The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

In a unsurprising turn of events, Phily Bowden has a new video up in which she documents how her race at London has hit her hard. We all knew the swing and a miss narrative was just fluff!

Interestingly, Daniel and Phily seem to experiment with different video titles. She started with "I am Done" and switched to "Time to be Honest". It seems to work for them, as they pull in over 60,000 views!

I do try to follow Phily; however, I find the continual jump cuts so disorientating. Why can't there be one section with a flowing, unedited narrative?

Curiously, Phily is now one of the most-watched running YouTubers. Crazy, as she recycles the whole love the grind, focused training leading to being mentally and physically crashed, let's honestly talk about being in a bad place story over and over. People lap it up!

Overall, I get the feeling she's always trying to identify as a "professional runner" - this could be half the issue. If she identified as a running YouTuber (she's oddly one of the most popular) and elite, she'd feel way less imposter syndrome.

Phily is desperate to be called a "professional runner" but doesnt seem to realise that concentrating on running and not "making content" is probably the best way of doing this.

What does she really want? To be a successful runner, go to the olympics, or get 100k views for a video in which she prostitutes her emotions?

Emile Cairess disappears into the mountains for 6 months and pops up with a GB record in the marathon because all he cares about it running fast. He knows that everything else will fall in to place if he runs fast. Many of these YouTubers seem to be obsessed with "building a brand" rather than reviewing why they arent getting faster

I am not sure you can compare the two. Cairess is competitive on the international stage (e.g., Olympics and London). Phily has to take a "huge swing" to make the qualifying times for the world championships and the Olympics. If she does make it to the Olympics, I can't imagine she'd have aspirations even to be in the top 10. It's more to say "I've been to the Olympics", a bit like Scullion does. Given she's 30 she may only have one shot. Overall, it makes for a great story.

I think she's doing the right thing - the YouTubing affords her a great lifestyle; however, she needs to reconcile she's a YouTuber who runs at an elite level!

I also found the footage of her having a breakdown on the M6 a bit much. Like, oh I'm having a nervous breakdown, quick get the camera rolling Daniel - it makes a bit of a mockery of what is a serious mental health issue for a lot of people.

Yeah it must be a lot easier to disappear for 6 months if you know you can come out the other side and target an podium at the Olympics or a Major; from a professional standpoint if you're going to disappear and come back and maybe get second fastest Brit at London if you have a great day you're going to gain a lot less from that decision vs what you're potentially losing from influencing and youtube.

I will veer off here just a little bit. Making content, for a running youtuber, is and should be amazingly easy. Hear me out. There's a lot of runners who have youtube channels, but they are small and too niche to actually get the "masses" interested. Runtubers like Phily are few and there's a hunger for content like hers. She overcomplicates the production of her videos a ton.

Sweat Elite channel for example, the main bulk of it, is following pro runners' workouts. No commentary, just a runner or a group of runners on a run (and some questions about the training) Luis Orta, when he gave a s### about his channel had beautiful scenery and running with some commentary.

People just want a running channel to watch while they are on the threadmill or when they rest to relax to in their counch. To watch a runner with a beautiful stride and form eating up miles and feeling like he/she is their running buddy or something. Phily has beautiful form, the easyest content is go on a bike and record her runs unedited. People will watch that and ask for more. Guaranteed. It's not that complicated.

I am not sure, I think Philys fans like connecting with her story/personality. They are calculating about what they put out. If training footage was working for her, she'd put more of it out there. Even when she does, it's never the flowing cinematic footage; rather, it's her trying to be wacky, debating with her coach, and oddly in every video stopping to take a poo.

last I heard content creation was a big part of her On deal so the 2 are married for her.
making YouTube vids and building a brand enable her to train like a pro. giving it away probably makes things more difficult not easier.

also everyone needs a hobby…even pro runners.

I've seen what the ko fans look like.

I kinda get that. But unedited training footage 1. hits differently (and I really don't think will allienate her core audience) 2. is 10 times easier to produce. Editing a video is veery time consuming. I have done some video editing on an amateur level and a relatively simple video can eat up half of your day, not to mention if you wanna be fancy. They can still connect with her without all the jump cuts and memes. It's a lot of needless things - IMO of course.

At least Sage had a career and ran decent times. It must sting for him to have his body fail him with the pulmonary embolism and the subsequent struggle to get back to his old fitness. And unfortunately for him in today's day and age narcissists like all the people you mentioned (yes, they are all narcissists! l) entice viewers a bit more than an honest hard working guy documenting his mountain adventures and giving training tips. Fwiw I at least used to like Kofuzi but in the last few years his ego grew a bit too much for my liking and I can't take his shoe reviews seriously anymore cos any brand who flies the guy around the world will obviously influence his opinions.

FOD might be able to clarify; however, I think for the algo you need to keep engagement consistently high with your subs. Otherwise, they will stop getting your content recommended to them. So, while it may not alienate her audience it may impact negatively on the channel. You really are a slave to the algorithmic choices of YouTube.

So, you want me to review a Kofuzi video?

Key metrics YouTube take into consideration is your audience retention throughout the video and in particular, it wants you to keep retention over 75% within the first 30 seconds… therefore a catchy intro is required.

there are of course other factors like the number of comments and likes (interaction) but this is a big one. this has obviously changed over the years too, the algorithm is always changing, which is why you see creators put more of an emphasis in the first 30 seconds of the video.

so if you can imagine a creator building up an audience based on a certain style and then changing it massively… in this case a catchy entertaining intro to a bit of chat then someone straight on a bike filming her… her viewers will have the shock of their lives. Some would love it, others may completely switch off because they’re there to be entertained.

the key to all of it is that a creator builds an audience and that audience has a certain expectation of what they’ll get in a video from that creator. A big shift in style isn’t unheard of but it can be rather detrimental

if i was her, i would just keep going what she’s doing. Whether people gel with her content or not she is undoubtably one of the biggest creators and people would rather tune in to her weekly videos than probably most soaps on TV these days

@FOD thanks for the clear up.

My thing is anybody who managed to get ahead in this life did it by taking away more than putting in, in whatever he's craft is. She's clearly putting way more time than nessesary 1. and 2. leaves pieces of herself in this. Which we see takes a toll mentally. This is not looking sustainable. Sustainable thing is to streamline the operation and to offer to the public something that you think you can do for months, years on end without a significant detriment. Same as running. I can do 4 hard workouts for a week, maybe, but then I'm broken down, I cannot do it every week for months.

Also, rules that apply for your mainstream youtubers I don't think apply in the runtube. Runtube is small and it's not like there's 20-30 Phily like runtubers that her viewers will go to. They ain't going anywhere. Space is pretty small and undevelopped. She can still do experiments and try new things. And said changes one doesn't do drastically, but slowly over time. Some channels die that way because they go in weird direction and alienate people, others actualy get better. It could be a gamble, yes.

If I have to be honest, my personal opinion is that at least a 1/3 of her audience watches her despite the super personal things and teenage-like style of her videos. I really feel that to be true. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

I agree the space is massively underdeveloped… despite the boom in the sport. The way I always think of it is like this (from a mental burnout perspective):

1) YouTube is either your job or your hobby. If it’s your job, then I think what a lot of people don’t consider is this… when it wasn’t your job and you were “employed”… were you self employed (running your own business) or just employed where you turn up to work and clock out without any responsibly? If you were self employed, you’re a step ahead 👍 if you were employed then not only are you going “full time” on content creation, you’re becoming self employed which is something you may never of considered before? And suddenly you head up marketing, accounting, sales, purchase, admin etc. So… no longer are you thinking about “what video(s) shall I make this week… you’re thinking about everything else too.

To cap it all off… everyone on this message board that’s ever run a marathon knows about the post marathon blues… it hits some harder than others. Add in on top that running is suddenly you’re business and you’ve got a cauldron of exploding emotions… no longer is your running feeling fun and fluid… but suddenly the panic sets in that your job is suddenly in jeopardy and your income is reliant on your content… but you struggle to produce content in that time because your running isn’t going well.

So… keeping this black and white and stripping emotions away from things for a second… it’s a job transition nobody ever thinks to deeply about. Again, whether you like/dislike a content creator, this is something alot of people overlook 👍

I listened to some of his podcast to hear his views on the course being short. Seemed to accept he can't count it as a 5k PB.

He was talking about doing a series focusing on his build for the Sydney marathon but Runna haven't engaged in terms of sponsoring one. He mentioned without a sponsor he probably won't bother and will just stick to doing shoe reviews instead.

This exemplifies how he is on the grifting hamster wheel. The Kofuzi of old who liked running (and had goals) would have done a series for the love of documenting the process/the chase. Not now. He still has time to save himself by adopting the Sirpoc method but even then I think he'd mess it up by being clever and putting his own spin on things.

In addition to what's already been said about the first 30 seconds, what's most frustrating about YouTube is that its designed to serve you more of the same, so you are incentivized to create content very similar to what other successful people are doing. I think its why there are so many MrBeast copycats and why most running vlogs trend toward the same format, because the algorithm knows that if people like this content, they'll probably like something very similar.

So, if you're trying to be too original (like making a cartoon that's a mashup of running and tech bro culture), the algorithm doesn't know what to do with you.

If people want to play that game and they succeed, good for them.