The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

What about Allie Ostrander and The Athlete Special (Spencer Brown)? You should have added them to the list.

There's only so much time I have for YouTube Running. But by request:

Allie Ostrander: Running 10x1 on a hill, then lifting with her friend, but before that happens, we have to watch her (in what should be a big disappointment to the monetization king Seth DeMoor) drink some sort of vomit green colored drink called Athletic Greens. She tried to hide it well and acted like it was OK, but the subtle expression on her face said the paycheck is good even if the drink isn't. They should've sponsored Seth, washing down a Bobo bar with that would've been viral content! Allie ended the video after her workout by airfrying what looked to be a tasty burrito.

The Athlete Special: Doing the Kipcohge workout Symmonds did a year ago before he decided to lift heavy with creatine. After he barely makes it through the 1200m, we get to watch him unboxing a Hello Fresh package. Then Allie Ostrander makes an appearance as the sous chef cooking tacos. As Seth would say Taco Tuesday! The Tacos looked pretty good.

Ali On The Run is PINK! lots of PINK! And smiles! (Although she runs 1:36/3:41, not too bad for no XC/Track experience).

Emily Abbate and her NYC lifestyle, she's a 3:28 full runner, very solid

Hungry Runner Girl and her downhill marathons. 2:42-2:55 range, sub-elite female with kids, pretty cool

Choi is Choi

Kofuzi is someone I look up to, and sub-3!

Ben Felton for his experience

So much weirdness out there on Insta.

I also like Tyler Speers and TAS as well, for them being weird and embracing it!

athlete special running a solo half marathon around a lake in a Mario suit as a training run, complete with jumping and sound effects, to find the peach (allie) stolen by walawigi (ari)

They're all rubbish.

I just discovered Andrew Snow's Run Elite channel. Not sure I'd call him a YouTuber in the same vein as those previously mentioned. I guess he is more of a run-coach YouTuber.

There are a few of those I like. Sage of course. Also Fredrik Zillén.

The big gear drop that Kofuzi just got from Craft was wild, on top of that he went to Budapest and will be going to Chamonix.

I think no thread will be as popular as the Seth James DeMoor thread. Is it even still around? He was truly the joke that kept on going. Talk about committed to the bit. Seth is one strange guy in all aspects of life. Everyone saw his end, but he truly was one stubborn guy. I think all shoetubers, despite any temporary popularity, will in the end get a low video count. Are they that connected to the industry that they can make do without YouTube being a viable source of income?

You forgot about LR poster Sage VO2max, whose VO2max dropped off a cliff. Sage's latest video was clickbaity enough that I watched for the first time in years. I hope his breathing still has room for recovery. I suspect it will because time seems to heal things better than expected at that still youngish age.

You also didn't mention one of the OG shoetubers, Ginger Runner. I looked at GR's page and noticed that he's had a big drop off in views in recent years. I watch a couple of his videos in the past year, and it seemed he's gone more shoetube, but with outside testing on trails and less non-shoe topics. Channel looks stale.

running youtube is the biggest cesspit. Anyone with an actual personality could break into this space easily and destroy the current boring channels.

Ive tried to watch some of the running content, but it's rarely anything that I ever go back to. Running is a relatively simple sport, and it's very rare to find someone that is both an accomplished runner that has a personality that translates to TV/Video/Infotainment.

In our somewhat bifurcated sport the content of any channel will either be considered too inside, too catered to the few pro runners; or just regurgitated Runners World hobbyjogger pablum.

Most youtubers have some things in common. They get fatter, they get lazier, they get complacent, they party too much and they get slower.

The downfall of most shoe tubers is when they begin to control monetizing their content and branching into merchandise sales. Instead of giving you a good ten minute product review, they start getting click baity, make their public content very shallow and incomplete, plus they strongly encourage you to buy paid membership on another platform to get the full story. This turns people off and they move on.

Merch? I get that they want to start another revenue stream but why do I want to buy it? If I don’t buy shoes ir clothes based on what a pro wears, why would I be inspired to wear what a famous hobby joggers wears? What is the value proposition of buying a shoe tuber’s singlet for a premium price when I can purchase name brands or premium brands for less?

Well it's time for an update:

The Greatest Running YouTuber of All Time, Seth DeMoor, has migrated to don't call it Twitter, where he has tweeted "we get old" and "passing the torch. just pass it and be grateful for the ride."

Asics is once again is subjecting us to running YouTubers getting free trips to World's. We got a Ben Felton and Kofuzi video out of it. But from Strava, it appears that they cut way back from last year (when they basically filled Eugene hotel rooms with running YouTubers). The Believe in the Run crew, Tommy Runz, etc, were left home. Hopefully this starts a trend. We don't need two billion videos of the same free trip. And it seems that Asics made Ben Felton actually work for his free trip, as he was running their social media for a while.

But the people who were left at home were salty. Believe in the Run responded to Asics leaving them home by making a feature video about how great Hokas are. They even emphasized that many people run marathons in Cliftons. The drama!

Allie O is making videos about her ban for failing a drug test. She assured us that she never gained an advantage over a competitor by doing this. Spencer, her boyfriend and fellow running YouTuber, did a Parkrun but forgot to put Parkrun in the title so his video didn't get as many views as it could've. He ran 15:42. He's set his goal to run 13:59 again. So I guess we will get many more 5ks from him. YouTube watchers love 5k content, especially Parkrun content, so his channel should do better.

Before Kofuzi was running around Budapest in his Asics, he was reviewing kids shoes. He also does live streams of himself opening packages of gear. If Seth has really permanently retired, I suppose the torch had to be passed to someone, might as well have been Kofuzi.

Meanwhile in Britain, Harry Morgan is running a 5k that goes through inflatable bounce houses, Philly Bowden withdrew from Valencia because they wouldn't let her in the elite field and she couldn't have bottles instead. She's racing Houston instead and trying to raise funds for her altitude camp in Flagstaff. And Ben Parkes is reviewing Hoka shoes and telling us to run easy.

And that's running YouTube at the end of August 2023. The sad thing: the ratings for this are higher than the ratings for the world champs.

Translation: Years of undisciplined Mad Scientist training plus poor nutrition has completely fried my endocrine system and prematurely aged my body. Pikes prep has not gone well and I have lost motivation. I’ve barely got energy to tweet. I’ve got a basement full of coffee mugs and trucker hats to get rid of. If anyone needs a videographer, video editor, or a social media coordinator, hit me up in the comments right thur, right thur, right thur!

Nobody continues to improve forever, no matter how they train, or how dialed in their diet is, age is the great equalizer. Time catches up to everyone and eventually you will slow down, no matter what you do.

the only one i respect is kofuzi