The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

It's time to catch up with our favorite running YouTubers:

Kofuzi's great European vacation with a layover in Boston sadly came to an end. We were treated to over a half an hour of Adidas content. This time it finally carried the tag "includes paid promotion," but Kofuzi still didn't disclose Adidas paid for the travel to his audience. The part where Kofuzi was wearing what appeared to be very tight split shorts with no shirt while doing a VO2 max test was, well, unforgettable!

The Believe in the Run crew, not ones to pass up a free trip, also showed up after their Boston, which they've spent two hours plus rehashing. I'm sure yet more sponsored Adidas content to come. Will their video include the "paid promotion" tag?

Allie Ostrander qualified for the Olympic Trials in the Steeplechase. She may actually have a chance at making the team after Coburn's injury. Could a running YouTuber make the Olympics?

Spencer Brown filmed Allie at the Steeplechase race. He was supposed to race the Parkrun, but apparently he got a late start and the Uber driver dropped him off at the wrong spot. He did an all out mile time trial instead and stuck around and chatted at the brunch with the park runners. He's a nice guy, and good for the running community. He's also the most transparent about sponsorships of any of the YouTubers I regularly follow. I like how his videos focus on the running community.

Philly Bowden is recycling the same thumbnail from her last half marathon, probably because she changed shoe sponsors and is now sponsored by On.

The Greatest of All Time, the original running YouTuber, clearly reads this thread. Seth, we are a bunch of internet losers who would be lapped by you in the 5k, stop taking us so seriously. Anyway, Seth states that he's had a lot of family obligations and that he wants to race but has cancelled all his races this year. He seemed sad to have to miss the Bolder Boulder.

Many other running YouTubers are having their BAA footage deleted. Which brings me to this question: did anyone ever verify Kofuzi actually sent a check with the AdSense earnings for his Boston 2023 to his selected charity? Trust ShoeTubers, but always verify to paraphrase Ronald Reagan.

And that is all the time we have for running YouTubers this week!

Ben Is Running about to do Copenhagen Marathon tomorrow (Sunday). Keeps trying to downplay expectations of running 'just a PB' [2:24:46] but has slipped up a couple time in videos by mentioning paces that would target a 2:20

also Nick Bester about to do an Ultra tomorrow - the perfect way to recover from back to back Marathons....

I like the comments section:

Random dude: Pretty cool, do (sic) adidas fund this trip?

Kofuzi: See disclosure in the description

Random dude: "Yes" is less characters

Ben Fs current 2.20 chances not great imo. Tomorrow or after. But he's a fascinating guy when he talks about his training and goals.

Am very impressed with the influencers after going through their videos. WOW. What a list of followers. Me personally would not follow 'em. They probably get millions of dollars in brand products, travel, and contracts (like the BITR Folks).

Found a few items of interest:

- They never say in the travel video who is paying what for trips to Boston, London, Venice, Germany, etc.

- They never acknowledge the gifts from brands like Soar, Diodara, etc.

- Still cannot believe that BITR Folks are getting Evo 1 (multiple pairs for Thomas).

How do I become an influencer? I like to be rich. I like to travel in style. I want to run a major w/o qualifying. Any one want to help me out?

It's really not worth it.

I started to document my race times and training on YouTube with the intent to inspire other runners from my specific background. I took got sucked into trying a couple shoe review videos, and when I went back to watch them, it just fell so fake. Felt so fake making the videos, and fake watching them.

And yes, in the back of my mind I too wanted the free gear, the expenses etc.

But it's all b.s. I can't recommend a shoe to the general public because what works for me doesn't work for the next guy. You literally have to try the things on see if you like it. I don't give a darn who says what about their favorite shoe.

And all these videos of shoes ARE THE SAME. "This are the specs, this is the price, this is the foam, this is our recommendation. It's a good shoe, and the price is high, but that's the way it is now"

It would be crazy to see the cost of just one of their trips that's paid for. Kofuzi got a lot of free gear at Boston and even boasted about the giant room they gave him.

I don't think it's going to happen but it would honestly break Nick Bester's spirit if Felton broke 2:20 before him. He would act super happy for him on social media but deep down he would be seething, crying during his 1k repeats. He would never do another video with him.

it's obviously not happening, Ben recently ran 68:53* & 15:02**

*vdot = 2:24:09 & 15:01
**vdot = 2:24:08 & 68:49

I don't see them as "influencers"; they could never influence me in the sense of "buy this shoe from that company because I say so".

For me they are just entertainers, sometimes more sometimes less entertaining.

Ben Felton 1:11:29 through halfway, I'm guessing he will PB today but no sub-2:20

2:27:48. Appears to have faded from 25km onwards.

I continue to be fascinated by the economics of all this. Does anyone know what BITR's business model is? Like, is it even possible that their "influencing" can generate enough income for at least one of them to make this their full-time gig?

Kofuzi's salty comments (on his live streams too) show that his transformation into Seth DeMoor v 2.0 is pretty much complete. Lol.

I think BITR has several people/employees where this is their full time gig.

They previously had a PR firm that did PR for some big race companies. They made a big deal of it on a podcast when they shut that down to focus on YouTube. I think at one point in time they had a running specialty store too (they may still have one, I don't know).

Am I sensing that STHNE is softening on SJD (or is it sarcasm)? Honestly, I think some of his recent vlogs are some of his best in years.

It also seems like he is getting in shape -- he is running 100 mpw -- and I would not be surprised to see a 2019-like Summer/Fall for him with doing mostly Mountain training/racing and jumping straight into a road marathon(s).

It must be a weird mental place for these guys to be, knowing that so many of their peers in the sport want them not to achieve their goals because they hold them in contempt. No wonder they tend to fall apart on mental health issues eventually