how about you attempt to meet in the middle. This is a personal challenge one that is, frankly, astounding. He sets the rules. I am good with that. Im rooting hard for him. It is unfortunate that in order to commercialize this effort (I mean, he does have bills to pay) he has to trade off the Ironman currency when he is, in fact, not doing an Ironman. Can you meet me there?

I find the crew support aspect more mind boggling than the feat at this point. With begging and incentives I don't think I could cobble together a crew to provide non-stop support for 18+ hours a day for more than a few days in a row. I'm no hermit without friends and family, but they all have busy jobs and very busy lives too. Its incredible to me that there is a team of people working nearly as hard as James and dedicating 100 consecutive days of their lives, plus undoubtedly many prep days leading up to this, in total sacrifice to him and his attempt. What IC is doing fighting the daily effort and monotony is brutal, but he has strong motivation in his personal benefit from this. Imagine having to get up every day to be the wind break pulling him 112 miles on a bike and walking 5 hours carrying his food and fluids.

That is definitely a valid point. For me, prior to watching his documentary for the 50, I thought all full distance triathlons were Ironman races and didnt associate IM as its own brand. I do think he is inspiring new people into the sport, which is why I am fine with it.

I think everyone who has posted here in support of this attempt has acknowledged the "aids".

The point is that he is the first to attempt this so he gets to set the rules. If someone comes along after and says they will do 100/100 in open water with no drafting on the bike it will be more impressive and will set a new benchmark.

They're both a slap in the face to the sport. Which is why people are mad and why people don't like IC.

This is a sport that people love and dedicate a lot of their time to training and racing.

It's offensive to have IC and the Sub7/8 attempts come in, change all the rules, and make a big PR day out of it. They're sacrificing everything that ordinary triathletes stand for while profiteering off of "their rules". It's not in good faith and violated the spirit of the sport. It could be construed as an unethical way of gaining attention and notoriety at the expense of triathlon as a whole.

Oh good, for Sub7/Sub8 we can have another thread as toxic and downgrading and filled with opinions that in the grand scheme of things do not matter. Coming from supporters and haters alike. We live in a glorious time and I cant wait!

Calling it an Ironman and cheating in the pool and cheating on the bike due to "my rules" isn't cricket. The effort is sort of impressive though.

"Cheating" isn't really happening. According to IM rules yes, according to his rules no. He actually has distanced himself from calling it an Ironman. I think Ironman would be sending legal issues his way if he did.

The swim isnt "cheating" you can actually rest anywhere on a swim course you want, Kayak, Lily pad, bouy, tread water, stand, etc...

Bike Drafting perhaps but it depends on your view. You are entitled to you opinion and I respect your view and that is ok.

Who's calling it an Ironman?
This is from his site.

Conquer One Hundred––racing a full-distance triathlon for 100 consecutive days, from March 1, 2021 – June 8, 2021. 140.6 miles a day, for 14 weeks, totally 14, 060 miles.

Has anyone here reached out to him to join big kahuna? im feeling alone at the top. I know I will get shot down once herbert starts logging again

He's not the first to attempt ultra distance repetitive ultra distance triathlons in the sport. The rules for this type of event have already been established....You may not want to acknowledge that but events of this magnitude have happened all kinds of before with "standards" tougher than this event. ETA: So no, he's not the "first". He can most certainly make whatever rules he wants to and perform it however he wants to. Just as anyone can then have an "opinion" on said attempt. So you want to create your own rules for an event that already has a "standard" set of sporting accepted rules....your going to get called out on that attempt. But again he can do it however he wants to.

I believe the gentleman made it to 42 before stopping. I believe that is still the "record".

The 2 major issues I believe are the bike drafting and anti-doping standards (or lack of anti-doping rules) in terms of following the "accepted" ultra rules.

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

I am with you on that. The very small negative of not following protocol is far outweighed by the exposure his effort - especially if successful - will bring.

Come on, you are being pathetically pedantic. He is the first person I am aware of to attempt 100/100. I have previously acknowledged the efforts of others who have done ultra tris of various kinds and their achievements are incredible. Like I said in an earlier post I think IM World Championship winners are absolutely incredible too. But Ironcowboys event, ultra tris, and IM World Championships are all very different events and none of them diminish from the other.

He is the first person I am aware of to attempt 100/100//

Lets not get too wrapped up into what is being "attempted". Remember Ashley Horner attempting 50 Ironman's? Of course we can say there was no real attempt since she was done after like 2 of them. If Ironcowboy gets to 94 and fails for whatever reason, I will give him the attempt badge.


I really have no problem with what he is doing, as long as it is all held in the perspective that it is done in. Many are saying hiking a marathon a day is somewhat hard, running one is infinitely harder. Riding 16mph in a draft is hard for average folks, not so much for a trained athlete, more like the walking of the marathon. About the only thing he is doing above pedestrian pace is the swimming, and that is only because he is a pretty slow swimmer to begin with, so has to work hard there. The wetsuit helps a lot there, but he is still working hard for him to get that time everyday.


If he stays awake and moving for 16 hours a day, that in itself is an achievement, one that many fruit pickers and other laborers do their entire lives. But hard for us to comprehend what they do in the fields to feed their families, and this is something we can at least understand in the realm of moving for many hours a day at a very low heart rate..


I think where the rub will come is if he finishes this personal challenge of his and then tries to make it something it is not. The ultra racers are right that competitions in the ultra triathlon world have rules to follow. This insures that when times or records are broken that they were under similar circumstances. This is a one off stunt, kind of like the David Blaine ones that shocked and entertained many of us back in the day. I wish him luck, apparently things have gone sideways very early on, and during a very easy pace he chose to start with...

does he have a port put in for all those IVs...could lead to infection if he's not careful...

the jealousy card was a bad play..only thing I'm jealous of is that he can take off 4 months to do what he wants....

wonder if he's on test replacement therapy to supplement the effort?

Completely different league to Ashley Horner's attempt. IC has done something similar before and all of the logostics are in place to pull this off. Hers was a disaster from day one.

As far as I can tell IC hasn't tried to claim that he is doing more than what he is. The rules he set are very clear. I really don't understand the pedants here holding him to some standard he never claimed.

I think the issue is that he puts the rules out there, but when marketing the events, he sells that it is something else. A distinction that means nothing to most people, but to those in the world that is significant. People like authenticity and see a lack of one in IC.

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team website: http://snappletriteam.com/

team blog: http://snappletriteam.com/?page_id=10

As far as I can tell IC hasn't tried to claim that he is doing more than what he is//

Well there are two thing we cannot know until one of them happens. If he has to pull the plug in the next week or two for whatever reason, we can say there was no real attempt at doing a 100 of them, just a thought and talk of doing a 100. The 2nd thing is if he actually does finish under his rules, what will he his claims be afterwards. I think what the real ultra racers are afraid of is once done, he goes on the morning show circuit and is now touted as having done a world record of ironman's. If he pays the Guiness fee, what will their record say? We all saw his show on Netflix after the 50/50, and it is apparent he is willing to let the masses think he did something he really didn't, so why not on this one?


But like I said, we cannot know these things until they happen, and like you said, he has a record already with the 50/50's we can go on. Hopefully this challenge of his will be more evolved, during and after...


He has most of our interest here thus far, I just dont know if the early very slow paces are deliberate or forced. I can see a really smart guy going out super slow and building fitness and faster times as the months roll on. Dont take any chances, because one bad decision could derail the whole exercise. But from the cheap seats here it looks more like a forced pace thus far, so I wonder why, and can whatever it is be over come while he still has to move 16 hours a day, even at a very low HR...

It is. If you read enough you see only a few posters posting the same stuff over and over. Smallest of small subsets.

Its a shame some of the pathetic people that say the same thing over and over just don’t get banned from this site for a while.

You are being pathetic.

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https://www.ironcowboy.com/conquer-100/

Goal times (daily)
Swim: 1:30hr
T1: 15m
Bike: 6:45hr
T2: 30m
Run: 5hr
Total: 14 hours

**************************************************
Day 1- March 1st - Swim: 1:24hr/T1: 17m/Bike: 6:48hr/T2: 30m/Run: 5:40hr = Total: 14.41 hours
Day 2- March 2nd - Swim: 1:26hr/T1: 23m/Bike: 6:54hr/T2: 30m/Run: 5:49hr = Total: 15:05 hours
Day 3- March 3rd - Swim: 1:26hr/T1: 17m/Bike: 6:43hr/T2: 31m/Run: 5:30hr = Total: 14:28 hours
Day 4- March 4th - Swim: 1:26hr/T1: 19m/Bike: 7:13hr/T2: 29m/Run: 6:49hr = Total: 16:16 hours
Day 5- March 5th - Swim: 1:26hr/T1: 28m/Bike: 6:52hr/T2: 42m/Run: 6:56hr = Total: 16:24 hours
Day 6- March 6th - Swim: 1:26hr/T1: 26m/Bike: 6:24hr/T2: 39m/Run: 6:39hr = Total: 15:35 hours
Day 7- March 7th - Swim: 1:25hr/T1: 22m/Bike: 6:36hr/T2: 38m/Run: 6:43hr = Total: 15:44 hours
Day 8- March 8th - Swim: 1:26hr/T1: 22m/Bike: 6:31hr/T2: 49m/Run: 6:09hr = Total: 15:17 hours
Day 9- March 9th - Swim: 1:26hr/T1: 22m/Bike: 7:02hr/T2: 44m/Run: 6:13hr = Total: 15:47 hours

Here's the fundamental problem: whether it is his team, or his sponsors, it is using the term of art "Ironman" to describe the thing being done. Ironman means a very specific thing in our sport, with a whole host of associated rules.

This distance project is different. If they'd just used a description of the three discipline distances, fine. If they just called it "covering the distance of an ironman length event," it'd be fine. But the ad somebody else posted here talked about "100 Ironman triathlons in 100 days."

That's all.

And his claims about 50/50 continue to rub a lot of people the wrong way. It sets him up for failure in this community.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

In your opinion & your view (which is fair enough)

I'm just amazed there hasn't been more outrage that he's wearing camo CROCs to do his walk-a-thons every day. Surely that's against some ST rule.

This is the part that for some reason seems to rub me the wrong way. Personally, he comes across as a con man. The 'rule' changes, the claim of being beat up by 'haters', doing it 'all for charity', the list goes on and on. And the thing is that when you hear people that have spoken to him, they say that he is a really good guy; which again is exactly what a con man acts like...but then again so does a really good guy. It is really hard for me to tell them apart, but then again, I suppose I don't have to. I still wish him luck with his effort; and I hope those that are pitching in to help him meet his goal (whatever that may be) are able to find some happiness and pleasure in helping as well.
Stephen J

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I believe my local reality has been violated.
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Happiness = Results / (Expectations)^2