What a great post
Ironman certainly does not = all, nor does it = triathlon. Wish I’d realised this 7 years ago. I’ve had a blast in recent years at local short tris, and at Lausanne. Absolutely exhilarating racing in the way an Ironman could never be. Ironman isn’t off-the-leash “racing” it’s “pacing”. Racing the bike through Lausanne was incredible.
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I think that everyone here agrees with this. However, look at IMJ or other FB groups, and all that matters is Ironman.
Lausanne ITU worlds last year was great fun, lacked the polish of IM, but for a long distance racer like me, much harder racing than IM
I feel very fortunate that I spent quite a few years doing only sprints and Olympic distances before some numpty persuaded me to do HIMUK.
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I did 3 sprints, 1 Olympic, and 3 half IMs before my first Ironman. I think I enjoy the half distance best, but the name kills it. Who wants to do HALF an event? I wish it was called middle distance more frequently, but the half name seems to have taken over.
Now I appreciate this is all ridiculous, because what kind of wally does an Ironman rather than a distance he prefers, just because the name sounds a lot cooler?
Me 
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I remember once hearing a conversation about a half marathon. It was being belittled as a wimpish option for people who couldn’t/wouldn’t/etc do a full marathon. But the half marathon is a tough beast in its own right. Never liked the word “half” in a race name…! But “Ironman 70.3” isn’t easy to explain and “middlethon” isn’t ever going to catch on…
I’m the opposite when it comes to naming. They will always be Half to me, plus using 70,3 in Australia made zero bloody sense to anyone.
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Just run 43km and say you’ve done an Ultra.
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You mean a DoubleMiddlethonPlus…?!
Just call it a 113 
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At the VLM in 2014 I actually ran 26.9 miles so I did an ultra 
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GB will confirm but whilst technically anything over a marathon is an ultra. I do believe the accepted first milestone is 50km but that doesn’t jive with my 43km tattoo. 
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Agreed, I call it a half. I don’t think that diminishes what it is. It’s just a factual description. I’ll race a half, whereas a full is totally different in that regard.
Anyone who belittled a half marathon, or half ironman, as a “wimpish” option is ultimately not someone’s who opinion I value on the subject anyway. So I don’t really care. Yes, my mates are the one’s who might give me stick along those lines, but they do that anyway for actually having done an Ironman if I use one of the backpacks for something, so that’s not meaningful conversation about the subject!
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Haute Route has just bought Ironman group. A good friend of mine is a personal friend of the owner of Haute Route
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From conde naste???
This article has it the other way round. Ironman bought Haute Route
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100% agree.
Anyone who thinks a half (mara or IM) is easy, has never raced one properly…
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That makes sense. No way on earth HR has $600m kicking about.
What with the partnering of UTMB and IM, you won’t be able to take a shit in Western Europe soon without paying an Active fee.
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Like Air BnB admin fees 
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Makes more sense,