Thanks to social media, keeping pace with the world’s most inspiring athletes and amateurs has never been easier – as long as you know where to go and who to follow. So no longer do you need to head to the local book shop, or browse the nearby library when searching for running help, when everything you need is just a click away.
Check out the online sources listed below for some inspiring videos from top brands and amateur film makers, as well as awesome photos and helpful audio material.
YouTube: Ginger Runner
Ethan Newberry is the most prolific running-gear reviewer on YouTube, but forget that for a second. Ignore his breathless comparisons of wicking tops and dig into his ‘virtual runs’: a mixture of headcam and documentary-style footage of some of the world’s most beautiful routes and races. Sure, watching him trot along the verdant trails of the Gorge Waterfalls 100k or huff up the Sun Mountain 50-miler might grate a bit if you’re mostly relegated to plodding along pavement, but it might also remind you why you’re running in the first place and convince you to sign up for a race that’s more about scenery than split-times. If nothing else, you’ll get some second-hand experience of some of the planet’s best running terrain.
Podcast: Magness & Marcus on Coaching
Sure, there are slicker podcasts out there – with the briefest of musical stings at the start, this one’s typically a straight hour of monologue from there on out – but there aren’t many with more to say. Hosts Steve Magness and Jon Marcus take on everything from marathon specificity to marginal gains from the perspective of elite-level coaching – and almost always provide a take that’s as useful for beginners as pros. One for a big Sunday.
YouTube: Life In A Day: The Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run
LA-based filmmaker Billy Yang likes three things: running, mountains, and making films about people running around mountains. Most of his back-catalogue’s on YouTube, but this exploration of the Western States 100, the USA’s most iconic ultra, is the standout: a compare-and-contrast look at four female athletes prepping for the event, and just what it takes to complete at an elite level.
Instagram: @KilianJornet
The best thing about Kilian Jornet, considering the discipline he’s chosen to specialise in, is how much fun he always seems to be having. You might expect the Instagram account of a UTMB winner to be all #EmbraceTheGrind and tooth-gritted suffering, but there’s none of that here: just lots of smileys, exclamations marks and #TimeToPlay hashtags – from a man with the puppy-dog enthusiasm that comes from getting paid to do the thing he loves most in the world. Also expect perfectly captured sunrises, breath-stealing mountain scenery and a surprising amount of jumping in puddles.
YouTube: The Bob Graham
Salomon’s YouTube feed is what all brands should aspire to: brilliantly curated mini-documentaries about the stuff that makes the sport great. You can lose hours clicking through the ooh-just-one-more content, but start with this exploration of one of the UK’s most daunting homegrown challenges: a fell-running challenge in the Lake District that includes 42 peaks and typically takes a day to finish.
