So I was picking up some of my kids toys and books and came across a book of super heroes. You know the usual, Spider Man, Super Man, Captain America etc. But right in there was this one super hero called Iron Man. I have to say I have never seen him in action but I have not seen Captain America in action lately either. The thought then occurred to me as to how can this be? I did not see an M dot on this super hero’s chest. So he can not be related the Ironman we know. So I did a little research in the matter.

As many of you know the owners of the trademark IRONMAN is the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). These organizer of our most famous race in Hawaii have a pot of gold. You can find their trademark in the US Trademark office database. One of the ways to establish your trademark is not just by applying for one but also by defending it. That means that if someone tries to use the trademark to make money, cause confusion etc. They need to be told to stop. From what I hear the WTC does a great job at that. They must have watch dogs and lawyers looking for any infringements. There is nothing wrong with that. Their livelihood depends on it. But what about our superhero Iron Man? Did he get a letter? Well turns out our super hero is the original Iron Man. He has been around longer than our Hawaii race. So I am not sure the details but Marvel Comics must have made some deal with the WTC and agreed to co-exist. The interesting thing when you look in the US Trademark database is that the original Iron Man is two separate words. Were the one relating to the triathlon races is IRONMAN one word. You will also find that WTC applied for the IRONMAN trademark for many things like tools, clothing etc. I got tired of reading them all really. It is a business no doubt about it. WTC will sell you the ability to put IRONMAN in your product for a little money. Maybe there is more money to be made there than in charging triathletes 400 to 500 dollars to punish themselves for a day. I would not be surprised if that was the case. I remember how Sears made more money with their credit card interest charges than in selling products. Sears was my first credit card when I graduated from college. I was very excited about that. I think I went and bought some power tools.


So the original Ironman is a super hero and not the athletes that toed the line back in 1978. Alright that is a technicality. I am sure Gordon Haller does not feel that way. He won the first Hawaii Ironman and I met him in Kona for the 25th anniversary of the race. Turns out he lives here in Colorado. Very nice guy. He volunteered to come give a talk to one of my camps but we never took him up on it. His email is something like first ironman at something. He is very proud of it of course.

The 12 guys that did that original race had to be very confident folks. I think most of them were very good at one sport but did very little training in the others. I can not imagine trying to finish an Ironman with no proper training in all three sports. Even after training for months for my first Ironman I was a little nervous. Imagine knowing that no one has ever done it and you are the first. Wow! But I guess that was the idea John Collins had. Who was the fittest? A runner? A cyclist? Or a swimmer? So lets do this crazy thing and see who wins.

Here are the names of all the finishers of the first Hawaii Ironman. Maybe not the original Iron Man but as far as you and I know they are the original IRONMAN.

Gordon Haller
John Dunbar
Dave Orlowski
Ian Emberson
Sterling Lewis
Tom Knoll
Henry Forrest
Frank Day
John Collins
Archie Hapai
Dan Hendrickson
Harold Irving