restodruid wrote:
michaer27 wrote:
[just replying to entire thread]
This has been epically nuts.
I wonder what the general public would think of all this. I mean this story would seem to have way more interest and legs for the public than the saga of the woman who ALLEGEDLY cheated her way to Kona by losing her chip (are we allowed to use her name?) and was covered in the NYT.
Thereās the social media as a platform for misleading people who are supposedly her friends/fans and who identify as part of her tribe. The amazing ability of her fans to ignore problems with her claims and defend her against perceived and some real attacks. The manipulating heartstrings and shielding herself from scrutiny via displays of her family and charity work. The refusal to own up to failures and past and present lies. The past lies coming to light when a dedicated group of athletes started looking more closely at her claims. All in the name of a business model as a fitness model and influencer and making money as a coach and sponsored athlete. And that doesnāt even consider the coach, the repeated āattemptsā at events way beyond her training including ridiculous pronouncements beforehand and the complicity of the sponsors and media covering her.
If I were the author of that NYT article about the first person I mentioned, Iād be all over this.
Iāll tell you what the general public (or part of) thinks about this.
I am not a triathlon athlete, Iām hardly a runner. I play contact sports, I maybe ran a few random 5k here and there but nothing worth noting.
Iāve been following Ashley on IG since her Haiti run, never once I thought about fact checking, because Iām not familiar with times, standards, anything. I thought it was pretty badass but I left it at that.
When I saw the 50/50 I thought āthatās coolā, then again, didnāt realize the magnitude of the whole achievement until I started lurking on this forum.
My own ignorance in the subject led me to believe maybe it was doable for her, I donāt know her, but she āguaranteed itā so I was like āok!ā.
I read most of the posts on this forums and a lot of things started to make sense, thatās when I realized I was following a (potential) fraud without ever questioning her achievements.
Not even mad, but I can see how others follow her blindly, just as with everything else in life, you can do your own research or choose to stay ignorant. I donāt know everything there is to know about ultras, IM, running or tris, Iām completely ignorant about all that, but thanks to this particular thread I feel I have a better understanding of the situation and Iām glad.
I volunteer a lot of my time, Iāve done a lot of volunteer disaster relief work during the hurricanes last year, I am 100% about helping others, so this whole charity situation rubs me wrong a bit harder, you know what? Pulling fake stunts like this to get people to donate is sickening.
I can see how sheās utterly blinded by her ego and it makes my stomach turn. The way I see it, everything that goes up, has to come down eventually, and Iām sure her time will come, meanwhile, I think itās great this community is taking a strong stand against her BS because, if it were my sport, Iād be up in arms too.
Iāve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into my discipline (which is also struggling to expand) and for someone to bastardize it like that, Iād be raging.
Thereās ways to do charity, a shaky foundation based on deceit isnāt one of them, IMO.
To be honest, this is shitty publicity, I have a feeling sheās extremely greedy and this is just a game for her. Little does she know, sheād have an even bigger following if she had been honest about this. Itās a shame, really.
So carry on, slowtitchers, because some of us mere mortals have your back.
I think you guys are overanalyzing it. This, and many other things like it, are not about "charity" or "awareness". They are all about narcissism. It's thinly wrapped in a veil of something more socially acceptable, but in the end it's really just narcissistic attention whoring.
