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Cadet Bryant |
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10 February 2010
It Ain't Easy Being Clean: The Way of the Code-Hero
January 2010 - At the shore of Lake Mead - Boulder City, Nevada, a few minutes after finishing "Running from an Angel" 50-Miler. The backdrop is where the original 1968 Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston was filmed. I finished 20th place overall in a national race (my best placing ever) and set a new personal best time for the 50 mile run: 8 hours, 50 minutes, 31 seconds
Cadet's Have-to-Read Books of the Month:
1. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon KraKauer
2. West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief by Steven Kotler
Books Referenced in this Blog (a definite must read!):
1. From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversey at the Tour de France by David Walsh
Tentative 2010 Race Schedule
20 Feb - Cross Timbers 50-Mile Trail Run - Oklahoma
13 Mar - Toughest N' Texas Trail Run - Waco, Texas
3 Apr - Philadelphia Endurance 100-Mile Run - Philadelphia, PA
Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog in which I talked about getting a nasty upper respiratory infection a couple of weeks before Christmas and the doctor shooting me up with a potent corticosteroid shot to lodge the thing loose from my lungs. Would you be surprised if I told you that only a few days later, I ran thirty cold, windy miles on a training run, and then threw around a bunch of weights in the gym for another three hours right afterwards? . . . And then the next day, I did it all over again?
What?! Don’t believe me? Well check this out—in his investigative novel titled From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, David Walsh dedicates a chapter in discussing a professional French rider named Christophe Bassons who got the exact same type of shot that I did:
Though he came from a modest working-class background—his father was a construction worker—young Christophe worked hard at school and afterward got a diploma at the University of Toulouse. His parents instilled a set of moral values and he had the confidence—perhaps even the arrogance—to believe that he could remain true to those values in the dope-ridden world of professional cycling, and still be successful. To better understand the young man’s idealism, consider him at the age of eighteen, winning race after race in just his second year of competition and then being sidelined by a knee injury. His doctor administered an injection of corticoid Kenacourt into the troublesome joint. On his first training ride back, Bassons realized that not only had the pain from his knee disappeared but also he felt stronger and more dynamic than before the injury.
The same feeling of enhanced power was there on his next training ride and Bassons suspected it was the effect of the Kenacourt injection. Though his use of the drug did not violate anti-doping law, Bassons felt it was wrong to gain a competitive advantage from a medication. He refused to race for the following two weeks and resumed only when the effects of the Kenacourt disappeard.
Christophe Bassons riding for the French pro road cycling team, Festina
I hate to break the train of thought here, but I have to interject a vital question before proceeding any further with this blog: Where, exactly, was I going with my previous blog in which I paid homage to the ultimate *code-hero, Rocky Balboa (not to be confused with Sylvester Stallone, by any means)?
***Special Note: Ernest Hemingway created the "code-hero" character and is defined by Hemingway as being "a free-willed individualist . . . Although he believes in the ideals of courage and honor, he has his own set of morals and principles based on his beliefs in honor, courage, and endurance. A code-hero never shows emotions; showing emotions shows weakness. Qualities such as bravery, adventure, and travel also define the Code Hero."
Well, with my next stab at running one-hundred miles coming up on Easter Weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I am troubled by the classic clip of Rocky Balboa clutching his cramping rib cage and clambering up the seventy-two steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Actual shooting during the 1976 filming at the top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art - Having to wait for a break in the snow
If you’re thinking that I’m thinking about the scene where Rocky rumbles up the steps like a mountain goat with his bulldog, Butkis, in tow and long-jumps the last step, stabbing his in arms into the air and then speed-jabbing an imaginary Apollo Creed—No, no, no. Tisk-Tisk-Tisk. That’s the second time Rocky rumbles with the Philly Museum of Art in the movie. Any student of classic film knows that the masterpiece scene is the first time Rocky Balboa attempts climbing the concrete staircase – You know, just after he cracks open a bunch of raw eggs into a glass and swallows them whole.
I’ve got the original 1976 Rocky film on DVD, and I’ve re-played that memorable scene so many times that it’s become what “motivational coaches” would label as “positive psychological reinforcement.” In other words, if I envision myself hobbling up those blasted seventy-two “Rocky Steps,” cramp and all, then my dream will become a reality.
One of Ernest Hemingway’s most famous lines comes from his 1923 short story titled “Big Two Hearted River.” It’s simple. Hemingway writes, “He went to the river. The river was there.”
I am haunted by Rocky Balboa.
I go to his steps.
His steps are there.
It might seem bizarre to you that within my vision of making it one-hundred miles around the City of Brotherly Love on Easter Weekend that I’m connecting words, such as “hobbling” and “cramping” with “positive” reinforcement.
Well, lately, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s actually a good thing to hurt. And this time, I’ll use a real-life example of what I’m trying to get at, rather than using the fictional character of Rocky Balboa. I’m going to use Christophe Bassons again in order to get my point across here. Once more, David Walsh writes about the physical, emotional, and psychological trauma that Bassons endured in order to ride his bike in the pro peloton, while staying "clean":
Bassons suffered from “passive doping” and would continue to do so until retiring from professional cycling in 2002 at the age of twenty-eight. Passive doping works like passive smoking in that the nondoper, in the company of dopers, suffers damage to his health. It happens simply. Those who use products such as EPO, human growth hormone, and anabolic steroids race at a speed far higher than would be possible without drugs. In attempting to compete with the dopers, the clean rider pushes his body beyond its natural limits, and though he might keep up one day, it is not possible to sustain that level of effort over a long period. Refusing to believe doping makes such a great difference, the clean rider forces his body beyond natural boundaries, which often leaves him physically wasted and in need of a long rest.
Passive doping can be dangerous. At the weeklong Italian Tirreno-Adriatico race in 1997, Bassons spent himself keeping up with the EPO-fueled peloton; day after day, his body was depleted. Dr. Ryckaert measured his hematocrit at 37.5 percent and told him he was borderline anemic, but Bassons would not accept an EPO injection. On the last day, virtually out of his mind with pain and exhaustion and no longer in control of his bike, he hit a steel trash bin at the side of the road. He got badly cut up . . . Rycaert was sympathetic but pragmatic. “You have potential but you will get nothing out of this sport if you continue to refuse our help. You have to raise your hematocrit.” The doctor’s offer of help was delivered in classic cycling-speak: no explicit mention of doping and no reference to any products.
The psychological toll on Bassons was another matter, as the effects of passive doping drained his morale. There were times when he wanted to be one of the boys. He thought about his parents; they didn’t want him to dope, but he felt that if he was successful, they would be proud and probably wouldn’t ask questions. Pascale, his girlfriend, was different. They had discussed it and she’s said that no matter what, he must never dope. Never, ever dope, she said . . . Through the years when doping was rampant, Christophe Bassons refused to cheat and refused to give up.
Christophe Bassons as an amateur rider for Team Casino
Now then, let me just say one thing here: I am no Christophe Bassons.
Bassons was born as a naturally gifted bike rider, and when “he looked at Lance Armstrong, Bassons saw a rider physiologically similar to himself: same height, same weight, and . . . Basson’s VO2 Max was superior to Armstrong’s.” Even the trainer for the French team Basson rode for (Festina pro cycling team) said, “In terms of physical capacities, he’s got the same potential as [five-time Tour de France winter] Bernaud Hinault.”
If there’s ever been a real life code-hero, then it is Christophe Bassons. What I admire most about Bassons, other than the proven fact that he never doped or used any type of performance enhancing pharmaceuticals during his six years as a professional cyclist, he was exhilarated to give everything he had, for fortieth place:
Bassons loved the Paris to Roubaix classic, and believing he could do well in the race, he gave himself, body and soul, to the effort until there was nothing more to give. He crossed the finish line in fortieth place, thirteen minutes after the winner, utterly wasted but also elated. It was his third attempt and the first time he had finished this race, so punishing it is known as “the hell of the north.” And Bassons had raced it clean.
In fact, the trainer for Basson's pro team admits that they "had twenty-four riders in the team. It's been written that three didn't dope and the rest did. The truth is that only one, Christophe Bassons, was clean." The entire professional peloton came to call Bassons "Monsieur Propre" - "Mr. Clean."
It doesn’t make sense to the students that I teach why I’ll return to school the weekend after competing in an event only to be enthused about making a “fortieth-something-place” finish. The corticosteroid shot that I received before Christmas wore off after a couple of weeks, just as Basson’s did after his knee injury in 1997. Not long into January of this year, I ran my fastest fifty-mile time ever in “Running from an Angel” in Boulder City, Nevada.
Now, the question I have is this—Do I believe the injection I got enabled me to knock off almost two hours from my best fifty-mile time ever, propelling me to a 20th place overall finish in a time of 8:50:31?
Probably so.
I mean, after all, how can I deny that knocking out thirty miles of back-to-back running days polished off with Schwarzenegger-maniac-style weight lifting didn’t help me out? But, I will also admit that when the effects of the shot wore off a few days later, parts of my body were creaking that shouldn’t be at my age.
And I’ll add this as well– the corticosteroid shot had long worn off by the time I toed the line for “Running from an Angel,” and there were many spots along the course where I freaking wanted to quit. We basically made a loop around the location of where the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film was shot. Have you seen that Charlton Heston movie? The terrain is sick.
In the end, simply gritting my teeth was the catalyst that got me through it (to prove it, my big toe nail on my left foot is dead-black and peeling off), and the thought of a Las Vegas Stripburger waiting for me at the finish. Not dope.
Me and my pal, Stephanie, at Stripburger - Las Vegas, Nevada
And what’s even better performance enhancing dope than a corticosteroid shot?—A good friend, and the best sponsor a guy could ever ask for—his mom. The night before the race in Boulder City, my good friend Stephanie (owner of Vogel Photography of Las Vegas) sat me down and asked me what my finishing time was going to be. By the way, Stephanie is one heck of a give-me-the-answer-I’m-looking-for-without-all-the-b.s.-kinda’-gal, and I flat-out told her, “I’m going to beat nine hours.”
If it weren’t for Stephanie letting me borrow a bed in her spare bedroom (which remains as the best night of sleep that I’ve ever had in my life—that memory foam stuff and Steph’s high-faluttin’ “high-fiber count” sheets are luxuries that are totally worth every freaking cent she paid for them) I never would’ve made it to the start in the first place.
And if there’s anything that Christophe Bassons and I have in common, it’s that my mom has always helped me get down the road from one race to the next, and she’d never be proud of a first-place win if it weren’t done clean. Oh, and by the way, Christophe Bassons is now a teacher, and he’s found another passion that’s taken the place of cycling: ultra-trail running.
Present day Christophe Bassons - Although no longer in the professional road racing peloton, he's still racing clean and doing it on rubber heels now
-cadet
11th Place Overall - 2007 Nat'l Ultra Endurance Series
2nd Place Overall - 2008 State of TX MTB Marathon Series
Cadet and Lance Armstrong - Miles of DisComfort
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March 17, 2009
November 30, 2008