Yesterday Canada’s James Lawrence, known as the Iron Cowboy, completed his 64th straight full-distance effort – he’s on track to double the record he set in 2015 when he completed 50 full-distance races in 50 days in 50 states. After that challenge he wrote a book called Iron Cowboy – Redefine the Impossible and a documentary was made of his efforts called Iron Cowboy – the story of the 50-50-50.
For his “Conquer 100” challenge he’s doing 100 “Iron Cowboy distance” triathlons in 100 consecutive days near his home in Utah between March 1 and June 8.
Yesterday he received a message from Ironman asking that he “please refrain from talking about your efforts as completing ‘IRONMANS.'”
Lawrence offered this reply in a post on his Instragram page yesterday (see below) which has received almost 15,000 likes so far:
Hey @ironmantri – I don’t want anything to do with you. Stop sending me emails whilst I’m trying to make history doing an Iron Cowboy distance Tri daily. If you have a problem with media coverage of what we are doing and words they use, please contact them. You guys talk about community, inclusion, doing the impossible. Well, you suck at supporting the one dude who’s been a champion for your brand for close to 15 years. I’m done with you. Now if you don’t mind I’ve got another world record to break today. #suckit
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Ps. You owe me $4000+ in race entry fees from 2020.
Fans have been quick to criticize Ironman for its message to the Canadian.
“WTC seems to [be] putting on a masterclass of how to alienate customers!!!” n2bobby wrote, while scotttjamesgray commented “Just when you think the marketing team at the European Super league suck, @ironmantri say “hold my beer.”
“It’s really a shame seeing Ironman turn into this,” carson_sony wrote. “Like you said they preach diversity and inclusion but god forbid you say “I did an Ironman” at a non sanctioned event 🤦🏼♂️”
