The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

I too like Ryan Thomson, Running Brooms and FOD. All seem like good eggs.

But do I find their videos more entertaining than RanToJapan? Nope.

Documentary makers should have uploaded the film to their own channel, the weird and serious style (I'm happy to never see another slow-motion shot of a runner running ever again) doesn't fit with RTJ's own content style.

Pretty sure Jake himself could've made some decent videos going through his sports career and injury history, even including banter with his family members, but this was not it. If the filmmakers are fans of his they really did him a disservice.

If you’re confused as to who is out there unironically enjoying Floberg and Felton content, head out to your local social run/coffee shop spot and look for all the guys who look exactly like Floberg and Felton.

Have just looked on instagram and Ben is Running has 150,000 subscribers. This is more than Phil Sesemann (40k), Josh Kerr (140k), Olympic Champ Cole Hocker (140k) and pretty much every other pro runner who isn’t a national icon (Jakob, Alex Yee, Mo Farah, etc.) No wonder these YouTubers are getting all the brand sponsorships, everyday people seem to be way more interested in them for whatever reason.

This isn't directed at Ben is Running, who seems to try and do things the right way, but five to ten years ago, you could buy 100,000 Instagram followers for a few thousand bucks. Some influencers did that, and then grew their audience because so many bots were following/liking their posts that it got put into the feeds of actual people.

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2022/09/09/new-study-one-in-four-influencers-bought-fake-followers/

One would presume that well known runners don't buy bot followers (bots might follow them for other reasons, to look genuine, etc). So the conversion rate for advertisers on a world class pro runner is probably still higher than an influencer.

That said, the sweet spot for influencer/runner marketing is national class runners, (Phily Bowden, Allie Ostrander, Adam Fogg, to a lesser extent Spencer Brown) who also have massive Instagram and YouTube followings. They're good enough for their endorsements to mean something but because they're not likely to win global medals, they probably make most of their income (and therefore spend a lot of time on) marketing.

I found myself liking Cole a lot more this year. Despite some big missteps and an absolute mixed bag of results he does seem a bit more self-aware and open to actually addressing the issues. I suspect most of his challenges will be longer-term than a simple training adjustment, but I think if he can get some momentum going he’s capable of putting together a good one next year.

Truthfully I’m not bothered by shoetubers doing dumb stuff sometimes because that would be terribly hypocritical of me, but I think a lot of people start checking out when they realise that a lot of them have egos to big to ever actually learn and there’s never any real progression.

What happened to the Welsh Runner and Kelly Ruck?

5. Bester surviving a near death experience in Valencia, to somehow managing to get to the start line and then sacrificing his own marathon to save RTJ mid race. No doubt if it wasnt for that Nick would have got sub 2:20 and probably a PB.

I'm pretty sure the documentary makers wanted it on his channel for the exposure. Their channel only has 300 subs.

+ Ben Parkes - still true to himself and no shilling. I enjoyed the race vlogs more than shoe reviews but he's good at both tbf. Hope he stays injury free in 2026

Anyone know anything about this Running Channel Run Club the folks over at TRC keep pushing? All the constant plugs for it make me think it's not doing well, whatever it is.

I went to a run club recently and there was a guy wearing a "Go One More" hat. I couldn't believe it. I don't speak to people like that. They exist in the real world and it's always shocking when you meet one.

If I'm being charitable, it's like an online-only running club for people that can't join a real running club for whatever reason.

If I'm being cynical, it's another unnecessary subscription masquerading as a 'community' that's a lazy attempt to make money off of the latest running boom.

That's ok, Nike for sure can't be blamed ...

a guy with a backwards 'go one more' cap pushed in front of me in the line at the valencia bib collection. classic of his genre.

I told him to go back in line and he started making excuses before he did it

this just shows the challenge of growing a major audience. the ones listed above are all too perfectly targeted for people like us, by people like us. they will stay small as long as they keep doing what they're doing - hopefully their channels support coaching businesses that allow them reasonable pay.

I think RTJ is doing a great job for his stated aim of growing a channel wider than the ones listed. that means some of the stuff will irritate us and you'll just have to ignore. for eg I'm sure he's ignoring the Nomio lactate testing 3 hrs later nonsense, didn't want to do it.

In the documentary he lists his original mission statement verbatim from his working document and it's remarkable how closely he's stayed to it (something like 'I want to be the best runner I can be, getting paid means growing a following, no one follows runners, I'll have to take an engaging approach to do it')

your first mistake^

Run clubs seem like they should be a good idea until you go to one and its just a mass gathering of the worst kind of performative Instagram runners known to mankind