sadly, there is money to be made in being a social media celebrity. my 10 year old said he wanted to be a youtuber when he grew up. who can blame him. there are these guys that go into Walmart or Cosco and act all stupid, get a million clicks/views/likes and get paid big bucks for it. or the guys who make a living out of posting videos of themselves playing Minecraft/Fortnight/COD. it doesn't matter what you do, as long as people see you and click on your stuff, you get paid. that's what she's going for.

So, AH puts her stake in the ground and everyone has a reaction to it, and then everyone has a reaction to the reaction, and well, its a chain reaction...

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Truthfully, to me it was the "reaction to the reaction" that caused the biggest stir on ST. Go look at the original pages and it was "yeah she's kinda crazy for taking this on and wont make it because XYZ".....Then suddenly people came on here as if they were defending her honor, and I don't think anyone actually slammed her. Then the in fighting began and the real negative comments from certain people came out. It was as if reality wasn't applicable here, we should have just blindly let her do her thing, and then comment. But of course all along she was trolling the event- It was she was going to add strength every few days...it was she'll do "whatever the f I want, i'll do it backwards if I want" with people asking for verfication. So in reality it kinda became more haters vs supporters for a while there, and then reality sat in and she shat the bed hard.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I think she is closer to Julie Miller here then IC. She has made some outlandish athletic claims before this effort with no proof. The 230 mile run and 200 mile swim. ( I know those numbers are slightly off). I think had this not garnered any attention she would have "completed" the 50/50/50. She might even be closer to Lance for some ST members.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Seems like she has violated the rules of society. The citizens of Slowtwitch are enraged.
I believe you've created a 'people'. Common language, history and interest. It's like conservationists against an oil company, or Catholics against abortion.

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NO

I had typed out a response in the other AH thread - that to me, she comes across as a combination of Katrin Davidsdottir (Crossfit games multi winner), Kardashians and my 13 year old daughter.

She has respectable fitness, a whole lot of being famous for no reason with a fleet of delusional shallow followers (thank you social media) mixed in with the stubbornness, self-centered, "I know it all so I dont have to listen" own reality of a 13 year old.

I respect her fitness, shes sure fitter than I am. But I dont agree with the social media scene for the most part (#ashlete), and Im pretty sure my daughter drives me nuts with her attitude at times too...

Completely agree with your assessment re: social media. Except fame is currency, most youtubers with channels get paid per view or they have Paetrons, etc. They choose their own reality, in some of the cases it involves pathological lying... then their followers accept it and end up believing in it too - like a form of Stockholm Syndrome.

Its a weird one for sure.

I think it was the outlandish behavior that got it. I was in the IC thread, and I dont remember the "hype" before the event. I just remember the 1st few weeks we watched and basically only debated his charity...that was the issue because he had no "legit" charity attached until about the 2nd week in. Then the "bending of the rules" happened, and yet he kept on trucking with "50/50" idea.

Whereas with this attempt, this was the ultimate troll job. She had everyone hook line and sinker from USA Today, NYT, ESPN'W', etc. This was the ultimate hype job with absolutely no substance. And for her it likely doesn't even matter. That part doesn't matter because she's getting the likes/views/donations and so it seems this is simply a shoulder shrug result for her. Almost like "i dont know what you guys are getting so worked up over".

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

The ineptitude. We knew she was going to flame out and fast not because she was a fitness model, but the easy things she got wrong.

Not using a wetsuit. Not maximizing aero efficiencies on the bike. Attempting the hottest time of the year.

If she was really going to last 50 days or 10 days you have to get the low hanging fruit at a minimum. So to me it's an insult to your cause if you aren't going to do your part to have the staying power to last.

When the easy stuff is left out its time get the popcorn ready.

Only if you can monetize it. Apparently there is a lot of competition in the fit IG model space and I don't see how a spectacular flame-out helps her in the long run. She may have - temporarily - gained a few more followers in this stunt, but deep down they all know that she didn't come remotely close to the stated goal. That can't help sales.

I would agree with all this.

I felt the same way about Iron Cowboy until after watching the documentary, did you watch it? It gave me insight to just how impressive and what exactly made that 50/50/50 pretty much damn near impossible. It also shed light on the fundraising and how every dollar has by accounted for by the Jamie Oliver fund and that no fraudulent activity happened. It was just managed by his team poorly at the start.

I originally really did not care for IC and still have a poor taste in my mouth with him a bit. But he did listen and became more and more transparent as time has gone on. Ashley did at least start to upload data, how she moves forward will be telling more about her character, but right now it doesn't seem as if she is making progress on that end.

So with her attempt I have more respect and appreciation for IC, his transparency, honesty, and admitting his faults. I have appreciated Alex Viada in the same context and think he has done well being as fully honest the past 2 weeks and doing the right thing (pulling out his support, etc). Then there is Ashley and she at one point started to make me somewhat of a believer and she has since ruined that again to the point it was worse then before she even started.

I just try to keep up with stuff like this. I missed the entire trucker hat thing and now I feel like I'm missing out on a joke, years later still. Makes me sad :(

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--Chris

I never spent much attention on either one (IC or AH), so maybe I'm the wrong person to be answering. But my sense is that with AH, her hubris was seen as insulting to the community. People in this community have put in tons of hard work and sacrificed a lot to achieve their goals, whether that is completing iron-distance race, sub-10, whatever. And there are some legitimately amazing pros in the community who dedicate their whole lives to triathlon, many of them with very little recognition or monetary reward. I think to many, for her to walk in with no tri experience and act like what they have done is easy, that she can literally do 50 times as much, felt insulting. And then she became famous on just the claim of the attempt. It's hard enough for anybody in endurance sport to make a living, let alone get attention from so many media outlets (that could help them turn that attention into sponsorships, etc.). After all the media outlets hyping the 50/50 thing, incredible athletes like Ryf, Lange, Kienle, Charles, etc. seem kind of run-of-the-mill. Nobody can live up to the 50/50 thing, but that bar has been set as what a really impressive iron-person would do, so it diminishes everybody in the sport, in terms of what their accomplishments mean in the public eye / media.

I didn't follow what was going on with her attempt so I just Googled "Ashley Horner" and scrolled through the first few pages of results and only see positive news coverage I still can't find what has been going on (Edit: I just went to her Instagram account and found the post where she said she's stopping.) She's become famous and all the media outlets that hyped her aren't reporting on the attempt ending. So, I think that for her social media career it's been a success.

Can you fill me in, how did Viada stop supporting this?

I am having trouble figuring him out. My initial data - based on what others wrote - was that he is a meathead who claimed he ran a 4:15 mile. But I think there is a lot more to figure out? I'd read an interview of him...

One thing I would call out is that from very early on her endeavor was flashing warning signs that this thing was going to turn into a fraud. The stated goal, as picked up and reported by national press, was outlandish but then when people quickly started calling BS on her run around Haiti and crazy long swim it was signaling epic twitchunt from day 1. As soon as I read the first few posts and the espnw.com article it seemed to be a predetermined fate that she was going to wind up with a huge write up on marathoninvestigations.com. I'm pleasantly surprised by the transparency that we have gotten. I totally didn't expect it.


If some of her more impressive claims prior to this stunt had been better documented I think a lot more of us would have taken her seriously from the beginning. I would have been rooting for her. It would have been a crazy long shot attempt, but the possibility of someone that wasn't on the multisport radar pulling this off would have been thrilling. Instead, I was drawn in waiting for this self aggrandizing likely "cheater" to get torched.

the affectation. the insistence that everyone is stupid except for her. the self-righteousness. in these ways she's willingly cast herself as a villain. on the other hand: the charity, the inspirational story of a single mom small business owner military spouse incredible athlete, the determination and drive. in these ways she also wants to be the hero. she publicly maintained that she was holding two aces, when it seems like almost everyone could see her cards and they definitely weren't aces, so i think that's why there was a lot of interest in calling her bluff. and apparently extensively posting about her bluff.

He mentioned that he stopped supporting her as the medical team said it was not safe. So he pulled himself out of her camp when she decline the medical advice. So he was no longer supporting her or the event.

As for his 4:15 claim..

This is what he wrote yesterday via PTG on FB.

"Gerard- there was an interview published in 2014 where, in the bio/tagline, the guy writing the interview published PRs I'd related to him in conversation. Included in that conversation were a downhill mile PR, an unverified track PR, and a dozen other numbers I'd hit at various point over the years. The guy took a downhill unverified PR that I'd never had placed in my own bio and published it in the tagline, and thus a number associated with my name that frankly I would never mention was borne. At the time, I didn't know enough to simply state "No, remove this shit", and it blew up. Trying to defend this led to a level of blowback I never imagined- as I was completely new to the idea that others would actually CARE. For my own personal "claims", please stick to my own bio and words I've written and stand by on my own website."

I can currently do neither. There is a long story behind all that which I will go into one day, but this was also my first and biggest lesson in how private conversations about unofficial and unverifiable PRs get brought into the public spotlight without context. I would never state these in my own bio, and I'll leave it at that- this is a thread about triathlon.

Someone said he nows him and that at one point he was posting pictures of his Garmin claiming this. I have not seen those photos so I really cannot verify if that happened or not. Either way, he is not claiming it or anymore as of yesterday.

^^THIS. You nailed it nilloc.

My beef is that these people are not promoting a healthy lifestyle (not to mention the me me attitude of a 3yr old). Doing 50/50/50 is not healthy, even more so when you are ill prepared. Not a good role model for younger athletes.

Everyone likes Instagram models

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USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

There are arguments here about social media celebrities, making money off that, etc., to me that's all secondary or unfounded except on an individual basis. If an individual is bothered by the social media-centric status of society, I feel that's a separate discussion which does have value. But...

My take is the primary thing that AH did to irk Slowtwitch was break, in my view, an important unwritten rule of triathlon: she blantantly didn't respect what she was undertaking. Plain and simple.

Most of the sentiments expressed stem from that simple principle.

Never heard of Hanna Eden, had to google her

Is that what happened?

BTW Hannah Eden wow she is good looking

I agree.

But small question in between:
What is more difficult: KQ or doing 5 or 10 IMs in 16:59 on consecutive days.

Just another athlete with an unorthodox bike fit, claiming it was professionally done and feels great.

Exactly! When she came out saying she would also be doing squats and deadlifts while doing the challenge it was like holding up a red flag to a bull.

That comment alone was either deliberately a massive troll that she knew would spark backlash (and clicks..), or just an indication how how little effing idea she had about what she was about to take on.

Gaining over 200,000 followers is more than a “few” and it results in significant financial gains monthly. And it doesn’t matter how those 200,000 “feel”, all that matters is that they “exist”.

Not even joking, I think even if this were a rando ST poster who was open enough to proclaim "I'm gonna do 50 IMs in a row, with almost zero experience or credible training to back it up, and post it all over the internet for folks to follow!", there would be a similar volume of a zillion posts as people tune in to watch the public train wreck.

I actually think the internet star aspect of it as well as the fundraising only minorly changed it. Heck, I'd bet if I posted I'd be realistically attempting this and documenting it day by day, blow by blow, I'd get pretty close to her post number, especially once I start crashing and burning out in shame.

Of course, this is ST-specific. These comments don't apply at all to the rest of the world, who almost certainly care a lot more about her looks and personal publicity status.