A young lady called Caleigh completed a half Ironman and then decided to get the full Ironman logo tattoo. After significant backlash and accusations of “stolen valor” she issued the following public service announcement on social media: Caleigh on Instagram: "a much needed public service announcement🫶🏻"
Apparently, the lady is the daughter of a female triathlete who finished top 10 in Kona. She says the tattoo provides inspiration to do a full. I think this is similar to getting a USMC tattoo because a family membered served as a marine, upon completion of an ROTC program. She didn’t do the Ironman, so she shouldn’t have the tattoo.
Gatekeeping is an aggressive word. I think this is just a case where on social, people can attack others behind a keyboard and you see that come through on the other side. I personally don’t care, but it is a strange choice in my opinion. That is to say, I wouldn’t choose to get it for doing a 70.3. But if she wants to, great. Could make for awkward conversation if someone asks her which Ironman she did, though!
More importantly…is this the person who was seen crying in pumaking’s bike tech POV video?? To be clear, I am not sure…not saying it is, but just saying it might be. I tried to reference that video, but it was taken down from YT it appears (which now also seems rather suspicious). See the influencer’s pinned IG post from the race dated July 14, Pic 6. I feel like I remember that bike, the race number location, and the water/gatorade bottles, and it was a young blonde woman. The post also mentions a flat tire on the bike. If I am wrong I will edit this thread and be quiet but if that is her, boy oh boy does this conversation get interesting.
Wow, the bike tech video is gone. I can’t imagine why.
Is there gatekeeping in triathlon? Yes, there is some. Just a couple of weeks ago I read a post that said something like “we don’t need those bodybuilders in triathlon.” In the five or six years ive been on this forum I’ve read several posts that were quite the gatekeeping, and some downright rude posts/responses that are a method of gatekeeping. And of course there are the trolls on here.
But in general, I find the community very welcoming and helpful.
But getting the tattoo for a 70.3 is a little much, but she’s the one who has to live with it.
I think the tattoo is a little silly and find her influencer style obnoxious, but I thought the m dot was just a logo part of the ironman corporation, not necessarily the 140.6 distance? If you go to a ironman.com 70.3 page it still has the m dot in the logo. Races | IRONMAN
I think part of the issue is there’s ‘name creep’ both here and in running. I know that people are derisive of the “5k Marathon” but I see on reddit and elsewhere that people sometimes use “Ironman” to refer to any race under the IM umbrella.
Get a tattoo or don’t get a tattoo, I don’t really care but part of the accomplishment of doing an IM or a Marathon is doing the full distance (whatever it is), not doing a race that’s adjacent or half distance.
I’ve seen people get the tattoo but only have half of it shaded until finishing the full. Not my cup of tea, but hey it’s your body do whatever you want.
I am sure the first dude to get a barbed wire bicep tattoo was super proud of that artistic creation. Then a million other people got it, and he looked like the same copycat dipsh*t as the rest of them.
Same with MDot tattoos. You want to brand yourself for life with a price gouging corporate entity’s logo, and then whine like a This word is not allowed which means I'm not being very nice at the moment when the sacred standards of that tattoo are violated. Serves you right.
Not even worthy of critique. You can tattoo a 1st place trophy on your leg for all I care.
There are countless people (including lots of ‘influencers’) who just call a half-ironman the ‘ironman’ and that’s just how it is. Every native preson to the towns I’ve traveled to for HIMs who isn’t racing has called the event ‘the ironman’. It’s a big enough deal to these towns that they don’t need to quibble over half vs full - it’s a big multiday production in each case.
I think only major self-absorbed ironman whiners are the ones who would complain about this sort of stuff.
Technically true, but it’s like saying you’ve ran a “marathon” after finishing the Turkey Trot 5k.
I don’t really care if someone wants to tattoo a corporate logo onto their body though. I have the Panda Express logo on my upper arm, right next to “Kung Pao Chicken” in Chinese characters.
I’m not sure that’s the correct analogy. It would be more like getting a BAA Association tat after running some 10K they also might sponsor. Ironman wants that M-Dot trademark to be about the entirety of the brand and not exclusive to a distance. So in that regard, I think what she did is fine not really that egregious. If her tat was 140.6 then that would be the same as claiming you did a marathon after doing a 5K
Not really. Yes there’s a big difference for anyone who is actually doing the Ironman vs half, but for normal people who aren’t racing, the half Ironman is hard enough and mind boggling enough that they don’t need to quibble over half vs full -
If you can swim bike and run for that long, you are an Ironman.
Most folks don’t even know that there are sprint and Olympic distances - to normal people, the Ironman often equals triathlon.
I’ve also seen races advertised as’5k marathons’ for whatever reason. I doubt they are fooling anyone about that.
She seems to be angry at middle aged white men in her responses. Those mens are the devil!
Influencers - tattoos or not, I loathe the self importance with a herd of ‘yasss queen’ sheep following behind.
Or maybe I’m just old and bitter. Either, or
I got personally attacked online after I got a M-Dot tattoo when I finished my first full IM. In making fun of me, most people made fun of my time being “slow” or how my body looked in my race kit. It honestly still hurts when I think about how cruel people were in that moment. So, how about we all grow up and stop criticizing people for being proud of their own personal accomplishments…whatever they might be?
I’m obviously against this sort of lame bullying over stupid stuff . But you also realize lame people are always out there and this stuff is going to happen no matter what.
I guarantee my life has been affected way more drastically by how short I am as a male compared to your tattoo. It’s not right or fair but it’s go to happen. It becomes more of an issue if you let it become an outsized perceived slight.
I save my yelling for things that really matter. Like coughing without a facemask or waiting too long at the checkout counter while someone writes a check.
The symbol doesn’t mean a Full anymore. It symbolizes that somebody spent a LOT of money to do a race that Ironman puts on. Seriously though, The M dot is all over 70.3 races so somebody entering the sport wouldn’t know the difference.
