Hi John and Judy! We are working on something and would like to know, what is the history of the “Brag for the rest of your life” tag line?
Jennifer Ward
Editorial Director
Ironman®
Hi Jennifer,
This is an excerpt from our Iron Man history file, “The first triathlon in Hawai’i.”
<There was an inside joke among friends about what one runner had said to her spouse, “You should not talk to others about your finish time for longer than it took you to do it!” Judy and John made it a point to say otherwise, with a smile, on that night [of their triathlon decision]. Those who finished their 140.6 mile Hawaiian triathlon would win lifetime rights to talk about it.> Many months later that became the call to enter the event, the ‘Swim…Bike…Run…Brag…’ line on the entry form.”
BACKGROUND
Note: When we learned how to swim laps and run in 1973 we had made an observation. Part of the fun of finishing an event was talking about it afterward.
And we all did.
In early 1976 we were three couples who ran on Sunday mornings after hearing a talk at the Honolulu Marathon Clinic. Some of us looked forward to running on the Oahu Perimeter relay teams because we knew we would run new best times on our relay splits. That had happened to our friend, Stu Hughes. His wife, Elaine Hughes, was tired of hearing about his personal record time for what had probably been a three mile run. She told him so as we sat together in Kapiolani Park on a Sunday morning. “Stu, you shouldn’t be able to talk about an event for longer than it took to do it.” That is how I remember it. That was a real damper on our conversation before that day’s run. After that we became conscious of what we said about our own accomplishments, at least when around Elaine.
On the night that we agreed to put on our around the island triathlon we happily mentioned that there would be no restriction on talking about it afterwards.
Many months later we made sure to put that on the entry form as a light-hearted inducement to do the triathlon. “Swim…bike…run…talk” or “talk about it” for “the rest of your life did not have as much punch as “Swim…bike…run…brag the rest of your life.
Stu and Elaine Hughes are no longer with us. Judy likes to say “smile” the rest of your life to replace the “brag” word on certain occasions. But that misses the point. The point was to have lifetime rights to talk about your triathlon finish.
All the best, Judy and John Collins
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