race.
In competition, a WADA spokesman
said that marijuana is banned for its perceived performance enhancement, and
because its use violates the “spirit of sport.”
USA Track & Field, which governs
distance running in America, follows the WADA guideline. “Marijuana is on the
banned list and should not be used by athletes at races,” said Jill Geer, a
representative with USATF. “We are unequivocal in that.”
‘There’s good science that suggests
cannabinoids block the physical input of pain.’
—Dr. Lynn Webster, founder of the
Lifetree Pain Clinic
But here’s the catch. Few
ultramarathons actually test for drugs, Geer said. Races must pay for drug
tests, and the price tag for testing can be prohibitive for smaller events. A
USADA spokesperson said that cost for drug testing depends on an event’s
location, participation size, length and prominence. The Twin Cities Marathon,
for example, spent $3,500 to have USADA conduct six tests at its 2014 event.
In many other sports, a handful of
athletes over the years have acknowledged using pot as a painkiller and
relaxing agent. Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati—who briefly lost and then
regained his 1998 Olympic gold medal after testing positive for pot—admitted
that he regularly smoked marijuana during his professional career. Mixed
martial arts fighter Nick Diaz is unapologetic for his use of medical
marijuana; a positive pot test earned him a yearlong ban in 2012. Retired NFL
wide receiver Nate Jackson detailed his marijuana use in a 2013 book, saying he
regularly smoked pot to numb his various sports injuries.
Pot’s original inclusion on the
Olympic banned list had more to do with politics and ethics than its perceived
performance enhancement, said veteran drug tester Don Catlin, who founded the
UCLA Olympic Analytic Laboratory. “You can find some people who argue that
marijuana has performance-enhancing characteristics. They are few and far
between,” he said. “It’s seen more as a drug of abuse than as a drug of
performance enhancement.”
The running movement has long been a
haven for hippies, and ultramarathons in particular feature an above-average
number of ponytailed graybeards.
“There’s a great degree of rugged
individualism in every ultramarathoner,” says ultramarathoner Jason “Ras”
Vaughn, who operates the popular blog UltraPedestrian.com. “My impression is
that the runners who use [marijuana] are people who already smoked it, who now
happen to be ultra runners.”
Shelton, the ultra runner who
doesn’t use pot during races, said the ultramarathon community generally is
aware of those who do so. Pot, she said, is just one of the numerous
painkillers that athletes take during the grueling races. It isn’t uncommon for
athletes to pop multiple Advil or Tylenol during a 100-mile race.
Unusually candid about his marijuana
usage is Collins. During a typical week at his home in Steamboat Springs,
Colo., Collins runs approximately 150 miles and consumes marijuana four or five
times. He doesn’t smoke the plant; instead he eats marijuana-laced food,
inhales it as water vapor and rubs a marijuana-infused balm onto his legs.
Collins is no back-of-the-pack
stoner. In 2014, his first year as a full-time professional runner, he won five
ultramarathons. His third-place finish at the Fat Dog 120, a well-known
120-mile race in British Columbia, was the top American result.
Collins says he doesn’t ingest the
plant during competitions, though he says he has never been tested. He does
train with the drug, on occasion. He says the marijuana balm numbs his leg
muscles, and small doses of the plant keep his mind occupied during longer
runs, he says. Collins says the miles and hours seem to tick off faster when he
is running high.
After a race, Collins eats marijuana
candies or cookies to lower his heart rate and relax his muscles.
“You’re running for 17 to 20 hours
straight, and when you stop, sometimes your legs and your brain don’t just
stop,” Collins said. “Sometimes [pot] is the only way I can fall asleep after
racing.”
Collins recently landed a small cash
sponsorship with a Colorado company that consults with marijuana growers and
sellers. For 2015, he will wear the company’s pot-leaf logo on his jersey and
promote the company on social media.
Even as he promotes a
marijuana-related sponsor, however, Collins concedes that his latest training
strategy—involving shorter, faster, more-focused sessions—doesn’t fit well with
running high. So he is doing a lot less of that.
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