The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Philly Bowen is a far superior marathon runner than Ally Dixon, she has the times to prove it

The standard must have been appalling in those events, like the year Dee Linden won Boston

What do you think she might have run in supershoes at her peak?

Purdue was 2:29 PB for marathon up to 2017, now 2:22. I wouldn't put all of that improvement down to shoes, maybe 80% of it

5-6mins difference over marathon or ~12sec/mile does cover most runners I know in that ballpark, inc myself

I’ve given my fair share of criticism to Bester in the past. And have always been and remain a huge RTJ fan but have to give enormous credit to Nick Bester for his actions at Valencia this weekend.

He put his own personal PB aside to help out his friend. Whilst a 2:27 is still an unbelievably excellent time it can’t be understated how much it will have taken out of Nick for him to process seeing his friend in trouble.

Nick is a classic empath - someone highly sensitive to others' emotions, feeling them deeply as if they were their own, going beyond simple understanding (empathy) to actually absorbing feelings, sometimes even physical symptoms, from those nearby.

So it wasn’t just the minute he lost at the time of checking he was OK, it will have also likely cost him a good 7 or 8 minutes in what it did to him physically + emotionally and what otherwise would have perhaps been a 2:18 low. A sign that he will come good in Tokyo. Where hopefully Jake can be celebrating a sub 2:10 and Nick a shiny new PB.

Still think his boomshakala and loud demeanour at parkruns is slightly obnoxious and grating though. Although understand others love it. Each to their own I suppose.

This thread is absolutely unreadable with all of the sycophantic pro-Nick Bester posts. One might assume that it is trolling of some kind, but it is so painfully unfunny that it's not even clear that it actually is trolling, it reads more like bots with a really boring auto-script...if so, can they be auto-banned? Or maybe it is time to make the thread for registered users only.

except he had crashed and burned by halfway.

He didnt bump into RTJ until mile 18, by which time he was already running 6 min miles.

Just like London. Where we was seen weaving left to right like he had come out of the pub after last orders, by about mile 18.

I think it's mainly young runners (u20 sort of males) who dislike Nick, but have not yet developed the self awareness to realise that they are horribly unfunny and that their attempts at comedy are repeatedly missing.

Look my Scottish mate, this is Nick Bester. Probably more beloved than 99% of pro athletes. He IS the ultimate YouTuber/ sub elite runner. It's natural he's going to be heaped in praise and natural there will be jealous haters like you. Nobody here can say they wouldn't swap their life for Nick's. Jealousy is a dangerous thing.

It's not - it's a poster who's much older than a U20 sort of male and should know much better. They're responsible for most of these pro-bester fanfics, albeit with a few copycats thrown in, oh yes.

I think, given all variables, they are similar. The point I am trying to make is that I am sure Phil drew some inspiration from the likes of Sonia Samuels, Alyson Dixon, and even Scullion aiming for a top 30 or 40 finish at the Olympics. Phily would give anything to even DNF a marathon and get the Olympic ring tattoo like Scullion.

Just watched the Valencia stream on YouTube, the lead women go past Jake at around 65 min race time. He looks totally out of it. I think there is some sort of medical issue, iron or something else. It will be interesting to see if he can get a handle on it and maintain his training. He believes that his advantage is that he can train like that and "not get hurt" but there are all sorts of ways your body can break down.

I think linking up with one of those Japanese teams will be the best thing for him. Pretty sure he said that he would be coached by the head coach of whichever group he links up with.

I think he has gone as far as he can with his current methodology and needs some guidance now. Multiple times he has had his best runs in training and run poorly in his A race.

It is obviously trolling, I think what makes it funny is people not seeing that and reacting as such. The content itself is not that funny, people's reactions are.

Subt isn't very taxing, especially if you're going to drop 2 hours worth of time on feet. You could start with 2 subt days and then add a 3rd when you're feeling ready.

Exactly, I think the best thing for him now would be to go down to 180-200km a week and just add in a ton of cross training a la Alex Yee

The thing about Bester is that he's just a little too nice at times. He obviously cares a lot about other people while sticking himself in the backseat.

Valencia was a good example of that but London too really, where it was pretty obvious that he let sirpoc pass so he wouldn't destroy his promo tour for the book.

Realistically, Nick could probably run 2:15 if he ever put himself first but he's literally bending over for others a little too often to be the top.

Kofuzi post-marathon fade ASMR or OnlyFans trial

Except 99% of the posts get no reaction at all so trolling-wise it's both very unsuccessful as well as depressingly unfunny. I only commented to say that the saturation point of Bester posts had reached such a level that I find I don't visit the thread itself as it's too boring wading through the Bester bots. There are only so many times you can read "Nick did very well at the 10k this year in brutal conditions". It wasn't funny the first 35 times.