I think that the biggest reason that some accomplishments get bumper stickers and others don’t is just that the ones that get stickers are organized events. If you run a marathon, it’s because you signed up for one, paid the registration fee, got a bag of swag that probably included a T-shirt and a bumper sticker, and so on. And if that’s not enough for you, there’s probably going to be a table near the start and the finish selling even more merchandise. Likewise, all college bookstores sell such items, and often give them away to alumni to try to squeeze donations out of them, so people will have stickers advertising where they got their degrees. But there’s no group organizing hot-coal-walking events, so you don’t get bumper stickers for that.
My friend told me the Mt Washington ones make him actively angry that someone did that to their brakes. 
C’mon, you have to like https://static1.squarespace.com/static/562b9148e4b08b939a0b4ed9/5641152de4b08c9445a6e7fb/5648d2d2e4b0cd3d85bd9c54/1447613139744/FullSizeRender+(24).jpg?format=500w
No?? 
Living in CA, and especially near Santa Cruz, I am used to seeing cars that are more stickers than car. Peace!
I think when the running sticker thing started it was fine because there weren’t so many of them so you end up seeing one rarely and learn a little bit about the person in the car in front of you but don’t really care.
But then more people get the stickers and then more.
So I think it is more of the over saturation than anything intrinsically wrong with the sticker itself. Kind of like the theme from Titanic, which is a pretty good song in and of itself, but over saturation makes it less pleasant.
Yeah but not as much. The stick people people seem to be shooting for average, “hey look how cute we are,” while the runner stickers are more braggy, rubbing in their presumed greatness.
That’s just my opinion, of course.
The thing is, I know a lot of people with kids who don’t put stick family decals on the windows, and a lot of hunters who don’t have hunting decals, and several people with multiple advanced degrees who don’t bother putting their University sticker on the car or anywhere else. However, anyone who’s ever discussed their running with me and mentioned that they’ve run either a half marathon or a marathon has found it necessary to repeat it as often as possible, and has the decal to prove it.
I’ve never done that and there’s a whole running club here with nary a sticker in sight. And we have a few Boston qualifiers, ultramarathoners and full Ironman finishers in the mix.
There is one Ironman tattoo but it’s not visible in street clothing.
You should re-read post #22.
And posts 7, 15, 19, 23, 26, 28, 30, 32…
Yeah possible selection bias there ya think? I suspect most people who have run half and whole marathons do not talk to you about it and that the people who are those who put stickers on perhaps are also more likely to be the ones who want to talk about it more.
In general I don’t talk about anything I do fitness related with people in general unless I am in a conversation with people I already know are like-minded. If it does come up it is more often my making the point that anyone stubborn enough to put in the training hours can do a marathon if I can, or tri-related when I hear about someone being a swimmer and how I hate swimmers because they were the ones kicking me in the face as they literally swam over me, that childhood swimmers tend to be the tri-elites, and that my trying to wrestle the water into submission did not work so well.
I know lots of runner, triathletes, swimmers, lifters … and very very few of them have stickers. Or are obnoxious enough to talk about it to people who do not also do the same and want to commiserate. Of course relatively few of those with kids have stick figures on their cars either. A few “my child is an honor student at” ones though …
I saw “70.3” on the back of a car today. Anybody know what sort of race this is?
Half Ironman.
Half Ironman. A full is 140.6.
Ahhh, thank you.
I ran a marathon. Never had a sticker.
My sister-in-law walked a 5k and proudly displays hers.
mmm
Full = 2.4 miles swim + 112 mile bike + 26.2 mile run
The swim is really no big deal*. As one of my friends was fond of saying: The race begins when you get out of the water.
*other than the mass slap-fest at the very beginning
YMMV!
The swim is the shortest segment but those of us with inefficient swimming technique use up lots of energy getting through it. Many have relatively little training in open water conditions. And the “slapfest” at the start is not as bad as the better swimmers of the next wave swimming over you. And the only experience I had at that was during the events.
Overall there are few deaths during tris but those that do occur most commonly happen during the swim portion. (I knew one of the people who were mentioned as deaths in that article.) The deaths generally happen in the shorter distance races.
Goal one of participating in any endurance event: do not die. Then to finish, then to finish with a smile. But do not die comes first and takes precedence no matter how caught up in the moment you may get.
Biking is no problem, it’s relatively my strong suit (although I wished I had had the discipline to not get such a kick out of passing up those who swam over me … I regretted that on the run), and keeping one foot getting in front of the other if you’ve trained enough just requires being stubborn.* Swimming without adequate technique, with fairly little open water experience, and only past competitions, if any, for the experience of being literally swum over? To me that was a freakishly big deal!
*And Dopers know stubborn.
Did, which is why I didn’t say “all runners” in my follow up, but all who have told me they ran a marathon. Since then, I thought of one who didn’t and was really modest about it. But I can think of about a dozen who were not.
You’re right though, that not everyone brags about it. I just seem to be noticing the decals a lot more lately. I hadn’t thought about them being included with the race sign up package.
As a side note, I mentioned that the people I know who do have stickers and talk to me about running never shut up about it, while people with other hobbies don’t seem to do the same. I do acknowledge that it’s likely confirmation bias but that doesn’t make me any happier about it.