Prozac

Wednesday, May 02, 2012 Francisco Carneiro 0 Comments

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So Alberto called his doctor, obtained a prescription, and became another one of the six million Americans taking this widely used prescription medicine. The results were spectacular. Three days later, he could run again.

“I was ecstatic,” Salazar said. “I was shocked. Paul had turned me on to a magic pill. Before Prozac, the fastest pace I could run was about 5:20 per mile, and even doing that killed me. Three days after I began taking Prozac, I run a workout of three 1-mile repeats. I ran each of them in 5 minutes comfortably. A few days later, I did a 6 by 1 mile workout at a 4:42 per mile……..When I was running well, my obsession absorbed my depression. But now that I wasn’t winning races and constantly getting faster, the depression had all the room in the world to grow.

Instead of making me happy, running made me miserable. I never told my doctor about this_ he prescribed Prozac for my glandular imbalance. But as soon as I start taking it, I felt amazingly better. I stopped having death fantasies. It was like I didn’t really know haw bad I had felt until I start feeling good.

From Duel in the Sun, The Greatest Marathon ever, Alberto Salazar vs Dick Beardsley in 1982 Boston.

PS Albert Salazar was the best ever US marathon runner and won everything between 1980 and 1982. After 1982 he declined without a reason and the results disappeared. After several years of inactivity, in 1994 Salazar won the prestigious 90 km (56 mi) Comrades Marathon (It’s a Ultramarathon). Salazar stated that Fluoxetine (Prozac) played a role in motivating him to succeed in professional running again. He said more, Prozac had a widely effect on his well being. To me this story is amazing. In three days he was another man!!