The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Absolutely, which is why the best content often comes from those who are not full-time YouTubers. But as their channel becomes more successful, that becomes available… you’ve laid it out clearly. Look at Kofuzi, whose early videos were sort of charming, authentic looks at his training and shoes. It’s not nearly generic running-YouTube content. It could be made by any number of creators.

Like I said, I can’t stand the stuff besides filling time on the treadmill, especially (as others have noted) the overlong shoe reviews - and this from someone who also reviews shoes, ha! Long live the written word.

A lot of people watching YouTubers like the real life of it all. We're all striving to get better at running which juggling a job and kids and many can relate to FOD Runner or Mid Life Runner.

Floberg, Kofuzi start off like this but gain some sort of money/following which means they actually stop being what made them watchable (was Floberg ever watchable?) - Instead of trying to fit workouts in between the school run and work they have a coach and supplements sent to them and can train when they want with a camera man following them and it's a job. It was fun but now it is a job.

You can't just run now. You need to sell. It's not art anymore. It's work

A lot of this discussion reminds me of this guy on instagram whose entire page and reels were built around his 9-5 and normalising have a regular job. Of course after increasing the follower count to over a million he was able to quit his job and become a full time content creator 😂

There are too many guys on YouTube doing a sub-2:30 marathon series. Train hard and run the damn time.

I totally agree.

I'm sure I got trashed for expressing the following opinion on this forum, but I stand by it. I'm primarily engaged when following a runners journey who's got kids (and taking a strong active role in caring responsibilities). Now looking back, pre kids, I had so much time. These childless sub elites/elites who moan about time to train/do the extra stuff just annoys me.

People like FOD might not be going to Olympics but neither am I. What there doing is setting PBs with a job, kids, wife and juggling a focussed block of running into that. That's what resonates with me.

It's also why I love RTJ. He doesn't have the same responsibilities as me, but he proves my point. Without huge family responsibilities, if your willing to make sacrifices, you can run alot. It's a choice.

Great points. Also, I get the impression they film and edit their own content. For me this adds authenticity and makes me feel more connected with the runner. It can have terrible production quality, but if it's real and shares a journey - I like it. I'd even go as far as saying I like Matt Fox's epic rants.

I think it's a mistake when, essentially runner vloggers, get editors, videographers, or their long suffering partner to cycle behind them and film. It makes it so unrelatable.

For example, I feel Philly's content has massively declined since her partner starting editing it. Especially, the try hard beginner nature of his editing skills (jump cuts, memes, terrible narrative and story telling). Floberg takes this to another level!

I think that’s partly down to YouTube making it feel like work… there’s a couple of metrics that I’m sure most people are aware of but they have a big part in killing creativity and make the creator chase the views…

1) each video is ranked from 1 out of 10 down to 10 out of 10 based on your last 10 uploads… so it compares the performance of that video to the other 9 and ranks it accordingly…. From experience, training videos don’t do as well so I think people avoid them these days, it’s why more creators move away from training and do more shoe content. People are interested in the intro and first couple of episodes… then the race, they don’t want to know about what happens in the middle, sadly. I try to blend shoes with training so people can dip in an out of both depending on their interest and I know a few others who do this too.

2) how people watch… TV is becoming bigger and bigger in my analytics as I’m sure it is for other creators so in your head, you instantly think it needs to be more cinematic to fit the purpose. YouTube have made no secret that the platform growth is huge and people these days often turn to YouTube over normal TV shows (myself included)

When I set my channel up 10 years ago these metrics weren’t around and there was no chasing a 1/10 performing video, you just published it and job done. For creators appearing in the last 5 years this is all they would of known and trust me… as much as I feel like I don’t take as much notice as others, it still f*cks with your head and it’s been a real pivotal point in the shift of fun>work. Again, as others have eluded too above, Ben Barrows was the epitome of someone who just produced content for the love of it and never bothered with the metrics.

due to the fact that people now use YouTube as their entertainment source over TV, they’re looking for that dopamine hit of entertainment, which is why Spencer’s local legend series did so well and parkrun videos too… you tune in knowing there will be a race, a result and and outcome… rather than just “here’s my week of training”… again another reason people don’t document it so much. However I would say a good solid workout video usually hits that spot

by the way, there’s absolutely no judgement on any creator here, I’m just stating why I think people feel the way they do towards some creators

Philly gets a bit of hate, but in fairness to her she's a professional runner. Getting help with her content and having someone edit is a necessity if she wants to focus on the running. If she does it then running form dips. Geniuses on here having a pop at that need to go get IQ tests.

For non pro runners the jury is out on it, I think if it makes the content better and remains relatable great, but more often than not it skews towards trying to be movie production, with music interludes and panoramas of the sky that nobody really cares for.

Having someone alongside on a race = unsubscribe. Head camera the only way and tbh I'm not even sure on that unless other runners are aware , happy and the race allows it. Probably ok but some people might not want to end up on YouTube

I watch training videos, I like them a lot. But from my experience, as a viewer, if someone has boring personality and he/she doesn't talk well, meaning doesn't have good articulated speech - I tune off. Not because it's a training video but because it's a chore to listen to. I blame oversaturation for this. If there were fewer running youtubers I wouldn't be that picky, but there's so much content one's gotta be on point on how to present himself I think.

I like them too, probably my favourite type of video because it’s raw and in the moment. I’ll get hung drawn and quartered for saying this probably but peak sweat elite a couple of years ago when we had weekly uploads of all the different athletes was the golden standard for me. Track all access do a decent job these days and I’ll often have them on in the background whilst working

Is she though? For sure she's a talented elite runner; however, a pro athlete - in my mind makes most trough competing in their sport - not coaching and YouTubing.

Pretty sure most of the other UK elite women who run smilar juggle full time jobs (e.g, Lucy Reid and Calli Hauger-Thackery).

If your idea of a pro athlete in running was true, 95% of athletes would earn diddly squat if they relied on winnings or appearance fees. Phily is paid by On for being an athlete so yes she’s professional. Calli is full time with NIKE and Lucy Reid has only really hit decent times in the past few years so no surprises she still works.

I love this new BITR "Train to London" series!

Everything that's great about running today - treadmills to avoid the dangerous winter weather in Baltimore(?), copious shots zoomed in on brand names, "gamification" of running, the wall of medals and a beautiful tracksmith t-shirt.

I am FIRED UP to lace up my NB SC Elites and head out for a 2 mile run. Looking forward to seeing all my people in Staten Island in a few months! I'll be in wave 9, corral Z - hope 2 see u there!

On that note, remember when Luis Orta had cool videos (I mean really freaking cool, with all the cinematography, memorable quotes, scenic running routes etc.) and not producing
ininspiring videos solely to platform his latest sponsor or his training camps?

I’m flying to Baltimore today and it’s in the 60s next week. What winter weather is he talking about?

He was brilliant too, loved his stuff. I’m sure Paul Chelimo started doing some as well for a bit which were also great, shame his didn’t last either….

Sweat elite from 2 years is still the absolute peak. I watch some old episodes I missed from time to time.

For all anti Matt Fox vibe (I quite like him as I have strong opinions which match his politically, albeit I don't, and wouldn't communicate them in the same way) the content he can produce is epic. I think if he had Dr Tim Grose epic personality it would be unicorn/perfect YouTube content.

It appears that the ShoeTube crash has arrived with the chilling economic winds. Kofuzi's Atlanta video barely cracked 10k views. The Believe in the Run, Sponsored by Wahoo Treadmill video got less than 3,000 views.

This was an inevitability. It seems that Thomas's solution is to push "budget" $150 shoes. Who's going to tell him that a laid off federal worker won't be able to afford $150? Even Joe's New Balance outlet is adding an extra 20% off to their already discounted shoes. You can get a 1080 for $80 or an 880 for $90 there. It probably won't be long before Adidas brings back the $35 Adizero SL deal. Somebody on unemployment might be able to afford that.

And they probably could afford taking the Metro or the MARC to the nearest Park Run! Despite there being a whopping seven Park runs within an hour of the Believe in the Run World Headquarters in Baltimore (those who know Baltimore know they stole the word Believe from former Mayor and Governor Martin O'Malley), they haven't showed up to any of those free runs. Here's the video that had the word Believe in it from O'Malley in 2013.

Instead of running free 5ks, they're headed to London.

And that's the problem with social media, it shows you stuff the algorithm thinks is aspirational but it is really not achievable for most. And instead of going to your local park run, finding a community, and learning to be happy with what you have, it makes you feel like a loser for not being able to achieve dreams. That results in more doom scrolling and more ads, so more $$$ for the media companies.

I'm still waiting for someone to launch a YouTube channel that is about local running on a budget. If they want to survive the forthcoming, maybe already arrived, downturn, the big channels should pivot to that.

These shoetubers can donate their thousands of dollars worth of shoes to their viewers in need. They gloat about all of these free shoes and free travel while their viewers have to save up for one big race a year