The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Meanwhile, one of the original runner youtubers, and argueably one of the best, Ryan Trahan, all but quit running, got buff, has 13 million subscribers and is a multimillionaire.

I watched the long "fun" run video. I know y'all high school girls get drunk on one White Claw, but the two-time Pikes Peak champ was not even buzzed -- especially after the ton of baked goods he ate during his trek.

It's 2024, what will undoubtedly be the year of the running YouTuber!

Ben Felton is doing a nutty 8 week marathon build off a stress fracture. We shall see what this is in Seville.

Kofuzi & Phily Bowden are running Houston. Sage Canaday attempted to stage an intervention on Kofuzi because Kofuzi runs too many 6x6 mile time workouts.

Spencer Brown is trying to break 4 in the mile.

Allie Ostrander is getting ready for the trail racing season. And disclosing her ad sense (but not sponsorship) revenues on YouTube. $19k, I would assume it's $250-$1,000 for sponsored in-video ads. So that's probably another $20k there and maybe another $25k from NNormal. $75k for a pro-runner. Pretty decent.

Sage Canaday is getting ready for an ultra marathon in New Zealand.

The Believe in the Run crew is looking to the next race after a disappointing CIM. They don't know what the next race is. It's too bad Meaghan only runs the huge marathons. If she ran the Pittsburgh, Richmond or Baltimore or even Atlanta Marathons she'd almost assuredly win, or challenge for the win, in them. She would probably even challenge for the top ten in LA this year. Too many people chase times instead of trophies!

Fresh off his strong BQ at CIM, the original and still the Greatest Shoetuber of All Time, Seth James DeMoor is catching up on old shoe reviews (he loves the On shoe and is pleasantly surprised with the Hoka) and prepping for Chicago!

My predictions:

Kofuzi: 1:27:05 (he's not listening to Sage and is still doing his dumb 6x6 minute workout).

Spencer Brown: 3:59:99, and a forever debate about whether he really broke four or not because of timing errors on Let's Run.

Allie Ostrander: wins a couple of ultras, then hops in a 10k track race and qualifies for the trials, where she places 8th.

Phily Bowden: runs a 2:26 at Houston but isn't selected for the British Marathon team because their selection process is opaque (and political).

Seth James DeMoor: set the park run course record at the Boulder Park Run, then runs some parking lot ultras before running a PR of 2:21 at Chicago. He chooses to go out on a high and declares that's the fastest he will ever run.

And that my friends is running Shoetube update number one for the year. Much to look forward to. A truly exciting year for the Shoetubers to come!

Appreciate you watching that horse crap (mostly) and giving us the recap!

The only one I saw personally was the athlete special, whose videos are now enjoyable to me (running in costumes!). I am also happy to know how Allie o is doing without having to sift thru the actual content.

Some of the other folks are just random names to me (Ben, Philly) but if there is anything worth my time, I’m sure you’ll let me know!

I like the part about how Kenyans are always doping.

Yet the Shoe Tubers win!

Ko will be passing that fast lil son of a gun in subs in one month.

Matt Choi is certainly living up to the influencer moniker. His actions at last year's Houston Marathon have left a lasting impression on some folks.

The Houston Marathon committee made its annual safety-related social media post three days ago. Post only drew 12 comments, but three of them seemingly referenced Choi's actions at last year's race. Two respondents asked for the committee to disallow non-official bikes and another mentioned influencer banditing.

"Please do not allow any bike that rolls along with any runner. I'd never seen previously any bike until last year. It is very unsafe to run and dodge bikes."

"No bikes on course except for the leading pack."

"Someone send the Banditing slide to certain influencers 👀!"

Kofuzi bandited a portion of last year's race, where he tried to pace Thomas from Believe in the Run.

I'm no influencer defender, but I've gotta be fair to Kofuzi on this one. His actions at Houston don't remotely compare to Choi's if you know the course.

Ideally, onlookers should stay off course. But if you're behooved to step on the Houston course, where Kofuzi did has been the de-facto location for onlookers the decade-plus I've run the route.

In his video, he enters the course for a few blocks along Allen Parkway, a very wide six-lane roadway that's more akin to a highway used later in the route to film the BITR runner who stated at the time he was jogging it in due to an alleged hip issue. There's an expanse of concrete around the BITR guy and Ko and any other runner. I highly doubt he impeded anyone since so few runners were in sight. Had Choi done the same, I doubt it would've made news.

Families, rightfully or wrongly, have used this stretch to jog with their runner since I've been running the race. Houston doesn't even have ropes in this stretch. If you penalize Ko, you'd have to penalize the many others that enter the course to cheer their runner for this stretch. I'd also point fingers at the Houston committee for not using ropes or barriers here, like it does throughout much of the rest of the course. Since it doesn't erect barriers here, I presume it and HPD have determined the risk of issue are really, really low.

Choi brought a bike with camera to the start, where both the full and half are together, and runners are packed together for the first eight miles. His own reels documented the bike weaving left and right, impeding runner progress. Had Ko done that, I'd be furious.

But Kofuzi and Choi are buds and Kofuzi is always namendroppin

Name dropping Choi, even after Houston and Austin. So to me, two peas in the same pod. Kofuzi also massively violated the BAA rules by running with his selfie stick.

Yes, very true on the Boston Marathon selfie stick violation. I presume the BAA has relaxed its stance from prior years since Ko, many others have stated they anticipated but haven't yet been contacted to remove their content.

Wish race organizers stateside would clamp down on the bikes-on-course trend, as to me it's a detriment to others' race experience just so an influencer can get content. Alex Filitti of MetaEndurance stated in a post-race video that Tokyo race organizers kept his videographer cyclist off course, so it can be done.

Granted, Tokyo's a major. I presume the cost of operating local races would become untenable if measures to keep bikes off course were implemented.

Yeah but a "Serious Runner" got contacted by the BAA to remove his (non-selfie stick) personal GoPro content.

Such a double standard!

#LongLiveTheBAA

A true travesty. I watched the video when it actually had the on-course footage, prior to the takedown request.

This is what happens when you don't play by ShoeTuber Law, which requires the enthusiastic endorsement of various races and brands, maintaining a consistently positive demeanor, and upholding the principles of inclusivity. It is expressly forbidden to expose irrational fixations, such as a hobby jogger's obsession with the Boston Marathon, or to suggest runners might judge each other.

(however, if you're doing very shallow, unclever, surface-level humor like Laura McGreen, you're OK. I guess that doesn't really get under people's skin)

Unfortunately 2:26 wouldn't even get her in the current top 6 so selection policy aside that time isn't near close enough.

Kofuzi and Seth both at 171K... who will get to 172K first???

Kofuzi for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if Seth’s subscribers are filled with bots. He would do that.