Ok fess up. If you said “No”. Why?
I don’t see a poll so I have no idea what you are talking about.
It’s under the sidebar ad on the main forum page.
I have no doubt I will be flamed. But WTH.
I voted ‘No’. Ironman is a brand. To say you are an IM but not do an IM event … strikes me as strange. The PGA is a trademarked brand. If you play golf for some other tour, would you call yourself a PGA golfer? NASCAR is a trademarked brand. If your drive on some other circuit, would you call yourself a NASCAR driver?
I know we tend to generically refer to the events as Ironman … but they don’t. They can’t. WTC rightfully protects their trademarked name, just like Coke or Disney or GM, etc., do.
I clicked yes but my response has nothing to do with the brand or the WTC.
If an athlete completes an Ironman-distance race that is not an M-dot race, can this athlete say he/she has done an Ironman?
The athlete can say whatever s/he wants to say. The WTC has a hold on the brand, meaning that we cannot call outside races an Ironman or sell Ironman merchandise and the like without permission. If I do a 140.6 distance non-WTC event and write about my “Ironman” experience, the WTC has no ability to stop me. Hell, I could do the local sprint distance duathlon and tell everyone that I did an Ironman.
At what point can I call myself an Olympian? What’s the difference between running the 100m dash at the Olympics vs at the track near by house? Both are 100m.
Can I call myself a Harvard grad if I go to a different school? Is a bachelor’s degree all that different from one school to the next?
What about my motorcycle? Technically it’s a Honda but I’d like to call it a Harley.
Ironman as a brand isn’t any different than the Olympics, Havard, or Harley Davidson. If we are going to be consistent, we either give all of them significance or none.
The athlete can say whatever s/he wants to say. The WTC has a hold on the brand, meaning that we cannot call outside races an Ironman or sell Ironman merchandise and the like without permission. If I do a 140.6 distance non-WTC event and write about my “Ironman” experience, the WTC has no ability to stop me. Hell, I could do the local sprint distance duathlon and tell everyone that I did an Ironman.
No doubt you can call yourself whatever you want … to a point. You can’t legally call yourself an IM or a Harvard graduate, unless you are. Once you hold yourself out to the public as either, if you are neither, then they can get a cease and desist order against you. So fly under the radar … and you won’t likely have an issue. Using either to entice someone to act would be fraud and open you to legal damages.
I have a friend in my running club. Every time he runs 13.1 miles or more he 'claims" to have run another HM. He even keeps count. He is proud of how many HMs he has run. The rest of us … just giggle at him. Our weekly long runs are longer than that … yet he will still brag about his “did another HM today”. So what is the difference? Marathon and Half Marathon are not trademarked brands. Ironman is.
Ironman is a distance that became a brand. Anyone who finishes 140.6 can call themselves an ironman in my book. The guys that toed the line in the 70s and 80s before it was branded race can not call themselves ironmen with the logic of some of these posts.
For the record, I have done IMLP, not bc of the brand but bc if the distance and the proximity to my home, I will in the future do Challenge AC and I will count that as my completed ironmans. I will not tell people I have done x amount of ironmans and x amount of 140.6s.
I see your point but I would argue that ironman was a distance before it was a brand.
Kind of like Roubaix was a city before a bike brand.
You can’t legally call yourself an IM or a Harvard graduate, unless you are.
This is an honest question as I really don’t know the answer: I did not go to Harvard, yet I claim to be a Harvard grad. This means that I have broken the law?
Now, I’m not arguing whether or not it’s right for me to do so. I’m questioning the ‘legality’ of doing so.
Count me as one of those that thinks Ironman is a distance and not a brand. When John Collins and his buddies came up with the race in the 1970s, there was no brand. If somebody does a Rev-X or a Challenge race and says I’ve done an Ironman, I could care less.
Spot
You can’t legally call yourself an IM or a Harvard graduate, unless you are.
This is an honest question as I really don’t know the answer: I did not go to Harvard, yet I claim to be a Harvard grad. This means that I have broken the law?
Now, I’m not arguing whether or not it’s right for me to do so. I’m questioning the ‘legality’ of doing so.
Fraud is intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another.
A hoax also involves deception, but without the intention of gain or of damaging or depriving the victim.
So if you are at a party and feel the need to boast that you are a Harvard graduate when in fact you are not … it would likely be a hoax. If you represent to a prospective employer that you are a Harvard graduate when in fact you are not … it would be fraud.
Hence my statement that you can call yourself an Ironman when in fact you have not completed an IM event … up to a ‘point’.
Count me as one of those that thinks Ironman is a distance and not a brand. When John Collins and his buddies came up with the race in the 1970s, there was no brand. If somebody does a Rev-X or a Challenge race and says I’ve done an Ironman, I could care less.
Spot
x2
Smartphones were around long before the iPhone was released, so I just call everything an iPhone. I mean seriously, how can you copyright a “rectangular phone with slightly rounded corners?”
http://allthingsd.com/20120731/live-samsung-making-its-case-in-landmark-apple-trial/
And the Olympics were around long before the IOC got a hold of it. If someone wants to put 5 rings of different colors on a shirt, and call themselves an Olympian fine by me. What should we call people that competed in the Olympics before 1894?
So if you are at a party and feel the need to boast that you are a Harvard graduate when in fact you are not … it would likely be a hoax.
So what about that degree I got from the University of Phoenix Online???
I said no, only because technically they’re not. Like others have noted, IM is a brand. They are sort of the Kleenex of tissue brands. And who hasn’t used that loosely? So in the spirit of things, if someone does another equivalent distance event and they generically refer to themselves as an Ironman then so be it. I personally wouldn’t refer to myself as an IM, but I would proudly say that I did a ful/iron distance event. To each their own though.
The distance is ironman, the brand is Ironman or IRONMAN.
So what about that degree I got from the University of Phoenix Online???
It is called … toilet paper.
.
I think some one that completes a 140.6 can call them selves what ever they want. I have done one IM 140.6. If someone asks if I’ve done an ironman, I say yes. I’ve never introduced myself as John Doe, Ironman. I do proudly wear my finishers jacket. I think if you do a non WTC Ironman branded 140.6, wearing IM garb or tattooing or anything with the M-Dot would be kind of silly. But you still did complete an ironman distance triathlon.
The distance is ironman, the brand is Ironman or IRONMAN.
Simply no true. Go create a non WTC event and call it “ironman” or “ironman distance” or state “the distance is ironman” and you will have an expensive lesson learning the difference in court. It is the difference between a name brand and a generic. The generic doesn’t get to use the name brand in their name. That is why you don’t see … “Joe’s Disneyland” or “XYZ Tylenol”.