The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

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Callum Races For England, Tom Gets Coached And Ben Has An Injury Dilemma | Run It Three Ways EP:42 by Run It Three Ways

In today's episode we have a double race recap from Callum- as he's both victorious in the mud- and bakes in the Spanish heat racing for England. Tom has some exciting news as he looks to get back into training with his previ...

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I miss this podcast, Callum is pretty unfiltered and has a lot of stong opinions on most of the things this thread also dislikes - Unqualified influencer coaches etc. And wouldn't hold back when the other boys got carried away with their potential future times or upcoming race goals. Rather than just gassing them up when they say their aim was 2:20 or 2:45 (I forget what Tom's level was), he'd say something like "and what key indicators from training suggest that time is possible? Is it not worth aiming for 2:48". Plus the aforementioned pissing himself laughing when Ben states his ludicrous aim.

I wonder who's decision it was to end it. Definitely not Tom, he was desperate to be relevant and couldnt believe his luck being associated with a big influencer and a GB runner. So either Ben got butthurt after a few too many reality checks from Callum, or more likely Callum realised that he's different gravy and doesn't need to associate with the other two. Plus Makou started around then and is much more authentic way to build an audience.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiCgN_8pJeSAxX5lP0HHdzCA1EQh-wKegQIPhAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Freel%2FDTnpU6tDBsC%2F&usg=AOvVaw3bLswgHVZqrz7Bddahci4y&opi=89978449

Had to hold back tears of laughter with this one. 6 Hour marathon runner goes onto a podcast to explain how shes actually in excellent fitness despite the fact she cant run 8:20/Km pace without going into the red zone.

Even funnier is the company that told her this trying to defend it in the comments section

This is really good! Interesting Ben's distinct lack of chill, and how seriously he takes running; it seems in opposition to how he tries to come across on YouTube.

In the pod he shows a real misguided ambition and a ego that inflates the importance of hist running. He comes across snappy and adverse to the slightest critique!

Yeah looking back on it this was a really good podcast. Interesting getting each of their perspectives on running, especially Callum, bridging the gap between hobby joggers and pros.

His persona noticeably changes depending on what cycle he’s in for his running. When he’s injury free, in good form and getting good results he starts to come across quite arrogant. Not necessarily a bad thing as most top runners seem to come across that way. But doesn’t really go with the kind of channel his is which is aimed at runners of all abilities.

When he has a very poor result (London 2025 etc) or gets injured he acts quite sheepish and a lot humbler. Less of the boasting etc. But that starts to fade as he gets some form back.

appreciate I'm retreading some ground of a couple recent posts but idk what's happening at the moment; imo the running-influencer space is surely starting to buckle under it's own weight and we're seeing that in how ridiculous some of the content ideas are getting

Bester raced a XC (for content) really poorly, the day after a 40K workout-day and has now just gone to Iten. Tokyo Marathon is 6 weeks from yesterday.
Ben Felton has skipped straight over 2:20 and claimed he thinks he'll run a 5min PB this year in the Marathon, for a 2:18. He did just run 30:06. Not sure infinite cycling will get him a 2:18 though.
Calum Godard was injured before his Marathon build even began, is giving ITB advice despite not knowing anything about it himself. Also just invited two [self branded slow runners] influencers onto his podcast, for some of the most mis-informed running conversation you'll ever hear in your life.
Philly Bowden is still holding off announcing her new sponsor, took yet another ‘week off social media’ which was followed by a massive deluge of posts + has re-injured her knee
Jonny Davies is prepping for another ultra trained by nepo baby Tommy Trees and preaching to people how they need be willing to train hard, yet again avoids any kind of workouts, and when he does occasionally do them, they are barely above his easy pace
Truett thinks he can run an OTQ. Less said about this the better.
RTJ had some health scare over Xmas but is already at 240km+/weeks and said in his most recent video that apparently the Doctor OK'd him to go for 300K+?
Cole Gibbons' last 2 weeks were 218km and 248km, which I dont believe his Coach, elite athlete Ben Connor is setting him. We all know where this will lead.
Hugo Fry ran sub30 recently and acted/posted as if people were saying he couldnt do it or that we would be surprised he did it.....when he’s a 2:17 Marathoner…
Yaseen keeps posting and deleting videos. Seems to be streaming more now, idk what’s going on with him. Seems to be having a rough time, but by all accounts his workouts seem to be going well (per IG posts)
Harderst Geezer claims he's going for 2:30 at London Marathon. Current 5K 'PB' is ~17:30
Spencer Brown just raced an indoor altitude 3000m which he himself admitted was probably only worth an 8:27 at sea level. His last video was him yet again recapping his school career - is this the only source of content for his channel now?

I just dont understand where this all ends? Does the running influencer space die out from being too saturated, or does literally everyone continue to cram in with uninformed muck?

Anyone notice how often youtubers run a race in shoes they've never tested in the heat of battle, and then get excited by an unexpected PB (looking at you Fenton - saying before your 5k you don't feel good in the warm up, then running fastest 5k of your life in a brand new release you were given by the event sponsor that day) or a bit downbeat with a marginally slower than expected result (FOD yesterday, Linda Franks 5 miler)

I'm not saying shoes explain everything, but I think it can play a big part of all of these minor triumphs and disasters. You might have done a couple of runs in a new pair of shoes and say they feel amazeballs, but that's no substitute for actually testing them in a proper race.

Maybe FOD ran fractionally slower yesterday simply because those shoes are fractionally slower (for him) than what he raced in last year, or what he's been racing in more recently?

I know sirpoc tests every shoe he can lay his hands on and believes he can differentiate to very high accuracy as to how fast they are relative to other shoes before race day, but his approach seems a bit more methodical.

Know what you mean about Tom but he’s pretty busy running Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s YouTube these days, not like he’s twiddling his thumbs. I miss the podcast too though.

How it ends is people get burned out. They stop making videos. Some of them move onto other things. Others figure out that the massive amount of content they've uploaded is basically a passive income stream and retire. (Some YouTubers make into the seven figures, although I think almost all running channels don't; but some of the bigger creators, Kofuzi, Bowden, etc, are probably making low to mid six figures off of brand deals, so the passive income doesn't need to be much of they have a million or two saved up). As new space is filled when people slow down or quit, the algorithm recommends new running content. So somebody like Aubrey (who I can't stand), or the small creator he rants about for no reason (Jason Jogs), becomes the new Seth or the new Kofuzi.

nice to see Cole seems to have the fire in his belly , lets just hope he doesn't overcook himself again. one of the good guys in the youtube world

The latest Crown My Run was very entertaining. It starts with him (literally) running late for parkrun and only gets more stressful from there. Wonderful stuff.

Oddly, Callum's reaction to Felton's pie-in-the-sky goal time discussion on the now-cancelled RI3W pod is my Roman Empire of running podcast episodes. It's hilarious that other ppl also found it so amusing (and still remember it as well).

The other thing I think about often is (around the same time) Felton seemed so frantic to maintain fitness and cross-train when he had a femoral stress injury and then went down to Africa and Callum was like "mate you need to really evaluate the health of your relationship with exercise" and Ben was kinda gobsmacked by that.

Might be the best running podcast segment of all time tbh, Fenton slowly sounding more and more insane and the others sounding more and more sensible as it goes on and it just going in one ear and out the other. Chefs kiss

Crowned off by Felton immediately afterwards advising a 13yo in the Q&A section to keep doing Marathons (at that age).

Luckily Callum told him "oh f*ck off"

What was the episode name of this infamous episode please?

The one linked to above

Where’s the bit where Fenton says he’s running 2:10

Just saw on an IG story that he said at his training camp he (Manthorpe) is doing sessions in an unreleased Sketchers shoe… might mean there is a deal in the works/imminent?