Does any tough runner call themselves asthmatic?

who cares what your dad claims?

I do believe Haile G, the best marathon in the world has asthma. That is why he did not run in the Olympics marathon.

I have asthma. I probably have worse asthma then all 7 of your teammates combined. I Have 3 different types of inhalers, 4 dif types of medications. plus I have to get allergy shots every 2 weeks just so I can breathe. If I miss my shots and my lungs feel off when I enter a race, I dont blame my asthma.

The more you run the stronger your lungs get. Asthma stops playing a major role if you take all your medication (which sometimes I dont and it doesnt bother me). Kids who continue to use ti as an excuse just dont want to work hard that day.

The worst is people who say they have sports induced asthma and their doctor has them on one inhaler and they say they cant run more then 10 feet before wheezing. THATS NOT ASTHMA! Thats being out of shape and your lungs cant take it.

You go up to the 7 guys on the team and be like "How much medication do you take" if they say less then what I had already said then make fun of them for being bitches. These kids dont know the difference between asthma attcks and just being damn tired.

Asthma is a rich man's condition. Go to the inner city and see how many kids have inhalers. Why? They can't afford to see an allergist.

Asthma is the #1 most mis-diagnosed medical condition. Go to an allergist and tell them that when you run you have a shortness of breath and I guarantee that you will walk out with an inhaler. EVERYONE HAS A SHORTNESS OF BREATH. But if you have money we will call it "exercize induced asthma" and then we have an excuse. It makes mommy and daddy feel better about why little Bobby can't keep up with the other boys.

It reminds me of the # of orthotics that are sold by almost all every podiatrist.

Nearly every one of Alberto's athletes have an inhaler and they are very tough.

Is your father a physician? Just wondering what his qualifications were to make his "diagnosis". Since I don't have access to these guys' medical history, I don't know whether they truly have asthma or not. However, asthma can definitely have an affect on the consistency of your running times. Many asthma attacks are triggered by allergies. In my own case, fall causes some problems, but spring is brutal.

It took years of having asthma symptoms before I finally saw a specialist. He suggested I undergo allergy testing because I had such difficulty exhaling during a race. Sure enough, I didn't test positive for any indoor allergies, but am allergic to just about everything outside - grass, multiple trees, pollen, mold, etc. (Probably why I loved racing indoor track) Looking back, I had always suffered with allergies. In the past, my allergy symptoms lead to chronic sinus infections and even pneumonia a couple times. However, I hadn't make the connection between allergy and asthma.

I was prescribed several asthma/allergy medications to help keep the problem under control. Not only has my asthma improved, but I no longer have the constant sinus problems as well.

If you had every attempted to run and endured the scary feeling of not being able to exhale - it feels like you are suffocating - perhaps you would have more empathy.

blah blah blah blah.....I am really tough but I have a bad ass case of asthma.

TRANSLATION

I am a puss cake.

My top 2 runners on my high school team have asthma. One was a freshman last year and went 4:22/9:35 for 3200. He doesn't use it as an excuse.

a HS teammate wrote:

My question is .....Are there any runners that have asthma that are not pussies?

Ummm... how about Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Alberto Salazar, Jim Ryun, Haile Gebrselassie. I'm sure Im' missing quite a few.

Kersee and Salazar were both druggies and needed an excuse to carry an inhaler around. Both were diagnosed well into their athletic career for an additional boost.

note: please do not use the lack of testing during their era as a measure of cleanliness.

Jim Ryun was the largest American Olympic choker of all time and needed an excuse at that point in his career.

Fairly common knowledge that Haile just needed an excuse to run Berlin and skip Beijing.

Well-known failures that never worked very hard include JJK, but you probably do not even know who she is (second hint 7291, third, her coach has a similar name, fourth hint, she could probably beat you in almost all her events, fifth hint, she also held the LJ record and the US HJ record).

a HS teammate wrote:

We have 7 guys on our 31 man team that have been diagnosed as asthmatic. I think it is a crock of dung but that is not the point. These same 7 guys are the guys that are inconsistent and always use there asthma as an excuse. My question is .....Are there any runners that have asthma that are not pussies? My dad claims that being diagnosed with asthma is simply an excuse for failure for the people that can afford it.

Allergist Wannabe wrote:

Asthma is a rich man's condition. Go to the inner city and see how many kids have inhalers. Why? They can't afford to see an allergist.

Asthma is the #1 most mis-diagnosed medical condition. Go to an allergist and tell them that when you run you have a shortness of breath and I guarantee that you will walk out with an inhaler. EVERYONE HAS A SHORTNESS OF BREATH. But if you have money we will call it "exercize induced asthma" and then we have an excuse. It makes mommy and daddy feel better about why little Bobby can't keep up with the other boys.

You sound an awful like my father. When I was about 7, I was diagnosed with asthma. Not becuase I couldn't keep up, not because I was deficient somehow, but because once in a while I'd come close to being totally unable to breathe. For about 2 years before I was diagnosed and for about a year after, my dad's idea of treatment was to sit me down and tell me to relax and take deep breaths. Only after this went on for 20+ minutes would he give me the inhaler. He wanted to make sure I wasn't faking it.

Years later, he developed some breathing problems because of some rather nasty chemical compounds he was working with. When I came home to visit from college, he apologized- he didn't understand what was happening to me back then.

It would appear that you have something in common with him. Asthma is not a made up disease, it is not an excuse. Maybe it gets oversiagnosed sometimes, but you're looking at a few cases that piss you off and assuming that most asthmatics are the same way.

And I'm not a crappy runner either- I'm probably one of the more consistent runners on my team, sub 15 5k, 9:12 steeple. I don't use asthma as an excuse, its just another I have to stay on top of. OP, If there are guys on your team who use asthma as an excuse, then they suck. Don't read more into it than is really there.

and coached by Bob Kersee (very suspect) and sister in law to Flo Jo (also coached by Bob Kersee).

Yes, Asthma is without a doubt made up. Tell that to my parents who spent hundreds of hours with me in the hospital when I was a kid because of my severe breathing problems. I must have just been faking it at 2 yrs old, right?

I don't think that asthma is a legit excuse not to work out, or even an excuse for poor performance (see Geb). Provided I stick to my daily meds, and ramp them up during a cold my running does not suffer because of my asthma. Still, those runs where I've forgot to take my Bricanyl are terrible - like breathing through a straw the entire time. But even then it's my fault because I didn't have my meds with me.

Also my asthma has gotten better and better over the years, and I attribute this to the running/cycling/overall healthy lifestyle I have. It does not need to be a 'death sentence' in terms of physical activity, just something you need to learn to deal with.

Here is your problem son - your dad tells you some asinine bit of opinion, then you run to Internet to get more opinion, because you have no balls and no belief system of your own.

Floppy South Pole wrote:

Here is your problem son - your dad tells you some asinine bit of opinion, then you run to Internet to get more opinion, because you have no balls and no belief system of your own.

You are right. I don't have a strong belief system on this one. I came on the internet to see if my experiences have been normal. So far it is about 50-50.

Yeah no doubt there are people who use it as an excuse or don't even have asthma and take asthma medication, just as there are people who do have it. I hate taking medication but I have asthma and I do take it. I've tried running without using my inhaler first and it's like trying to breathe while having a pillow pressed over your mouth.

Ryun, the supposed largest Olympic choker of all-time, got a silver medal at altitude.

We should all choke so much.

I was suspended for 3 days in high school for this exact issue. A couple buddies and I realized that 100% of the kids that were picked on had inhalers. 100% So in an attempt to try to find one "normal" kid that had an inhaler we put up posters advertising a push up contest. We offered $1 a push up for any kid that could do more push ups than us. We were not the biggest or strongest kids in the school but just a bunch of distance runners. We had a couple of guys that claimed that they used an inhaler that did about 75 push ups. They later admitted that they did not use an inhaler and were just trying to score some cash.

The assistant principal's son was on an inhaler, and so he suspended all 3 of us for 2 days. He even went so far as to tell us that our contest was set up to humiliate those that were less fortunate than ourselves. When I responded with "so you admit that those that use an inhaler are weaker", I got an extra day.