The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Shock horror: No Sydney Marathon for Ben Parkes after the latest injury. At this point he must spend more time cancelling flights than actually training. Either he’s losing thousands on wasted bookings or he’s got some kind of “injury tax” built into his travel budget.

But don’t worry, the show must go on. Valencia in December. Seville in February. He said on Strava he's entered the lottery for Tokyo for March. And I assume London in April, because imagine the tragedy of not getting that content. Nothing screams “recovery strategy” like signing up for every large marathon under the sun while limping through training blocks.

And yet people still treat these YouTubers like coaches. Following the training plans of a guy who’s permanently broken. Can’t make it up

Ben Felton is cooked, already.

Phily is feeling low on confidence after training setbacks and poor results in races. She's communicated this with her coach but he seems pretty set on giving her almost the same training plan as her London build for Chicago.

Would love to see it work, but I have my doubts. Phily herself doesn't even seem to know what's going on or the specific reasons for each session, which is concerning.

Philly seems like she would be a bit of a nightmare to coach

Yeah was an odd video.

Seems to be no real plan apart from a "bit more density"

Adding more density after the last block left her injured seems a strange choice.

Judging by Danial's questions don't think he was impressed with the coach's plans and Philly's face did not look happy!

Does she really need to be travelling to Flagg? (she caught COVID on the way out)

The OG hasn’t posted a video in over two weeks. The YouTube algorithm is going to forget he even existed.

Praying for the GOAT

The fact that the goat is down and out while BITR is douching it up in chamonix is an absolute travesty

Plot twist: The Greatest of All Time, Still the Original Running YouTuber hired the BITR crew to document his UTMB race.

I love Ben Parkes and think he;'s a nice guy but he's actually pretty pudgy and soft these days. I think he needs to spend some time focusing on his diet and sorting out his body.

Did she mention Falmouth? Is there a time stamp for that so I don’t have to sit through the whole thing?

I find Phily's toe curlingly bad; however, I do feel her being hell bent on the slim goal of making this Olympics provides an interesting story line.

I'd be lying if I said "I was not invested in her Chicago marathon". Her approach is odd though; seemingly do the exact same thing that did not work for me in London. If it goes badly, it will be interesting to see what story they shoehorn in to explain it (e.g. I took a big swing). Or, if it goes the other, the dramatic chariots of fire style video Daniel cobbles together is always fun to snark at. It's hard to know how calculating they are with it all!

Perhaps London was just a rare bad day out? Harsh to judge based on just that day. I guess we’ll understand more about that block in Chicago if she really is replicating it. As long as we all want her to do well that’s the main thing

He said that his goal race will be in like November due to the heat in Japan.

A while back someone commented on one of Ben's Strava uploads that his HR looked a little bit high to be calling it an "easy run." Fans came down like a ton of bricks, giving it "Oh here comes the HR police!" and "You're really telling a 2:25 marathoner how to train 😂😂" and all. Instead of just ignoring it, discussing what the purpose of the session may have been, or even admitting that yeah the pace got away from me a bit etc., Ben got all arsey about it too.

Now, shock and horror, after weeks of going too hard in every run and ramping too much too soon post-injury (36km@4:00/k? double session days?), he can't hang onto any kind of pace in a 3x5K, was forced to replace a session with easy miles, and then replace an easy day with a full rest day...

Ah well, nothing he could have done differently, that's just what happens when you're a marathon runner, he says. No need to reflect or adjust, just keep slamming yourself against the wall.

He also seemed reluctant to say his new slogan at the end. Don't think he likes it.

You mean that corny line he got printed on those silly socks he made?

Yea, I wouldn't want to say that in public either.

Sadly I think running youtubers are generally a reflection of runners in general - Absolute dorks.

She's had quite a few bad days out then, with Houston marathon and a couple of her smaller races as well that didn't go all that great. I do hope we'll see her race more and race better soon. Chicago I expect will go much better for her since it's not a women's only race. Especially if she has her own pacer again like she did in Berlin, that'd really help her.

These races must cost Phily a fortune. Flagstaff training camp + potentially flying out a male pacer. A side point, but using a dedicated male pacer for hitting an elite national level time seems like a cop out. Why not just join a pace group?

Overall, I don't see why she doesn't stay in the UK and just run Frankfurt or Amsterdam marathon.

I seem to remember her saying that she was in even better shape after the London build than when she ran Berlin, but was just dealing with the back issues come race day. And of course the women's-only race + the heat didn't make things easier.

Since then she has apparently faced more obstacles to getting a chunk of uninterrupted healthy training, but I generally root for her and hope she can make a good showing in Chicago.