Sinead Diver Runs 2:21:34 In Valencia At 45 Years Old!! Becomes The Fastest Irish Woman In History

MrMacPhisto

I could steal my neighbours Christmas presents and give them to my kids and family. That would be a great result for me and my family if I could live with that kind of behaviour. I doubt anybody in my community would be celebrating my performance or personal win.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120032552#Comment_120032552

Of course it really doesn't matter to anyone one of us if someone cheats as it doesn't have any impact on our daily lives. But as sport fans there should be an expectation to actually believe in what we're watching

We should also think about the younger generation of athletes that are coming through that might have an expectation to make it to the top in their respective events. I believe future generations need to at the very least believe they can achieve qualification standards for major championships. If they are athletes using peds to achieve these standards and times how are these times going to be achievable, In fact we may have already past this point just looking at the recently announced 2024 automatic qualifying standards. 1,500m 3.33, that is the national record and only 2 Irish athletes have ran this time. 5000m 13.05 (13.03 NR) again only 2 athletes have ran this time, 10000m 27.00. Is 39 seconds faster than Irish record. (I know there is also the ranking system)

I should have said 2.28 is probably a bit better than average for a senior. Of course it's above average for a master. And as I've know idea of your ability or age I can't really comment where you lie on that spectrum I'll take your word that you're above average.

Happy christmas 😂

babacool

I’m M2 😁 and marathon PB of 2:39 pre carbon shoes 😁.

either way, with regards to “actually believe in what we watch” it’s like I said. If our expectation is to see clean athletes then sure we need to question anything. If our expectation is to see a good race, then I personally don’t care if clean or not. I only start caring if it’s no longer a race but dominant performance (Armstrong in cycling, certain athletes in biathlon, Mercedes in F1 and so on) due to having an advantage others can’t catch up to.

future generations: let’s face it, there have been times when people said “those records from the 80s can’t be broken as achieved by not clean athletes” and guess what. Not many of those are still standing. So the future is there.

i take your point with regards to qualification times though. Bonkers that’s all I’m saying.

But that has nothing to do with her 2:21 performance (clean or not). So again, let’s celebrate her run and don’t go out questioning if achieved clean or not.

same time I truly believe if doping is no longer a forbidden fruit, times will slow down again and the avg runner will have a chance qualifying for the games again. If doping is allowed but rejected by the public, marketing and sponsorships will drop. Less prize money means less benefits from “cheating” means less will do so. And those who do will eventually stop too as it’s no longer needed to stay at the top. And boom (it will take a few years) the system is clean and we no longer question results. 🙂

happy father (Christmas) day! 🎅

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120033156#Comment_120033156

M2 now? Is the 2.39 recently or is pre carbon meaning a few years ago.? 2.39 is handy club run time for a senior runner.

But we don't need to have peds to have good races. Some of the worse races are time trial record attempts. Is it to much to expect good race and athletes to be clean.

Regards records, yes there are still some records standing for 80/90s Irish 1500m for one, and for sure the most of them were broken over the year's, we have various reasons for that though including better track surfaces nutrition and especially shoes, blwe also need to take into account the some of the records were broken due to peds as well.

As a said her 2.21 is a fantastic performance and it's just a pity AI didn't get behind her a few years ago. (no surprise there) of course we can celebrate it, but that doesn't mean we can't question it.

I don't agree with your last point. I think that horse has well and truly bolted.

Murph_D

Good luck to you, babacool. You have an excellent club runner marathon time, and if you can’t see why someone cheating their way to a similar or better or even inferior performance is a lesser achievement than your own effort, and less deserving of your attention even if achieved in a very exciting (but obviously tainted) manner, then I think you don’t properly appreciate the value of your own presumably honest efforts, and those of other honest people.

Do you do your LRs with @walshb ?😉

babacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120033637#Comment_120033637

1. I train on my own. Not a big group runner.
2. no clue who that is 😁 real name would be needed to see if I know him/her
3. no clue if I was clean or not during my PB in 2019. Not a single clue what fruits are forbidden. All I know elite athletes have to be careful and check everything 10 times just to make sure nothing is in any good, medicine etc. I didn’t do that. I ate what I wanted. I took medicine when sick. So who knows, I might not have been clean that day (all I know is I could have gone faster if I had gotten the nutrition right on the day 😁. Dehydration cost me roughly 2-3min at the end).
4. I just decided to not worry if the runner next to me is clean or not. It’s a better lifestyle (for me). Someone running faster/slower clean/not clean won’t make me faster. Won’t win me any races. Won’t win me any awards. So why would I worry about that? I simply appreciate a great race and great performance. And if I’m beaten, so it be. Sure I might think to myself “I wonder what forbidden fruit he/she had” but that’s where I stop. I’m not going around questioning if he/she was clean. Which again brings us back to this thread. A great performance. A great time. Let’s celebrate it and not focus on “oh she might have not been clean”.

i fully understand where you guys come from though and I appreciate your reasoning. im just not like this. And yea, that discussion will be one for eternity as there is no right or wrong. No left or right. There is just opinion against opinion. Either side can find reasons to support their opinion and either side can find reason to counter the other opinion. And I truly hope it will never change.

for me, I’ve been on the “cheating should be banned side” when I was mid 20s and it didn’t get me anywhere except stopped enjoy watching sport as you constantly wonder if tomorrows news will have some big reveals. Now I’m on the “let them do what they want. They are old enough” side (let’s not try find an argument by “but what about those who can’t decide for themselves” please. That’s a different topic and won’t change regardless if you allow or disallow cheating). It won’t impact me. I just focus on myself and enjoy watching sport again (unless it’s boring due to dominance). And I will NOT try to win over others. Each to him/herself as again, life would be boring if we all agree on the same thing.

to summarise: life is great. Life is short. Enjoy it while it lasts. Don’t worry about tomorrow as you can neither influence the future nor the past. Focus on the present and you should be busy enough. 🙂 so well done sinead. Love to see the Australian flag showing up on leaderboards with a great time! I hope it will create a massive running boom in down under!

Murph_D

You’re a gas man with the ‘I don’t know if I was clean’ comment.

babacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120033952#Comment_120033952

I’m just honest 😁. Wasn’t tested and didn’t look what’s forbidden and what not. Didn’t check which medics an athlete can take and which not (I remember being sick a few weeks prior to the marathon). And let’s be honest, who (unless you are an elite athlete to be expected to be tested) of us knows that really? We all think we are clean but can we really say that? Can we be 100% certain? I doubt that! Maybe that steak from this Argentian cow wasn’t clean. Maybe the toothpaste was spiked. Maybe the cough medicine had some forbidden substance. Maybe the nose spray purchased in Russia 3 weeks before the race wasn’t nose spray (my russian isn’t good enough to read all the ingredients 😁).

so many things to be considered to be able to truly say “I’m clean”. Hence, let’s celebrate and don’t question her performance, at least not in a thread that was started with celebration in mind.

Lazare

Whether you're 'clean' or not comes down to intent.

muppetry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119975044#Comment_119975044

This guy is comparing retired masters runners to a current active elite athlete who has less than 10 years of running in her legs. His arguments don't stand up. 

Also calling someone an "inexorably calcifying fossil" is really out of order and speaks volumes for the mindset of this author.