Dramatic Decline

November 27th

I used to take sprinting quite seriously and run competitively. One of the runners that was prominent when I first joined my club was former world record holder Tim Montgomery. This morning I read an article about him in the Times and quickly noted it down in my moleskin. He has gone from being the fastest man in the world, to a drug cheat, to a drug dealer, to doing time in prison. I was really shocked to read about his dramatic decline. I remember when he broke the world record (in 2001) when he ran 9.78 and questioning the legitimacy of his time immediately. When a runner comes along out of nowhere and becomes the fastest person in the world you start to ask questions. In 2008 he was arrested for dealing over 100 grams of heroin. Now he's in prison, 33 years old and is still running 10.3s over 100m on concrete in trainers. It's a great shame as if he's still doing that now then imagine how good he could have really been without taking drugs. Pretty damn good I'd say.
I don't understand how people could be so dishonest with their lives - how a dedicated sprinter could cheat. Obviously, the drive to be as good as possible must be overwhelming and there's nothing to suggest that the top sprinters don't all take drugs (we just might not know about them like we didn't know about THG for years) but I find the whole thing quite depressing.
I have my last ever Rugby game at home tomorrow. We know we won't win as the team we are playing is genuinely excellent and has a handful of players who'll be playing Premiership rugby in the next few years. It's not pessimistic or 'the problem with the team' that we're aware of our impending defeat - it's just how it is. We want to give it everything we can possibly give and end the game with our heads held high. I, and all of the team, decided to say in tonight and I learnt that I can resist the temptation to go out if I take a step back and get my priorities straight.