Get ready for some heat, folks. Please be advised that there are portions of this episode where I go off on obscenity laden tirades & passion fueled laments. Michael holds down the emotional fort to keep some semblance of balance & objectivity, but you'll have to determine if he succeeded. If he didn't, don't blame him - this is all on me. We are releasing this episode the day we recorded it, September 28th, because I make some bold predictions that I want to be held accountable for & because the hot takes are flying all around the sprot this week & I want to add my 2 cents. Our subject this week is the incredible performance of Tigst Assefa at this past weekend's Berlin Marathon. Berlin is reputed to be the fastest marathon in the world as it has hosted many world record performances with only London being close. Assefa - who's name I repeatedly mispronounce through this discussion - ran 2:11:53, a time that was simply jaw dropping, & this in a year where women's distance running has produced an unprecedented number of world records. But I won't go there in this intro because we cover it in depth the episode itself. What does follow is part angry rant, part impassioned plea, where I beg distance fans to stop considering every unprecedented performance in track & field with a cynical & pessimistic take that it must be drugs & doping. Sure, it might. But it also might not be. & if this & other performances are not the result of performance enhancing drugs, then we are endangering the relevance & beauty of the greatest era in distance running history. I think there could be an argument for this being the greatest era in all of human sporting history. Bold - perhaps ridiculous?!?!? - claim, sure. But what the hell...I'm on fire here anyway & what's a little more hyperbolic fuel an an already raging inferno. Strap in, folks, for the episodes we call, Drinking From A Poisoned Well: Doping as the Ruin of Running. Godspeed, my friends, godspeed.