For the past several months, the community of ultra runners has been actively engaged in a dialogue regarding the place of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in the sport of ultrarunning. The question of how to keep ultrarunning a clean and drug-free sport is one of the defining issues in our sport today. In an effort to address this issue, the members of the Western States Endurance Run Foundation Board of Trustees today voted unanimously to adopt the following new performance rule, now known as “Performance Rule 18.”

Performance Rule 18 reads:

“The Western States Endurance Run has a zero-tolerance policy regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Any athlete who has been determined to have violated anti-doping rules or policies, whether enforced by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), or any other national sports federation is ineligible for entry into the Western States Endurance Run.

“The Western States Endurance Run reserves the right to conduct pre- and post-competition testing for any and all performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) listed on the current WADA Prohibited List. Any athlete who refuses to submit to anti-doping controls, if selected for testing, shall be disqualified and subject to a lifetime ban from the Western States Endurance Run.”