IF she was claiming that she did a full Ironman and only went 130 miles then I'd understand this thread, but she hasn't even STARTED her challenge yet. Despite that, most of this thread is hypercritical and plenty of posts ARE knocking her for trying to raise money. Let's give her a chance. I've done a few full IMs and I'm sure I couldn't run 230 miles in 3 days.

^^^ This. There are so many people here that could offer her very valuable assistance - either through advice or doing something real to support her during the event but the focus is totally on breaking down her effort in any way possible.

A non-triathlete has announced a challenge that will crush our egos and make our wimpy once-a-year ironman look embarrassing so we need to attack her by arguing HER rules of HER event make HER effort totally illegitimate? Why can't we just support her goal, help her out in name of the charity, let her have whatever rules she likes, call her event whatever she likes, be flexible with semantics and simply be positive people for once?

If she delivers, and I hope she does then it's great.

If she fails it's like the Froome case... the shadow of that is long... People will still think oh... That's the guy that had that case....

Even IF she fails after 3 or so "ironmans" then people will still vaguely remember that time when there was cow boys and women doing 50 in a row, some without completing a single tri first... "why are you wearing that medal? "

This is using a existing brand for self promotion while at the same time potentially diminishing it

Someone told me that evil kenieval was more famous for the stuff he promoted himself about to do but then failing immediately... Was that right?

Chuy - Since you have done two Deca-Ironman races, could you comment on what if any time limit should apply to each day's iron distance??? One or two posters have said she should have to finish each day's iron "race" in 17 hrs or under but, from what i recall from past reading, in the ultra races wherein you do one full iron each day, competitors can in theory take 23:59 to complete each day, just as long as they are back at the swim start for the next day's segment. Your comments???

Further, I downloaded the IUTA rules and noticed that, for a "continuous" deca-iron where you swim 24 miles, bike 1120, and run 262, the IUTA allows 350 hrs for official completion, vs the 240 hrs you would have in a 1 iron/day race. To me this makes the 1 iron/day deca-ironman much harder to complete but yet in the IUTA ranking system, a 1st place in the deca-ironman day race only garners 180 pts vs 200 for the 1st in the continuous race. Can you comment on this??? Were your deca-ironman races 1 iron/day or continuous???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

if that's all she were doing -- raising money for charity and pushing her personal limits -- I don't think a single person here would object.

it's the platforming that is endemic to social media that makes this (potentially) objectionable. She's doing it to score above and beyond the kids and the personal challenge. Some people have no issue with that, others see it as painting on a big bulls-eye for comeuppance.

General reply to this thread. How about we all wait and let her deliver and see what she claims or not with what amount of rigour and honesty or not. Maybe she does it all legit and surprises everyone, which I think we can all agree would be awesome. It would be good for her, and for our sport.

Ive raced the 1 per day in my decas and quintuple. So 1 full iron distance each day for 10 days. In this format as long as as you are in the water to begin the following day you can continue. So call the cutoff 23 hours 59 minutes. However realistically speaking you can only have 1 or 2 finishes this late, there comes a point where you just dont catch back up time wise. So unless you are taking this long on your last day or two you wont finish. Id say that in order to have a shot at finishing all 10 days youd have to be finishing each day in 16 hours max. You have to remember that once you finish you need to change, eat, maybe shower, go to sleep and then wake up the next morning before the gun goes off to get ready. Sleep depravation is a real thing and some people even fall asleep while riding their bikes. And as far as the cutoffs for the continuous format you do get more time to finish. Historically speaking the dnf rate in the 1 by day format is much greater than the continuous format. So even in ultratriathlon theres controversy around the continuous format time cutoffs. As far as cutoffs for what this woman is trying to do i really dont care if her cutoff is 23:59, because i know that if she isnt finishing each day in the 15 hour range at most then she has no real shot at finishing 50.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

That's a interesting insight, thanks!

Are there decas where they swim 38 in the pool then bike 1800....or is it always 10x1 format?

Her current fans will follow along and still be fans even if she quits the second day.

My guess: after a few days the distances will be shortened or some other change than an actual swim, run On the road and bike on the road

But she will continue on to all 50 states and Haiti, meet fans in each state and raise a lot of money for charity

There is, the continuous format you swim the full distance, bike the full distance then run the full distance. The 1 per day you do a full IM per day.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

Ironman is an event of approximately a fixed distance with unregulated drafting and often fully cancelled or partially cancelled swims. Including downstream swims, or courses that are short, with pelotons allowing people to brag on forums about their awesome bike split. We all witnessed the ethics being followed or applied by those in Texas.

Let's get real here. Someone doing something similar to what we do but many days consecutively hurts our egos real bad and that's the reason to argue how she uses the word ironman and she's not supposed to use that word (and luckily those technicalities will allow us to discredit her accomplishment no matter how well she does).

Let's get real here.


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Then let's get real. The reality is that what she is attempting is almost certainly impossible. Atleast by any measurable "standard" that we can all accept. So the likely-hood that something transpires along the way that then "puts into question" the whole "50 in 50" is what we are discussing. I've been on record as saying she should throw out the rule book for the great details of what each day is...if she wants to ride a trainer, let her ride a trainer. If she wants to run on a stair stepper or elipitcal, by all means....go for it. Of course I think this is more PR "fluff" to raise money and awareness than some slight on the sport or anything....I think she's just using 50/50 as the extreme fitness challenge in order to raise awareness for her platform. The actual merits of finishing imo are going to be pointless, as I think she's going to hit some bumps in the road, miss some days (but likely keep going) and then she'll claim whatever she wants with however much money she raises in the end. Actually completing this challenge isn't even likely really the point, so I dont think she's going to be hell bent on "rules". What "ruffles" our feathers is when an athlete makes a big deal of something that in reality they didn't do "properly" (eta: the same way we clown on people who claim a 30 min bike PR from IM Texas, etc etc....read every draftfest IM and this same logic applies there). So if someone wants to say they did 50/50, I think it's then only fair for the peanut gallery to dissect the event. Which is what happened with IC....he can say he did all 50 IM's and others can say he did them in very unique ways, some that question the validity of the claim.

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

It is not negativity. It is realism. There is a big difference. She is biting off far more than she can chew, or she isn't going to do it for real and that hurt the feelings of those who do take the idea of Ironman seriously.

I agree with most of what you said. But we are acting silly here because we all know that it is impossible to do anything different from a 2/2 because WTC does not organize Ironman (R) events on weekdays so there exists no opportunity for a 50/50 in the first place. So anyone saying they did some kind of 50/50 automatically means they are NOT doing Ironman races exclusively but also iron-distance non-race events (because there are no 'iron distance triathlons' on weekdays either as far as I know). So, we all know that a 50/50 could at best mean iron distance, non-race events and therefore arguing about the Ironman brand makes very little sense.

You voted for Drump didn’t you. You thought he will build a 2 thousand mile 25ft high border wall. Now I see why u believe this farce. She won’t. She can’t. When did idk believing in reality become a crime.

If I start a thread tomorrow stating I’m going to do 100 im in 100 days in 50 states would you support me? How about everyday for a year? No because I’m not being realistic. Btw there is no Santa Claus

Haven’t been to Hinche but agree logistics will be very challenging. I’ve spent time in Haiti and can’t think of 112 miles of paved road that are safe and rideable on a bike. Probably not a car either. Lol. And the weather in August is brutally hot, humid. That’s going to be a really tough day.

Trump voter? Well you couldn't be more wrong, I'm a total Bernie guy! (First wrong) And nope there won't be a wall and, Mexico is not going to pay for that wall. :-) (Second wrong)

I never said anything about her completing the challenge or not or believing she could complete her goal (third wrong). I fact I guess day 1 may be a rude awakening and I think the plan is off as of day 2 or 3 at the most. I'm very skeptical about her goal but that isn't my point. Anyways, a lot of wrongs in your first two lines in your response. :-)

If you would go out and do an event for a charity, I'd say good for you, you can call it whatever you like with whatever rules you set for yourself or not and I would hope you succeed and collect a great amount of money to support your charity. That would be very respectable. I wouldn't necessarily think you could succeed though. The difference is that I would wish you well, maybe help out if possible, versus trying to shoot your effort down and discredit you personally as well as your accomplishment in advance - which is what most of this topic appears to be about.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Chuy - Thanks for those very trenchant observations based on your quint and deca-ironman experiences. AFAIK, you are the only semi-regular poster here who has done a quint or deca-ironman so you are obv by far the most qualified to comment. Overall, what would you say the aspiring ultra tri person should focus on to prep for doing a double or higher iron race??? Long bike rides and long runs, mainly??? Or, does the swim need more focus than one would think???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I have no clue what the answer to the question is, but I would think it would depend on if it is the 1 per day format or the continuous. The one per day format, I think the hardest would be the logistics and nutrition and eating enough during the event today to fuel up for the event tomorrow. There is just not enough time in between stages to carb up for tomorrow. I really think her biggest challenges wiill be pacing, fueling and logistcs. It sounds like she has splenty of non specific specificity and generally the longer the race, the less specificity you need to get through an event, in the sense that general fitness (cardio, digestive system, organ function) trump sport specificity just because the forces applied are so ridiculously low (but for such a long time), that you don't need a much sport specificity. Little things like keeping your neck up at RAAM etc become as problematic as the quads delivering force to the road.

You need to focus on biking and running. Long days back to back in training. You need to be a good enough swimmer to get through the swim, but its all about the bike and the run. Getting your body used to the pounding and the stress. Your injuries and issues will more than likely come from running and biking, not the swim. Strength training is also important, that much time on a saddle and on your feet your body needs to hold up. Theres a great book with lots of useful information on doing an ultra triathlon, its called beyond the iron by wayne kurtz. Basically walks you through what you need and includes a sort of training plan so you can get an idea of what kind of things youll need to be doing in training.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

Ya, that's what i thought. Thanks but no thanks, I'll just stick to trying to swim as fast as I can. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I would have thought that the strategy would be swim steady, ride like you are in RAAM. For someone decently fit, I would assume this adds up to 9 hours to the daily T2. Then the daily foot leg would be no more than 2 hours of slow jogging (let's call it 18K covered) and 4 hours of power walking @ 6kph for 24K. Now we are at 15 hours plus 1.5 hours of breaks and transitions. This leaves 7.5 hours to get to the start of tomorrow.

I really do think she has the physical capability to do the above, but it feels like she needs to be done daily in 15 hour to give 9 hour gap to tomorrow's start.

I bet she can sustain the 15 hour daily rate for 7-10 days IF she does not overcook the first few days and do them in 12-13 hours. If she digs a recovery hole early in the endeavor, then I think she is done. Beyond 7-10 days is another story. Immune system and other organ functions will be substantially hammered. It is why some 1 week stage racer studs cannot win the Tour de France or Giro. They don't have 3 week physiology.

I think she may surprise us for several days. Then who knows.

I do hope she does this stuff legit and the rigour of the expedition compliments the marketing and they don't get decoupled.