On an average day ten Viagra advertisements (I always misspell Viagra as Viagara, as in Niagara Falls, except Viagara Falls may not be the most encouraging tagline for this particular drug) are handily delivered to my various inboxes. Another ten times a day I’m reminded that I spent way to much time and money earning all those degrees. Online degree! Only $199!!
Recently the Viagra drug pushers found my blog. The spam filters have managed to trap most of the messages, but if my posts suddenly seem more graphic than usual you can assume I was overthrown by one of pills, porn, and poker. Or perhaps not. Maybe the spambots are onto something. Targeted marketing, Facebook style. Viagra, afterall, is a potential performance enhancer. And by performance I mean running performance. As of 2010 the World Anit-Doping Agency has not added Viagra to the list of banned substances, but studies are ongoing and WADA has taken a wait and see approach. In London 2012 there may be some very lonely weight lifters.
A 2004 study with cyclists found up to a 45% performance boost from Viagra in a high altitude training simulation. That’s better than beetroot juice. Presumably runners would enjoy similar benefits. Victor Conte once revealed that a number of his athletes took Viagra. We don’t know if he counts the disgraced Marion Jones among them. Consider this (my source, Runner’s World): In an average marathon 10.4% of runners qualify for Boston, but a whopping 17% of men aged 65-69 BQ compared to a mere 7.9% of men (and women) under 34. Moreover, the average age at Boston is older than the nation average. Perhaps now we know the little blue diamond-shaped source of this older male Boston boost?
Title Reference: Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit. 1967.
So… which pill makes you small?
I thought it was obvious – it’s the drug of choice for performance enhancement.