Reminds me of the start of Icarus before it turns into being about international politics. Cyclists spending tons of money on top of the line bikes and tons of doping just to try to win the tri-county cycling race.

I wouldn’t say running, even amateur running, is entirely meritocratic. You get a lot of the same behavior, just less outlets for it. (E.g. you can buy this Nike shoes with the carbon fiber panel in them, but besides shoes there is not much you can do to push your performance besides). E.g. You do get people with mysteriously very low times compared to their last race or age group. I don’t think you should be drug testing local races and marathons because it just seems pointless and overkill for what is supposed to be a friendly community competition, but I would say the exact same thing about people who want to win said community competition at all cost.