The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Very much agree re the new Era, there’s a lot more depth there and what’s truly elite has levelled up everywhere as expected.

Even across the water in Ireland too, scullion was peak for so long with very little touching his times but recently he has been dethroned by a lot of different guys.

That’s fair he has said that but to date his success comes from YouTube. A 2:15 (2:14:56) guy is not getting much attention in most places that’s fairly far down the all time lists and well off international qualification marks. Being a YouTuber is why he has made his mark, maybe in time it’ll be his running but yet to see that.

I think it boils down to this - RTJ is the fastest of what i would consider full time youtubers (they create good quality content for a living and are fully involved in the process of creating it)

He also creates some of the best content by any sub elite to elite level runner and has an extremely likable personality.

If he does make it into the big boy leagues with a sub 2:10 he will be 1 of 1 in terms of a channel that size and quality with the true youtuber style videos.

But even if he doesn't its extremely impressive what he is doing and he could well make a good number of videos just documenting him trying to go and win big local races in Japan/ around the world and it would make excellent content

Similar story - know a very good sub elite athlete with absolutely 0 social media, not even strava. Was invited to an athlete development day thing with one of the major shoe brands - and are now supported by them with shoes, kit for racing/training, and a stiped for race entry and travel.

Asked them how they did it and apparently the marketing manager told them that they were the only person who emailed ahead to introduce themselves and thank the brand, followed up by a post event thank you/debrief on the event. Just being nice goes a long way in building relationships when you just need to convince one or two people that you're worth throwing a relatively small amount of annual budget at.

Like with Aubrey he doesn't seem like he'd be particularly good value for money vs lots of others - he's not reaching anyone new particularly, lags behind on content (although he does seem to spend that time producing some fairly well made videos so...) but he does seem like he'd be a very good networker and you can sell his content/concepts quite easily I think

This.

It's clearly not possible to be both a full time youtuber and a full time elite athlete. You have to pick your lane.

All the top marathoners aren't responsible for scripting/filming/editing their own content. Think Yee, Sesemann, Young, Mantz.

Those elites that are doing their own content - Butchart, Manthorpe - the content is nowhere near the level of RTJ. You could argue that its due to lack of skill but i'd argue they don't have the time when your focus is running as fast as you possibly can.

RTJ is a YT'er first, runner second. Doesn't matter what he says. That's why he'll never reach his full potential IMO. If he was a runner first, his content wouldn't be half as good as it is.

Neither is really a full time job, you can achieve everything you need to comfortably in 20 hours a week on each.

I do think most people waste an awful lot of their time on the internet (me included) but if you've got a bit of self discipline then it's just a matter of applying yourself and making the time count. Easier said than done, but a long way from not possible.

I deleted him for this, what a mong.

Strava is bad enough for adverts without people posting cack like that too.

I think RTJ is already to beholded to his supporters. His mainstay was crazy long runs i.e 50k+ runs at steady, but in build up to Tokyo he couldn't do any because of back issues.

Instead of going back to drawing board, he just did a ton of dumb double/triples to maintain reputation as big millage king.

But you just earlier argued about calling him a YouTuber who runs well versus Alfie a runner who creates content as RTJ you claim is the same as Alfie - a runner first. If they’re the same then he’s not the faster cause Alfie is well faster.

The faster* youtuber*

RTJ content is better but he is a content creator first (despite what he says) where AM is a content creator second.

Alfie's content is awful and I really doubt he makes enough from them to fund his running. RTJ content whether you like it or not is well put together and clearly created by him and not a production team unlike Yee, Sessman etc.

McCarthy on a podcast today saying she only got scrutiny today because she’s a woman. Don’t think so. You’re just an entitled arrogant and self obsessed human who’s not doing anything to promote the sport.

BS.

Even with maxed-out mileage and cross-training, etc etc, marathon training is AT MOST a half-time job (to anyone who has worked a real job in their life).

It's fair - nobody has criticized any male runfluencers for their training choices and views of injuries. Fenton and RTJ are never discussed...

In reality I think she could have got a lot more criticism for how many hard long runs she was doing relative to her overall mileage alongside going out and making poor recovery choices; yet claiming that the cause was that Sydney is quite hilly...

Victim mentality

She’s a runfluencer promoting overtraining. She got injured. People criticised her because. She takes it personally. Far out, have a look in the mirror you flog.

MattRuns or Matt Haslam or Juiced Up Matt or Bus Driver Man or whatever he calls himself these days posted on Strava "zone 2 isn't easy. Social media is blagging everyone"

The dude runs all his runs at the very top of zone 2, edging into zone 3 (to be honest he's probably higher)

This is a common issue with runners who don't understand that easy is not a race. You're not meant to run as fast as you can while staying in some made up zone. It's about being as low in that zone as possible. The man is an idiot.

To be fair at least he's not charging £100 a month to coach people.

All the lads jumping to her defence blew it up way more than it needed to be, they don’t jump to the males defence so it’s overall made into less of a deal.

Desperate sums up the welsh runner nicely.