Nobody likes:

1. publicity stunts masked as fundraisers
2. instagram models
3. crossfit (triathletes anyway)
4. arrogance
5. cheaters
6. people that can't admit mistakes/failure

iron cowboy was 1&5, maybe some of 4
lance was 4 & 5
julie miller 4, 5 & 6

AH was all of the above

Speaking only for myself, I think my interest and indignation is a bit different in each situation:

For the Iron Cowboy, for me it is all about claiming a world record of 50 ironmans in 50 days in 50 states, since he clearly did not do it. What he did do was EXTREMELY impressive from both an athletic and mental fortitude standpoint. But if you are going to claim a world record, you should be honest about it. I think I was interested in the extreme audacity of the goal. Then indignant about his attempt to essentially redefine what an ironman is to suit his personal desires. And you still see full page ads in USA Triathlon Magazine touting his 50-50-50. I think that's pretty absurd.

With Ashley Horner, it was a bit different. You've got someone who not has no experience, training or results to show that she could even accomplish a single fast ironman, much less 50 in 50 days - but you have a lot of evidence that she has lied about previous endurance achievements and received no push-back on it. People just seemed to accept that it happened. So my feeling was that someone with that background should not be able to waltz into triathlon, pretend to do a monumental feat in the sport with no evidence that it actually happened and take a media victory tour. I was very pleasantly surprised that she ended up posting the data. Some claim attention and push back from the tri community caused her to post data from this attempt - I have no idea if that is true or not, but I am glad that she did.

Edit: also, IC's extreme dishonesty (and possibly worse) about the charity donations really pissed me off.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

well said above, but I think she epitomizes "2018"....where social media runs crazy. A world in which the Kardashians have made billions and our President (I'm not trying to make this political) tweets about important policy decisions.

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...

The mysogynistic and sexist tones of some of the members...been called a white knight, guess I'll own it, because I'm used to the triathlon community always being open to new people.

I get the whole "respect my sport" bullshit. But at the end of the day, triathlon like god does the humbling. Other triathletes don't do any humbling because this is an individual hammering on your own body.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

i don't want to put words on your mouth, but what you're saying is that AH is the endurance sport version of the kardashian/trump world, where fame and infamy are now almost the same, everyone chooses his own reality, there is no penalty to pay for bad execution, and fame is a sort of fireproof currency? that as long as i somehow stay out of jail that i'm pretty much good to go, as long as i don't sexually harass an employee?

and you all have a problem with that? with someone getting away with it, using endurance sport as a platform?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

In a word her hubris - "a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of his or her mortality."

This about sums it up for me.

can you explain to me the misogyny? in light of the iron cowboy thread, which seemed to me pretty similar.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Yes, That’s my take (on what got people going).

The outlandishness of the goal relative to her background/training/relevant experience, plus the brash, unwarranted confidence and dismissive attitude towards those who cautioned her that she was severely underestimating the difficulty of the task, all compounded by the fact that she got major media to believe this was a credible effort and give her exposure.

This was a textbook case of "hubris," in the Ancient Greek sense.

From Merrian-Webster's online entry for the word "hubris":

Quote:

In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of his or her mortality.

Many were happy to see the gods put her in her place, and quickly. When she failed to acknowledge that she had, indeed, been shown to be mortal, the indignation re-erupted.

[EDIT] While I was typing, JRTX posted more or less the same thing.[/EDIT]

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Part of that is down to it being a multi-day thing.

If she'd quit after the first one it would still have been a long-ish thread, but nothing like what it became.

It's like a soap opera, small daily updates just keep it rolling along.

so, net net, is she happy that the whole thing happened? did she come out ahead? or if she could roll back the clock, would she prefer she never did it? not what you would think if you were her, but what she probably thinks. is her brand better off or worse off?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

My personal take is for people like AH, any attention is good attention. I had never heard of her a couple weeks ago. Now I have. I don’t think very highly of her but I now know who she is so her goal was accomplished

Schadenfreude, or the opportunity thereof

that's my hypothesis, at least.

The train wreck that was bound to happen. It was hard to look away from this one. Kinda like when someone is in a breakaway and you know they’re gonna blow up you’re just wondering when. Same idea but 10000x the blowup was expected.

hubris
from Greek tragedy - excessive pride and overconfidence, leading to nemesis.

it's theatre, and we the spectators rejoice in nemesis.. since there is so little justice to be found in real life..

I never really had a problem with IC's thing, though I wasn't really up on what was happening with his charity.

For me, the AH thing was more about the attitude going in -- it just smacked of a "look at me" attempt, along with the hubris that seems deep in the Crossfit community that you're training to "be able to do anything". Yes, she got smacked around a lot, and quite frankly accomplished something that few would even want to attempt, but the attitudes remain, and the irresponsibility of how it was carried out needs to be owned.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

This is simple. She is far better off for having tried.

• More followers
• More brand awareness
• She created a divided...you are with her or against her = more loyalty and a willingness to defend her against all attacks. (This is literally the Trump strategy say something so crazy that people cant defend it...then watch them defend it to the death)

EDIT: I want to note that she started this quest because Hannah Eden told her she couldn't come to Iceland with her. This lead her to want to do something that would outclass Hannah.

I am probably too quick to see sexism... I did see it in the AH thread but it wasn’t prevent. There are always going to be those people...

I cannot believe that IC and AH are being lumped together. IC set out to do an incredible athletic feat and needed some publicity ($$$$) to get it done. AH wanted publicity so she invented an athletic feat that had no chance of success.

Fame and infamy are basically the same thing.... that is a great observation.

Only she can answer whether she is happy but no, she did not come out ahead. She failed in her athletic goal; she failed in her fundraising goal; and she tarnished her brand. Unlike her other claimed, but undocumented, feats, she was unable to produce when the spotlight was on her. Her hubris may bring her back to triathlon but if she was smart, she would look elsewhere to increase her "followers".

so, what you're saying is, there are 2 kinds of winners in the brand game:

1. the derek jeter winner, which is just when you straight up accomplish stuff, you are superior to the rest of humanity at a given skill, and the win flows to you regardless of your own promotional efforts;

2. be outlandish, outrageous, and/or skillful at presenting yourself as capable, as an arbiter, you drive a wedge between believers and detractors, and then you ride the fame wave of your believers. yes?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I think she is quite happy with this whole thing. She got her brand out there to a higher level

Soon there will be a "new thing" for her to promote, this will be forgotten other than in a format that she will re-write the history of it. "She came down with a life-threaten bacteria in Haiti when she was to begin her 50/50/50 and she miraculously powered through completely 3 long distance races in 2 states and Haiti before her medical team pulled her off the bike"

I thought failing was supposed to be a good thing?

iron cowboy = 1700 posts
ashley horner = 3200 posts

to my recollection both had a lot of admirers, a lot of detractors. and, like lance, each side was hard-attached to its views. quite a bit of negativity attached to the IC. obviously you're not one of them. but that's sort of the point: you have your own strong views unlikely to change. you may have paid pretty keen attention to both efforts. maybe AC has more in common with julie miller than to IC to you. i don't know. that's what i'm trying to uncover.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

YES, BUT!


The wedge you drive has to be something your believers feel strongly about. For crossfitters, moms, girl power champions, men who like women who are fit with tattoos, etc. It is pretty easy to distinguish.

• Crossfitters - Believe they can do anything better than anyone else, they are the ultimate athletes. Check
• Moms - Love to see other moms do something that they are told they cant do. They dont care about the result as much as they care about setting out on the journey. Check
• Girl Power Champions - Much like the moms, but get behind her because she is a woman saying she will do something BETTER than a man who previously attempted the feat had done it. Check (except she didn't get it done better)
• Men - They just post nice things and follow her because they think she is...appealing

Note: I think a lot of people, in particular men, were mad about the attempt for the wrong reasons.