These arguments pro/con triathletes are getting tiresome. It pains me to add to the noise, but here goes...
1) I keep reading about the lack of respect for the running abilities of triathletes because of fast splits run on supposedly short courses. While this is the case at times, it's the same thing at road races. Face it, unless you're competing on the track or on certified road courses it's likely that the distance advertised is not dead-on accurate. It seems to me that as often as a course is short, there's another race where the course is long. Case in point, I've run four 5k's this year and the time differential has been 3:45. Considering the shape I'm in there's no way that differential should be more than 90 seconds. This weekend I ran a certified course and was 46 seconds off my best "5k" time of the year, but almost 3:00 faster than my worst "5k". You're always reading about road courses which are later shown to be short (old NYC Marathon course for example), so don't be so quick to think that all tri courses are short. Some are, no question, but in my experience most are pretty close (my experience is 50-75 tris, 300+ road races). Or at least as close as road courses. After all, tris tend to get measured by the same people who measure for road races. There's no conspiracy to measure courses short on purpose.
2) How can 3rd world countries compete in triathlon? How is that point valid towards anything? And why is it even important? 3rd world contries have produced many outstanding runners, fantastic. The fact that not too many have competed in triathlons doesn't minimize the achievements of triathletes. It doesn't in any way invalidate how hard it is to hammer out a quality 10k after an hour of mixing it up on the bike. $500 for a bike, sure it's a lot of money for somebody in the 3rd world. But $50 to enter a marathon is a lot of money too.
3) Someone wrote that triathletes don't look like runners during the run leg, they look like cyclists trying to survive a run (or something like that, don't have the post in front of me). All I can say to that is watch Simon Whitfield of Canada or Miles Stewart of Australia or Carol Montgomery of Canada to see some excellent running form. There's always going to be examples of runners who look awkward but run fast, whether or not they're pure runners or triathletes makes little difference to me. I just admire anyone who can move that fast.
4) As for triathletes clothing being "over the top" and some triathletes having their name on the back of their speedos, think back to the time when most runners wore more conservative workout attire, i.e. sweats. Things changed a long time ago, if you're embarrassed by what someone else is wearing, well why do you care? Having the athlete's name on their shorts is a great way to be able to identify who's who for spectators. It's called marketing, and in some ways running could maybe take a cue. For example, why do track meets put a number on the bibs, why not a smaller bib with the athlete's name. Would sure make it easier to identify who's who. It's not like a lot of runners have much face recognition to the general public.
5) Running can truly be "pure sport", while triathlon seems to bring out the gearheads. While this is largely true, you're going to find examples of people who like/dislike technology and toys on both sides. What bugs me about runners is going to a marathon and seeing people with Camelbacks or those water bottle holders. Geez, it's not like you're heading out in the desert for the day, there's a water stop in most marathons every few miles, at minimum. I also hate when I show up for group runs and see all the heart rate monitors. And now somebody in my long run group has some kind of high tech pedometer in his shoelaces to track distance or something like that. No question that triathletes can get nuts with wetsuits, fancy bikes, etc, but I think it more comes down to each person. Some people like their toys, some people are minimalists. Hell, some runners I know have 20+ pairs of running shoes.
Bottom line, running is a great sport, triathlon is a good sport, some people like to brag about their stuff, some people like to brag about their times. Whatever does it for you is fine by me, just get out and train today.