The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Oh my, I wasn’t expecting to be welling up with tears this morning.

What a remarkable documentary Jake has made and uploaded to RtJ this morning.

Hadn’t realised how seriously unwell he was. To come back from that and run a 2:14 marathon is nothing short of astounding. What a man. Don’t think there’s any sub 2:10 Westerner marathoners who have had to bounce back from something like that

Okay, time to vote for best running achievements of 2025:

1. William Goodge running across Australia

2. Lambros Army running across the UK (one of them just ran 100km in under 10 hours?!)

3. Aubrey running sub 21 minute 5k (paced by Bester)

4. Yee running 2:06 at Valencia to become the 2nd faster Brit

Number one moment of 2025 for me was Donato finishing NYC marathon in his Mario costume despite blowing up when many others would have DNF'd. That showed true grit and determination, oh yes, and it included raw, unfiltered footage of what went on, that's right, no censorship and over-editing like these other running influencers, just giving you the truth, telling it like it is on his channel, yes.

Got to be Aubrey for me, his progress in 2025 has been fantastic. He just needs Tokyo now to complete the major marathons.

As the poster below you says, Donato is certainly another shout. Such an upbeat character. He’s had the misfortune to be chased on a run by an angry dog and an angry human (separate occasions) this year which he’s done well to stay positive from.

Sam ‘lightitup’ is another new ish YouTuber who is infectiously positive and paced Aubrey to a 10k PB too. It’s fascinating to watch him use the NSM method to train.

I think I remember seeing he was doing a Best Athletics camp in Kenya.

Never in my life have I seen someone upload a documentary about themselves.

Some of the cinematography is nice but idk if the documentary is needed at this stage of his channel. The oldest current video is September 2024. Maybe let your career/channel grow more before you do this?

Ultimately the video shows why he is doing the high mileage. Trying to make up for the lost time.

I would watch the video but I can't stomach someone jqcking themselves off to such a degree. Can someone summarise the video

It’s a good watch. Yes it’s a bit self indulgent but Jake has a way about him that it doesn’t particularly come across that way. Compared to if, say, someone like Fenton, Bester, Floberg did it. He’s just likeable and I’m still completely routing for him despite being a cynic at heart like most of this forum.

There’s a part in the doc where it’s mentioned to Jake that he is inspiring lots of people watching and that lots of the comments under his videos are people saying how inspired they are.

He then readily admits that’s not the reason he’s doing the channel. He’s doing it for selfish reasons but it’s still nice to see.

And honestly that’s what 99% of YouTubers are doing but very few of the others are honest enough to admit it. They will come out with cringey rubbish that they just want to inspire others blah blah blah. Fentons mantra is literally ‘run to inspire’

If Jake can beat his 2:14 marathon time in 2026 then he will have had a good year.

Thank you, I might give it a watch now. I really hope he succeeds and proves me wrong

I will continue to watch his channel; however, the documentary is not for me. Starting a something with parents and siblings saying how dedicated someone is does not do it for me. Jake shows his dedication, as soon as you take the "tell" approach it falls into cringe territory.

Honorable mention: Eric Floberg spending more time in a tree talking to a camera about running all in the name of being artsy-fartsy, missing the opportunity to create an additional core memory with his neglected wife and 4 children

I'd consider that this was probably all filmed as an intended crescendo to him running 2:09/2:10 in Valencia, so when that didn't happen, he's left with all this video and backstory and no big victory at the end so now has to either bin it, delay it or put it out without the same momentum or fairytale finish, which is why it probably feels weirder to see now

He didn't make the documentary himself though? It was done by some production company called emulation. It looks like they've been trying for about a year to get off the ground. They probably did this for RTJ as a project for their portfolio and to get their name out there.

Only Floberg has the knowledge of cameras, audio, lighting, storytelling and framing to pull off a cinematic documentary about smelling his own farts amongst running YouTubers.

RunThePlanet has released his video with his 2026 running goals (which are identical to his 2025 goals):

1) Get a sub 40 minute 10k for the first time.

2) Get a sub 1:25 half marathon. Current Pb 1:28:30 (Which is by far his most impressive PB over all his distances)

3) Get a 2:59 marathon. Current PB 3:28

Two running brooms pointed out in the comments that a sub 40 10k is in no way equivalent to his marathon goal. More like a 3:15.

However, as usual he misses the point being made and says he isn’t interested in getting his 10k time any quicker than that. Not understanding he likely NEEDs to get it quicker than that to have any chance of that marathon time.

Then has to cheek to say to John that he’s willing him to get sub 40 before him when JB has gone minutes under 40 many, many times when younger.

Hes an infuriating watch but like a horror show strangely hard not to watch in fascination. Why doesn’t he just go for a sub 3:15 marathon first rather than repeatedly blowing up after setting off miles to fast. The guy seems unable to take advice.

Omg RTJ commissioned and published a feature length documentary on himself 😂😂😂

Holy self indulgent, what on EARTH!!!!!

RTJ is unwatchable now. He's been sucked into making content for the sake of it. Just my opinion but that was pure self indulgent garbage and I've unsubscribed. Personally to me that's sad the road he's gone down, but it is what it is.

If that video does well you bet we're gonna see 1+ hour docs from Kofuzi, Nick Bester, Ben Felton, Phily Bowden et al. Youtube ad revenue goes up significantly the longer the video is watched.

Yeah sad times. The whole training gimmick is clearly unnecessary at this point and he cares about the channel and content more I would argue than performance. In my mind, this is the point someone becomes just another annoying YouTuber.