E to the rules of competition when registering for a race

E to the rules of competition when registering for a race, including conforming to anti-doping regulations. Therefore, racing for an affiliated team ensures that runners have agreed to a formal antidoping code of conduct. Recruitment of interview participants began from my own position as a non-elite runner and built outward through the networks of initial interviewees. The sample is a result four waves of recruitment. As a condition of taking part in this study, each interviewee provided contact information for any three non-elite runners fitting the study criteria, who were then notified of the recommendation from another runner who had taken part in the study. ThisSurveill Soc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 November 04.HenningPagenetworking method, while similar to a snowball sampling method, has many advantages for qualitative research. By limiting the number of contacts from each respondent to three, the risk of “peers with larger personal networks to recruit more extensively than peers with smaller networks” is significantly reduced (Schensul et al. 1999, p.218). Recruitment drew participants from up to five degrees of separation from myself. This distance ensured that participants differ from those derived solely from the personal network of the author, providing a sufficient sample that does not contain biases often found in snowball samples (Semaan, Lauby, and Liebman 2002). Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted between June 2011 and April 2012. An interview guide was developed with several open-ended questions focusing on the participants’ non-elite running careers, perceptions of health, and views on doping and doped athletes. This semi-structured interviewing method allowed for flexibility during the discussion (Schensul et al. 1999) and enabled clarification of a response, elaboration on a comment or response, or follow-up questions to be asked on a case-by-case basis. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and the data organized using the qualitative analysis software Atlas.ti. Coding was guided by the three main thematic categories established in the interview guide–knowledge, ethics, and health–while several secondorder categories were drawn from directly from the data that covered specific topics emerging during the interviews (e.g. “supplements” and “prescriptions”).NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNon-Elite Self-SurveillanceThe non-elite runners interviewed for this project routinely engage in self-surveillance for the sake of both Crotaline dose performance and health. They keep logs of how much mileage they run daily, weekly, and monthly, record mile split times on training runs, are vigilant about how they recover from hard workouts and racing efforts, and keep track of their diet in order to maintain a specific weight and to ensure they eat the correct balance of ML390 site carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. These runners also report experimenting with and regularly using nutritional supplements as part of their surveillance process. The runners describe these processes as conscious and on-going routines. Most report using a supplement and then carefully monitoring what effect, if any, they perceive it has on their energy levels, training outcomes, and race performances. The interviewees report regularly revisiting their routines and adjusting them according to what seems most effective to maximize performance and their health. They also sometimes try new produc.E to the rules of competition when registering for a race, including conforming to anti-doping regulations. Therefore, racing for an affiliated team ensures that runners have agreed to a formal antidoping code of conduct. Recruitment of interview participants began from my own position as a non-elite runner and built outward through the networks of initial interviewees. The sample is a result four waves of recruitment. As a condition of taking part in this study, each interviewee provided contact information for any three non-elite runners fitting the study criteria, who were then notified of the recommendation from another runner who had taken part in the study. ThisSurveill Soc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 November 04.HenningPagenetworking method, while similar to a snowball sampling method, has many advantages for qualitative research. By limiting the number of contacts from each respondent to three, the risk of “peers with larger personal networks to recruit more extensively than peers with smaller networks” is significantly reduced (Schensul et al. 1999, p.218). Recruitment drew participants from up to five degrees of separation from myself. This distance ensured that participants differ from those derived solely from the personal network of the author, providing a sufficient sample that does not contain biases often found in snowball samples (Semaan, Lauby, and Liebman 2002). Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted between June 2011 and April 2012. An interview guide was developed with several open-ended questions focusing on the participants’ non-elite running careers, perceptions of health, and views on doping and doped athletes. This semi-structured interviewing method allowed for flexibility during the discussion (Schensul et al. 1999) and enabled clarification of a response, elaboration on a comment or response, or follow-up questions to be asked on a case-by-case basis. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and the data organized using the qualitative analysis software Atlas.ti. Coding was guided by the three main thematic categories established in the interview guide–knowledge, ethics, and health–while several secondorder categories were drawn from directly from the data that covered specific topics emerging during the interviews (e.g. “supplements” and “prescriptions”).NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNon-Elite Self-SurveillanceThe non-elite runners interviewed for this project routinely engage in self-surveillance for the sake of both performance and health. They keep logs of how much mileage they run daily, weekly, and monthly, record mile split times on training runs, are vigilant about how they recover from hard workouts and racing efforts, and keep track of their diet in order to maintain a specific weight and to ensure they eat the correct balance of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. These runners also report experimenting with and regularly using nutritional supplements as part of their surveillance process. The runners describe these processes as conscious and on-going routines. Most report using a supplement and then carefully monitoring what effect, if any, they perceive it has on their energy levels, training outcomes, and race performances. The interviewees report regularly revisiting their routines and adjusting them according to what seems most effective to maximize performance and their health. They also sometimes try new produc.