I love the fall/end-of-season time on ST... all the crankiness comes out. Every year, like clockwork.

This only applies as a valid comment if your only goal is to get though an ironman. If you are racing for a time then the argument that one is superior to the other is invalid

To take to obvious extreme:

Who is to say whether a sub 8hr ironman or a sub 10second 100m is a greater feat.


Certainly the distance covered has no reflection on the effort or accomplishment

So if someone crushes a 70.3 I say well done to them.

It beats talking one more time about discs........and kicking in freestyle :0)

The original race was about determining who was an ":Ironman" by doing three distance races common at the time in Hawaii, do you think if that they had got halfway there someone would have been standing there with a medal saying well done.

I don't care what you call it or how hard you tried, it ain't Ironman.

BLASPHEMY!!!!! I've been there, and I've seen tons of Ironman gear for sale. *pink*

This thread has been forwarded to the Ironman® legal department.

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A false humanity is used to impose its opposite, by people whose cruelty is equalled only by their arrogance

So I guess you DO support the IRONMAN 5150 fashion line?


It's a brand name, as you properly acknowledged and therefor a troll attempt..

Pretty lame, probably 0.5150 on the IRONMAN scale.

If the company that owns the Ironman brand name says 70.3 is an Ironman- it is! WTC is brilliant at marketing.
Yes a full and a half are really different races, but I am happy to see people out there keeping fit and having fun.
After doing triathlons and Ironman for 34 years, my ego just doesn't need the term Iron to make me feel good about myself. I will be doing IM Florida in a couple months, but trust me, it doesn't impress anyone.
File this in the Who Cares File.

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Team Zoot So Cal

To many of us "ironman" is a distance, but to others it's a brand name (and in China it's the generic name for triathlons, a-la Kleenex or Xerox).

Personally when I do an IM-branded 70.3, I'll never refer to it as an ironman without adding 70.3.

WTC also seems to acknowledge this difference; they don't call out "you are an Ironman" when you cross the line at a 70.3...that's reserved for 140.6.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

It's not like they had the t-shirts printed up themselves. The Ironman website shows IRONMAN 70.3 as a legitimate distance. Seems like you should be able to get a shirt.

As far as tattoos . . . I don't want one in the first place.

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Pete Githens
Reading, PA

"Ironman" is a brand. I just refer to races as "iron" distance if not WTC. I'm not sure what your problem is if someone has a "Ironman 70.3" shirt. It says 70.3.

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Big Sexy Racing 2018

I wear a Batman t-shirt. How does that make you feel? No need for concern though

wa?

I thought you just had an overbite.

But they don't. WTC distinguishes between two trademarks: Ironman and Ironman 70.3. "Ironman" is registered as a long distance triathlon. "Ironman 70.3" is registered as a half distance triathlon. One is not the other and vice versa. And as much as some people who have only done a half want to call it an "Ironman" it is not.

It's a brand. Are the shitty shoes you got for $30 with a swoosh on them at Payless any less of a pair of Nikes than the pair of $200 elite running shoes with a swoosh that you got at your local run shop? Nope. Yes, one is better, but they are both the same brand and the guy rocking the cheap Payless shoes can say he has a pair of Nikes just like the guy who paid $200.

Yes, I cringe when people say that I am an Ironman. I tell them that I have done four HALF Ironman races & that I am not an Ironman. But I don't eschew the merchandise that comes with a 70.3 race because it has the Ironman brand on it. You can't seriously believe that only the 0.0001% of the population who has ever completed a 140.6 WTC run race has the right to wear an m-dot. If that's the case, you better go lay into everyone with a Timex or pair of sunglasses with that tiny little logo on it.

Should people who complete a 70.3 refer to themselves as an Ironman? No. But I have no problem with anyone walking around wearing 70.3 merchandise with the biggest m-dot on the back. Tattoos are a different story, but I'm still firmly in the camp of it being a brand, and puttign an m-dot tattoo on you is no different than permanently putting a swoosh on your face.

I know many people worship at the alter of "Brands". But honestly second hand oats, no matter how you dress it up, are still second hand oats.

We all know names that have been appropriated in order to sell merchandise, the first that comes to my mind would a Spitfire, a cheap, shitty, tin box, death trap of a car, versus The Spitfire, a magnificent airplane. Americans have the same thing with a Mustang. Sadly, prolonged use means a generation will come to think of the Mustang (car) as the original, because it is ubiquitous.

Ironman was, is a stupidly silly race of extraordinary difficulty. At it's pinnacle, in Kona, in the conditions and surrounding, somewhat otherworldly.
Any branding dilution is an equal dilution of the race.

Oh bother you are forcing me to be rational and all I wanted was to spit an stamp my feet.

You would never ever hear me say that I did an Ironman if it was a 70.3. I do refer to my race this weekend as IMAC 70.3, because that's what it is. I will also buy a shirt or something of the like that says Ironman AC 70.3 and those who finish will also receive one, along with a medal, that says something of the same liking.

Wearing an Ironman 70.3 shift is no different than wearing a Rev3 70.3 or Challenge 70.3 shirt. As long as you don't claim yourself to be an Ironman, there's no big deal.

And I'm all for tattoos, but for god's sake can we please stop getting half m-dot tattoos when finishing a 70.3?

Is Bud Light the same as Budweiser?

The general public has no clue what the distances are and what they mean. No point on educating them - they don't care. I think Ironman in general does a great job differentiating when it comes to races. General merchandising is all around the "Ironman" brand - which is all of them. But most triathletes know this difference, except maybe a newbie and that is okay. They will learn.

I'm sure this thread has been on here before, but it needs to be said again.


Yes - old news.

I first experienced this phenomenon perhaps 10 years ago. Riding a shuttle bus back to the parking lot at an early 70.3 race after it was over. Dude, sitting behind me was going, on and on and on to his seat-mate and others, that he had just finished "an IRONMAN". I was about to turn around and ask a few questions when he then launched into his life-story of being 100lbs overweight, smoking, etc . . and that this race had turned his life around. I bit my tongue and just sat there!

What should be REALLY worrying to IRONMAN die-hards and purists, are the comments last year from key WANDA exec Jack Gao, who was completely open and honest, about the fact that in Asia, IRONMAN will be used as a brand for the promotion of all manner of endurance sports!!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

And don't even get me started on the people at Challenge events who do a leg in a 140.6 relay and then say they did an Ironman.

I encourage you to go into a fit of rage and tear into anybody wearing ironman 70.3 attire.

Why do you care so much?