OK, here's the theory. If you're a distance runner and you live at a high altitude and train at a much lower one, you may get better faster. That's because in the recovery periods (all the time you're not running), your body is straining to get more oxygen. That forces it to adapt by creating more red blood cells to make you more efficient at delivering oxygen to the cells that need it.

Proponents of this theory say it works better than the old wisdom of altitude training, that is, do your living and running both at high altitude. When you run at lower altitudes, your body has more oxygen available to it during actual training. You can go faster then, and get a little more bang for your training buck.

Now there are people who have made tents that athletes can sleep in at night to simulate the effect of getting less oxygen during rest periods. Some officials have voiced safety concerns. Is it maybe a bad thing to deprive brains of oxygen? Or have we been brainwashed by generations of mothers yelling, "Junior, get that plastic bag off your head! You'll suffocate!"?

These "hypoxic chambers" have been banned from Olympic villages. Although how this is enforced is a mystery, unless officials do bed checks each night. It wasn't just the safety concerns that motivated the anti-tent forces. For many, this fell under the same category as doping -- an unfair advantage

Which leads us to a discussion of what is doping, after all. Frankly, I don't know. Smarter fellows than me have failed to come up with a legally defensible, working definition. Here's what works for me, for the purposes of this article: use of a substance that may place the athlete at a health risk in order to boost performance. But wait ... doesn't ibuprofen fit this definition? So there must be a line drawn somewhere, and it's where society no longer feels comfortable with the substance in question.

Now the WADA, which is short for World Anti-Doping Agency, is watering down its own definition in the face of continued legal costs and diminishing support from some of its contributors (the United States owes WADA $800,000).

One of the things some in the International Olympic Committee want WADA to stop worrying about is Human Growth Hormone. Apparently, there is no scientific "proof" that HGH aids performance. Amazing, because the anecdotal evidence is significant. Janet Heinonen, in Keeping Track, notes that it was not until 1996 that there was scientific evidence that steroids provided performance aid. By that time, the efficacy of anabolic steroids was common knowledge, from high school kids to the Olympians. She adds that funding such research is difficult, which is why it has been so limited.

Human Growth Hormone, the real stuff, is derived from the pituitary glands of corpses. (I'm not sure if I'm a potential donor by merit of my checking that organ donation card on the back of my driver's license. In any case, my HGH probably isn't very good, as I was one of the less physically imposing members of my high school cross country team. And that's saying a lot.)

OK, so someone got the HGH out of the corpses and sold it for big bucks to athletes and their doctors. There, it gives the body another growth spurt and helps increase lean muscle mass. This is pretty well documented. One need look no further than the work of Dr. Robert Kerr, who died last year. In a book written in 1982, he claimed to have prescribed steroids and HGH to more than 4,000 athletes. On the downside, HGH also causes extra growth in less desirable places -- that Neanderthal ridge above the eyes, that jutting jaw and the resulting need for dental work.

Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (it's the human version of Mad Cow disease) has put natural HGH out of business. Now synthetic HGH fills the gap. But HGH is still big business. The Internet is rife with people selling HGH, HGH substitutes, HGH generators, etc. Sorting the real from the snake oil is difficult. For people with a true medical need for the substance, it must be a nightmare. Some estimates are up to $15,000 for an annual supply.

Now, class, which constitutes an unfair and unhealthy-competitive advantage? Oxygen tents or HGH? How far is too far?

NCAA championships
Shalane Flanagan made up for a lot at the NCAA championships. The North Carolina junior, who finished 22nd in the race last year, this year took off after the mile mark and ran unchallenged to the national crown. "I've been really wanting one," she said of the title. "I came close but never sealed the deal." Flanagan is the daughter of Cheryl Treworgy, who, as Cheryl Bridges, once held the world marathon record. Her father, Steve Flanagan, was an elite runner, as well.

Colorado senior Jorge Torres won the men's title, becoming only the second U.S. citizen to do so in 11 years. He outsprinted Arkansas' Alistair Cragg by a mere 1.3 seconds at the finish. Said Torres of his epic battle with Cragg, which left the top Kenyans behind: "I put in six, seven, up to 10 surges. I kept on pushing and tightening the screws so that no one would have the strength to go with me at the end. When I saw the finish line, nothing was going to stop me."

Stanford's men grabbed the top trophy for the first time since 1997, running a brilliant pack race to finish with 47 points, 60 ahead of runner-up Wisconsin. Eastern Michigan was a surprise in third place, with defending champion Boaz Cheboiywo taking seventh.

Stanford was originally announced as the winner of the women's race, but that was a mistake. Brigham Young won its fifth title in the past six years, topping Stanford 85 to 113.

The Division II meet in Ashland, Ohio, saw much of the same bad weather as in Terre Haute. Western State won both the men's and women's titles, with individual honors going to Alfred Rugema of Abilene Christian and Amber Klein of Adams State. Said Rugema of his final collegiate race: "This was the first time for me to run in these kind of conditions. It was hard; the first mile my feet were frozen. It took me maybe, three or four miles (to get warm)."

In Division III, Wisconsin-Oshkosh's men won as expected, while senior Ryan Bak of Connecticut's Trinity College took top individual honors. Williams College won the women's race. Missy Buttry of Shenendoah College crossed the line first, nearly a minute ahead of the field.

Other news
The top high schoolers showed their stuff over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, as three of the four Foot Locker regionals were held. The top eight in each race qualified to compete in the prestigious nationals in San Diego's Balboa Park on Dec. 14.