Mud, sweat and cameras – Irish trail and mountain running vlogging

Abstract

This article investigates the rise in participant-based running video blogs (vlogs), where audiences are brought on runs from the point-of-view of the runner. Examining Irish YouTube channels that create content around trail and mountain running, it focuses on a number of themes, including emotionality, place, and sociability in storytelling. In doing so, it questions the ways in which the activity of filming encapsulates the act of off-road running and the quest for vertiginous experiences. It explores the motivations of content creators, potential tensions with the ethos of alternative sports, and interactivity between producers and viewers. It positions this coverage as unique within the sports media space, providing first-hand, dizzying accounts of a niche sporting activity.

Keywords:

• Trail running
• mountain running
• participatory media
• vlogging

Trail and mountain running are off-road¹ forms of running that primarily take place in hilly and/or mountainous terrains. Trail running generally has defined tracks or paths that the runner can follow, whereas mountain running may require more navigational expertize² and open route selection. Despite some commercialization, the sport has remained primarily a type of ‘serious leisure’, combining amateurism with hobbyist practice and ‘the occasional need to persevere at it’ (Stebbins 1982, 256). Stebbins pinpoints perseverance as a quality that distinguishes serious leisure from unserious forms, as it requires participants to encounter moments of unpleasantness. Another classification used interchangeably with mountain running is fell running, a form of sport primarily connected with the north of Britain that originates in races held in Scotland as far back as the eleventh century (Askwith 2021). Volunteerism, a central aspect of ‘serious leisure’, is at the core of these sports, and this extends to developing in-house media coverage. Examining trail running, Schwarzenberger and Hyde (2013) logically point out that a lack of media coverage equates with low numbers of participation in the sport.

It is therefore unsurprising that the intersection between these sports and the media has attracted limited scholarly attention. Mountain running could be termed a lifestyle sport, an alternative sport that demonstrates resistance to the dominant sporting culture, and by extension the mass media. Belinda Wheaton (2010) discusses the ways in which lifestyle sports have been coopted by those selling commodities and media corporations attempting to capture audiences through fictional and factual works that contain not just inspiration, but danger and extremes. She illustrates this through a wide range of examples, including the increased visibility of surfing in everything from Hollywood blockbusters such as Blue Crush (2002) to public service content such as the BBC’s idents (imagery used between programs to identify the station). Even global brands such as Red Bull have created their own media outlets to document the more extreme nature of these sports. Drawing on Brian Pronger’s (1998) concept, Michael Atkinson states that fell running can be considered a post-sport, what he terms as ‘non-traditional, boundary crossing physical cultural practices’ (2010, 112); they contain some of the residual elements of modern sport but are still fundamentally different experiences. Human desire and corporeal agency take preference over the structured, modern capitalist organization of mainstream sport, where competition and the ability to conquer are prioritized.

In trail and mountain running, runners go slower uphill while making up time on steep descents. This variety in both movement and landscape makes it appealing for those creating content and helps capture the experiences of an alternative sport, something that Thorpe and Rinehart (2010) suggest is normally difficult for participants to communicate. Referring to sports as varied as rock-climbing and skateboarding, Thorpe and Rinehart posit that alternative sport practitioners are not interested in the past, and are firmly focused on the present experience. This seems valuable for contemporary studies of mountain and trail running, sports that are by their nature quite unpredictable. However, the growing predilection of many runners to willingly record and participate in a somewhat panoptic surveillance of their running marks the activity as one that is no longer just about the present. Their experiences are represented documentarily in multiple digital ways - physiological data is shared publicly through applications where reactions from fellow users provide feedback, accompanied by visual content published across social media. YouTube channels, such as those in this study, are to an extent demystifying these sports. While they cannot necessarily replicate the physical movement of what mountain running is, they give a point-of-view perspective that previously was not available to the outsider. This willingness to share experiences and interests is further evidence of what Turner (2004) termed ‘the demotic turn’, where this is an increasing visibility of ‘ordinary people’ through their ability to turn themselves into media content, facilitated initially by cultural phenomena such as reality television. The accessibility of Web 2.0 platforms has allowed for more media consumers to become media publishers.

Atkinson’s (2010, 2011, 2016) ethnographic research into fell running bears relevance for this study. He notes (2010) that fell running developed an outsider ethos in the twentieth century, partially in response to its early forays into professionalization in the nineteenth century. To curb its growing popularity, routes became tougher, longer and harder to find in the twentieth century. In a sense, it was a wing of the sport’s practitioners that ensured it would remain on the margins of athletics. This marginalization could subsequently help explain its peripheral place in the sports media landscape. Much of Atkinson’s work on fell running (2008, 2011, 2016) utilizes Roger Caillois’ (2001) classification of play. Caillois proposes four different categories, including agôn (competition or contest) based on skill and knowledge, and alea (chance or risk) based on luck. Atkinson accepts value in applying these two classifications. Clearly there is an element of competition (agôn) to all sports, and trail and mountain running are not exceptions to this. Alea, which Caillois borrows from the Latin name for a game of dice, is also applicable given the heightened unpredictability of running in variable conditions in the mountains. It is the other two categories – mimicry and ilinx – that particularly interest Atkinson. In describing mimicry Caillois states that ‘the subject … forgets, disguises, or temporarily hides his personality in order to feign another’ (Caillois 2001, 19) in a manner similar to what happens in the insect world, where the word originates. Atkinson positions fell running as a form of mimicry where there is a ‘temporary slippage of people into nonhuman, animal-like forms as they scurry up, over, down, through, and across rugged terrain’ (2011, 111). Atkinson (2008) suggests that ilinx – what Caillois describes as ‘a state of dizziness and disorder’ (2001, 12) that is sought for its own sake – is applicable to fell running. Indeed, Caillois specifically suggests ‘running downhill’ (2001, 24) within the ilinx classification. In mountain running, runners find appeal in a form of movement that they find simultaneously invigorating and dangerous.

Furthermore, Caillois places his four categories of play along a continuum from paidia (more improvised or free-from activities) to ludus (more conventional or rule-centered). Atkinson does not explore this classification of rules in his work. Caillois contends that there is an incompatibility between ludus and ilinx, but also maintains that ‘it [ludus] provides the discipline needed to neutralize dangerous effects of ilinx’ (Caillois 2001, 31). While fell running can be exuberant and fall on the paidia axis of rules, there are increasingly agonistic elements to it, which suggests that it is becoming more conventional.

While Atkinson’s work specifically focuses on the sport itself, this article proposes that there is value in applying Caillois’ work to video content that captures the sport. Firstly, there is an agonistic aspect to vlogging. Ashton and Patel (2018) position it as a form of competitive entrepreneurism, with Marwick (2015) labeling vloggers as micro-celebrities creating video content to gain approval and increase audiences. This can seem at odds with a more communitarian ethos attached to post-sports such as mountain running. Mimicry is also evident in the videos explored as part of this research with the content creators attempting to represent their experiences of running. What the producer will capture on their run can be based on chance (alea), given the complexities of the terrain and weather conditions they will encounter.

However, it is Caillois’ category of ilinx that will be emphasized in the analysis of video content in this particular study. Reflecting their sport, content creators push themselves to the limits in the great outdoors, take joy in facing fears, and do so with the camera almost existing as an appendage. Caillois writes of a ‘voluptuous panic’ (2001, 23) manifested in the pleasurable disorder of ilinx games. This sense of pleasure and panic is also evident in the production of trail and mountain running vlogs. Runners twist and turn, stumble and fall, capturing such dizziness in the process. Their experiences, however, must also be interpreted as re-presentations, in that careful decisions around the editing of these vlogs have been made before sharing with the public, and this suggests a tension at play with the vertiginous act of experiencing the event in real life.

This conflict will be explored through an analysis of videos from a number of Irish vloggers. Examining the form these videos take, this work will firstly establish how their emergence is partially due to a lack of mainstream media attention for the sport. It will then explore the role of storytelling in these productions. Setting is important to most forms of storytelling, and this article will investigate the important of the Irish outdoors in these vlogs. While Irish identity can be embedded in particular ideas around the natural landscape, these videos also represent the Irish experience in a global context. This article also studies the emotional content in these videos, and how suffering is thematically negotiated in them. Examining these key areas will give a clear insight into the relationship that vloggers have with both running and content creation. In doing so, it will demonstrate how their form of sports media differs from both mainstream sports coverage and the representations of their sport elsewhere.

Media coverage of Irish trail and mountain running

In September 2020, Gavin Byrne won the Kerry Way Ultra (KWU), a prestigious 200-­kilometer trail race in the south-west of Ireland. It was his second KWU victory and Byrne received national attention when he featured on RTÉ Radio 1, the flagship radio station for Ireland’s public service broadcaster RTÉ (Raidió Telefís Éireann). Byrne appeared on Liveline³, a long-running daily phone-in show that provides a forum for listeners to discuss a range of topics (O’Sullivan 2000). Liveline’s host Joe Duffy described the course as ‘effectively five marathons in a row, over the Kerry mountains’ (Liveline 2020), and expressed astonishment as Byrne recounted his story of running for almost 24 h without sleep. Despite its prominence in the Irish trail running calendar, this was RTÉ’s only time featuring the KWU. In theory, the segment was better suited to Sunday Sport, RTÉ’s sport program that broadcast for five hours the day after Byrne’s win. There may not be a commercial incentive to give such attention to the sport, but theoretically the remit of a public service broadcaster allows airtime to such diverse interests.

The only other national mainstream media coverage of the KWU was the appearance of the same photograph and caption in two newspapers – The Irish Times and Irish Examiner – on September 7, 2020. The photograph was of Aoife Mundow, the eventual women’s winner of the race. The image appears to have been selected more for its framing of the Irish landscape than Mundow’s performance; her winning result merited no mention. Mundow smiles for the camera with a picturesque setting encapsulating more than three-quarters of the frame; it feels more like a tourism advertisement for Ireland – wild heather, the ocean, and rugged mountains feature. The photograph appears in the news pages of both newspapers as opposed to the sports pages, rendering Mundow’s performance passive and removing it from its original sporting context.

Mainstream press coverage tends to be more novel, with a particular focus on the extreme nature of the sport. The ultra (i.e. beyond marathon) distances feature more prominently. An article in The Irish Times in 2019 in its ‘Life and Style’ section featured a range of Irish athletes participating in the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) race (Flaherty 2019). After profiling the runners, there is interview content with Professor Niall Moyna, a high-profile academic in exercise physiology. Professor Moyna emphasizes the potential health risks – and extremities - associated with the sport. As such, the conclusion of the article is framed in a more somber tone.

For many decades, those invested in the sport created their own media content. In Britain, the Fell Running Association (FRA) published the first edition of its own magazine The Fellrunner in September 1971. The IMRA (Irish Mountain Running Association) website and its forum is a central point for discussion by mountain runners as well as the publication of race reports. The majority of reportage on the sport tends to be historical as opposed to live. Aside from its niche status, providing large-scale live broadcasting of these events would be logistically difficult. Mountain races are not confined by specific time limits (such as soccer or rugby) and would struggle to fit conventional television scheduling. Nonetheless, despite sporadic moments of action, many of the world’s largest mountain races (for example, the Western States Endurance Run in California) now feature live streams on YouTube for the entirety of their duration (30 h). Rowe (2011) suggests that such digital media platforms have allowed for new ways of interactivity. This has led to a marked shift away from media professionals creating media content for passive consumers to users now producing various types of media or engaging in ‘produsage’ (Bruns 2008). With varying levels of professionalism, these sports now feature on everything from dedicated Instagram accounts to trail-specific podcasts. YouTube, the focus of this article, has an array of video content including documentaries made by professionals. There are a handful of Irish examples such as the American production company Dooster’s Coming Home – Ag Teacht Abhaile (Scura and Ladds 2021) about Irish runner Paddy O’Leary’s breaking of The Wicklow Round⁴ record in 2019. Viewers can also access a range of much shorter clips recorded on shaky smartphones (Jay 2016), created with limited evidence of professional production or expertize.

Methods

This research specifically examines trail and mountain running vlogging from Ireland and the extent to which this content captures the essence of off-road running. Of particular interest to this study are videos which emphasize suffering as part of the experience of running and videos that contain elements of what Caillois (2001) classifies as ‘ilinx’. While all YouTube content related to the sport was initially considered, the emphasis for this analysis was placed on video blogs (vlogs). Videos shot from the point-of-view of the runner represent an ongoing turn towards mediatized self-representation in contemporary digital culture (Thumin 2012). Six channels by Irish content creators who primarily covered trail running and outdoor activities were identified as potential case studies. All were invited to contribute through semi-structured interviews, with five (four male, one female) of the producers participating. None of the content creators are professional runners, although one has a brand ambassadorship with an Irish outdoors retailer that pre-existed their foray into producing trail running videos. All interviews took place virtually, using two different video platforms (Zoom and Microsoft Teams). Questioning focused on the motivations of the producers, their relationship (and performance) with running prior to and after incorporating videoing into their practice, the importance of the natural environment, and the sociability of running with a camera in what can be quite a solitary sporting activity. Other areas of discussion that emerged centered on the technical aspects of production.

Prior to conducting these interviews, a data log was collated of content produced by the producers. By February 2022, this amounted to 307 videos that specifically focused on running. Not all content could be classified as vlogging, with some of the content creators making short films about other people running or racing as in the case of JuJu Jay’s (2021) video of the Ballyhoura Trail Marathon. Once it was determined which videos fitted the parameters of this study, they were coded in terms of views, likes, etc. and keywords such as ‘landscape’ and ‘suffering’ that connected with the research’s emerging themes. While the quantitative data gathered in terms of recurring themes had some importance, the study was more concerned with the qualitative elements of the texts analyzed. While the videos themselves were the primary objects for study, attention was also paid to the comments section of the YouTube videos to determine the role of the audience in the creation of these narrowcast texts. As well as exploring the motivations and experiences of the producers, this research examines the ability of these videos to present a realistic perspective of these sports. In doing so, it assesses the extent to which these activities can be considered to principally focus on the experience of ‘ilinx’ (Caillois 2001).

Camera… shoes… action!

In running vlogs, the producer is an active participant in the sporting activity, bringing their audience along with them. We see their journey unfold: the obstacles they face, the places they traverse, the experiences they have. These online videos tend to take a ‘warts and all’ approach to covering sport – runners fall, lose blood, vomit, etc.

Aaron Shimmons has 78 videos on his YouTube channel ‘I Run Over Mountains’. The majority are of mountain and trail running and feature Aaron on his own. His first video, now removed from YouTube, was from December 2014, with him running in the snowy Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland with various Neil Young songs sound-tracking his production. There is no other commentary and many YouTube trail running videos take a similar form. We see the legs of the runner, their facial expressions, and their movements. We might get some titles to help build a narrative – for example, in his video entitled Running in the Western Mourne Mountains, Shimmons (2015) does not speak but captions such as ‘the descent from Finlieve’ give some indication to the viewer of the route he is traversing. Like many others, he discovered the sport accidentally:

People that do ultra-running can be very type A personalities… and dive into the sport deep, and that’s very much how I am. I got into mountain running as a hiker when I saw fell runners and I was ‘what is this?’ That was about 2006, or 2007, and I was doing a little bit of running but I didn’t run in the mountains and I didn’t know fell running existed. (Aaron Shimmons, pers. comm., May 3, 2022)

During the intervening years between encountering the sport and producing his own videos, Aaron consumed running vlogs, primarily from the United States. He states that these international videos were the motivation to create his own channel, and there was limited footage of Irish mountain running at the time. While he has no interest in monetizing the channel – which perhaps ties in with the anti-commercialist ethos of post-sports – he does want to retain an audience. His vlogs started to become more focused as a result, discussing his training plans, and route and equipment selections. Many of these were from the Mournes, the nearest major mountain range to Shimmons, and others were from races and events he attended globally. He feels some kind of narration is required to help tell a story:

The vlog has to have a purpose, and it has to have a start, a middle and an end. Whether the story is you are training for a particular event and the goal of this run is this, because as someone who does that, that would interest me as well. Why are you doing this type of running? What kit are you using? Why this location? I am just trying to relay the things I’m interested in. (Aaron Shimmons, pers. comm., May 3, 2022)

While filling a void in terms of limited media coverage was partially an incentive to start his channel, sustaining it seems to be more about continuing to project his interests and experiences to an interactive audience.

Dave Barry is a more recent producer of trail running videos, starting his channel in early 2022, but he managed to include videos from events in England, Scotland, the Canary Islands, South Africa, and Ireland in his first year. He created a race series leading up to and including March 2022’s Transgrancanaria 126 km. His venture into YouTube was purely unintentional and initially self-serving. He could not train due to injury, and ended up with spare time that was usually occupied by high volumes of training. Scouring the internet for information about the race, he felt there was a gap, finding that too many videos were just of people running with music in the background. Like Shimmons, Barry believes there must be some overarching narrative to a trail running vlog, stating that ‘It can’t just be someone running in the hills… the story is important’ (Dave Barry, pers. comm., May 4, 2022). A video of Dave just running sound-tracked by music may feel like more of a background or second-screen experience for a viewer, whereas placing an emphasis on the story has more potential to keep an audience engaged throughout. However, this also suggests a potential conflict. The videos Dave and the other vloggers who feature in this research produce are clearly re-presentations. They all carefully edit their work to tell stories in particular ways to retain the audience’s attention. Furthermore, they make production decisions during the act of running. For instance, videos occasionally feature the runner moving but with the camera momentarily detached from them. In the case of Dave Barry, he is self-reflexive about this in a training run video where he discusses passing the same stack of logs in a forest in a previous upload. In that video (Barry 2022a), he is seen running past the logs from two separate ground-level angles. Barry flippantly remarks that ‘I thought I was getting all cinematic with my slow mo[tion]’ (Barry 2022b) but this demonstrates that the practice of running was interrupted for him to capture this. This crafting of the story offers a potential conflict when considering the extent to which ilinx can be considered a principle in the act of running vlogging. However, Caillois argues that ‘the domain of play after all constitutes a kind of islet, artificially dedicated to calculated competition, limited risks, inconsequential make-believe, and meaningless panic’ (Caillois 2001, 85-86). This could suggest that even the strongest emotions we experience during ilinx are in some way predictable or staged.

Trail running vlogging offers more unique perspectives than road running YouTube channels. There are Irish content creators who produce exclusively road running content such the Run Sensible channel’s vlog from the Dublin Marathon of 2022 (Rooney 2022). Dave Barry himself deviated from his usual productions by making a road marathon vlog from the Great Limerick Run (Barry 2022c). In road running vlogs, particularly when presented in a race scenario, the focus is frequently around attaining a personal best. In other words, they subscribe to the rather rigid expectations and motivations of modern sports. In trail and mountain running videos, this happens less.

There is a tendency towards ultra-distance races to be featured in many of these videos, and this can be explained by interlinked factors. Firstly, the longer the vlogger spends on a course, the more time they have to create content. Secondly, they can remain competitive. In Dave Barry’s video of the EcoTrail Wicklow 80 km race, he finishes third despite carrying a small action camera for the entirety of the race (Barry 2022d). Finally, it is more likely, in longer races, that people will end up spending significant portions of time on their own. In the EcoTrail video, Dave Barry spends the majority of the race solo. The front two have broken away from him after the first climb, and there are no challenges behind. He spends a couple of hours without seeing another runner and speaks to the camera:

If it wasn’t for the marshals helping you cross the road, this would be an exceedingly lonely run indeed. Perhaps lonely is the wrong word. I quite like running on my own. Don’t tell anyone. (Barry 2022d)

This insight from Barry is different to others participating in competitive sports. In the midst of a race, he is taking time to talk to a camera that he is holding, an act that is possibly slowing him down. It demonstrates the solitariness of ultra-running, where he is alone in the natural environment yet still part of an organized sporting activity.

Mountain and ultra-running can very much be about pushing oneself and embracing the loneliness of the wilderness (Atkinson 2016). The incorporation of a camera allows for a degree of self-reflexivity, whereby a runner can critique performance and persona. Additionally, runners like Dave find that a camera compensates for the lack of sociability that long-distance runners frequently encounter while exercising, stating that: ‘It’s made runs shorter. A long run for me might be up to 20 miles. If I’m recording as I’m going, it’s another distraction’ (Dave Barry, pers. comm., May 4, 2022). In the aftermath of the race, there is significant interaction with the viewers, with the channel creating a form of online sociability. Dave and 21 of his viewers converse over 47 comments. Some remark that they participated in the race, while others note that it is the first time they have visited the channel. There is also recognition for his performance, a common feature of contemporary society where ‘likes’ and kudos can help validate both the content and the producer: ‘Wow, loved this, great to see trail race here in Ireland, you make 80k look so easy, congrats on podium finish, hard earned, fantastic scenery’ (Sample Comment, Barry 2022d).

Capturing the wilderness

National and international comments such as these signify the importance of the landscape to these videos. Urry (2002) notes that ‘the attractions of the countryside derive in part from the disillusionment with elements of the modern’ (2002, 88), with the countryside embodying ‘a lack of planning and regimentation’ (88). In the spectatorship of this content, urban viewers are allowed gaze at rural spaces. Urry posits that ‘the tourist gaze is directed to features of landscape and townscape which separate them from everyday life’ (2002, 3), normally through visually reproduced representations. Likewise, these vlogs allow audiences to experience aspects of the Irish landscape hitherto inaccessible to them.

The locations utilized offer insider insights into the sportization of the natural landscape. Unlike a running track or football stadium, runners traverse environments not purpose-built for sporting activities, but which have been embraced by a range of outdoor activists. They make courses, official and unofficial, and they attempt to beat their own times or those of others. This is captured within productions that tend to consist of a mixture of footage from the point-of-view perspective of the runner and content shot in selfie-mode. They give a narrow framing of the outdoors, with occasional wider shots of particularly impressive vistas punctuated throughout. Traditionally, mountain runners do not have the opportunity to really take in their surroundings, as Sarah Nettleton notes:

Fell runners may stop and look to be sure, and of course enjoy what they see but for the most part the eye is attuned and is busy. We might say they look with the fellscape more than at it. Seeing when running is lively, situated, engaged, rooted within footwork as runners move through the fells at a pace – ever changing. Even with an engaged eye at work, if you were to look into the distance while running you are more than likely to trip. (Nettleton 2015, 774)

However, the vlogging runner places prominence on capturing the landscape more so than the runners Nettleton describes. The viewer is taken on a shaky viewpoint of the run, but the filming also gives the producer the chance to retrospectively reflect on their own running experiences in ways they previously could not.

While mountainous terrain can be similar in parts of Western Europe, there are some vlogs that specifically give a sense of an Irish environment. This follows a practice of capturing a picturesque Irish landscape for Irish tourism that dates back to the mid-nineteenth century (Slater 1993). In one video (Shimmons 2021a), Aaron Shimmons is taking part in a training run on the Cooley Mountains. It is audibly windy as he traverses open mountain terrain. Weather can play havoc with the production of vlogs, with Shimmons noting it can be a deciding factor in whether or not he films: ‘I am hoping it is going to be a nice day because the place looks better. If the skies are blue, the videos look better’ (Aaron Shimmons, pers. comm., May 3, 2022). Shimmons is actively seeking to represent the (Irish) outdoors in a particular way, and again this demonstrates a potential contradiction between the improvised exuberance of ilinx and the deliberate production choices in the video. Slow-motion clips of the mountain peaks and the panorama are incorporated, including the nearby Carlingford Lough, which separates the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland. The video can serve as part tour-guide, part ­training-guide for viewers.

Elsewhere, some trail and mountain vloggers add additional layers to their productions by incorporating drone footage. This staged element of the production removes the vlogs further away from a natural representation of the sporting activity. Ritter (2023) discusses how YouTube as a platform has allowed for an increase in participatory tourist gazing. Specifically focusing on drone tourism, he explores how technology is increasingly allowing audiences to experience tourist sites previously unattainable. The vloggers in this research are eager to showcase not just the sport they participate in, but also where they live and run. In his video (Reid 2021) for the Mourne Skyline race of 2021, Stephen Reid utilizes footage filmed prior to the race to demonstrate the magnitude of the race and mountains. Reid differs from many other content creators in that he is also a commercial video producer, and that professionalism is evident. He embraced YouTube not as a runner but as a potential revenue stream. Moreover, he does not see himself as a sports fan or consumer of sports media in a traditional sense: ‘I don’t really follow sport. I’ve never been interested in team sport. I don’t connect when I’m watching sport at all but I always enjoy being outside’. (Stephen Reid, pers. comm., May 16, 2022).

Therefore, a lack of mainstream media interest in trail and mountain running could not be considered a motivational factor for his content production. In his chosen space of YouTube, he did not feel there was enough content representative of his running world:

I’ve been running for about ten years… I’d never really seen a video that for me communicated the full immersive and emotional aspect of running, and especially trail running… I wanted to be able to try and give people what it is actually like when you are the runner and what does that feel like. Because I like to promote running in general, and I think people who don’t run don’t get it. They don’t get the emotional highs and lows, especially when it comes to trail running and mountain running. (Stephen Reid, pers. comm., May 16, 2022)

The content he creates serves a dual purpose of promoting the sport but also promoting his professional videography work. While the media coverage of this type of running might be outside of traditional forms of media, it is still garnering attention. This attention comes with its own tensions. Stephen was once approached after a race; a runner told him he enjoyed his channel, but that there were others within the mountain running scene who felt he was giving the sport too much publicity (Stephen Reid, pers. comm., May 16, 2022). Similarly to how there was a backlash to the growing popularity of the sport as far back as the nineteenth century, there are ongoing tensions around the commercialization and potential for mass participation in the sport today.

With almost 40,000 subscribers, Stephen is the most popular trail and mountain running YouTuber in Ireland, and is also creating member-based content for those willing to go beyond a paywall. He films some road running but finds mountain running lends itself more naturally to these vlogs:

There needs to be some kind of drama; something needs to go wrong - you need to injure yourself, there needs to be a struggle, the weather needs to be horrendous. Something has to change. Otherwise, people will get bored within two minutes… There’s so many different things that happen when you are trail running, especially mountain running. You don’t get that contrast in the same way with road running. (Stephen Reid, pers. comm., May 16, 2022)

As a creator generating income from his running content, there is a strong element of what Caillois (2001) terms agon at play here also. Reid is competing with other content creators on YouTube for clicks, engagement and return visits. The vertiginous experience of trail running is countered by an ongoing need to ensure his productions can captivate and entertain audiences.

Reid, Barry, and Shimmons have all created videos of running in different parts of Ireland, showcasing the natural landscape. Comments from their viewers range from the local to the global, as evident in this selection of comments from Reid’s Mourne Skyline video (2021):

Epic! You’ve done a masterful job, didn’t realise we had such an event (and place) right on our doorstep (sample comment A).

… will have to fly all the way from Maldives to do this next year (sample comment B).

Not only do your videos bring me back home virtually, but they inspire me to get back home and do some of these races (sample comment C).

The final comment demonstrates the potential for these videos to tap into the diasporic imagination of Irish viewers spread across the globe.

Elsewhere, in an early morning video shot in the Wicklow Mountains with the sun rising behind him, Dave Barry tells his viewers ‘I’m on a part of this trail I haven’t been on for a long time, and I got to say it is mind-blowing. It is stunning. It is world class’ (Barry 2022e). The emphasis here is very much on what Ireland can offer in comparison to anywhere else in the world; a declaration of independent beauty and opportunity. Yet, the three aforementioned vloggers also made race videos on races they participated in in ten other countries between them. On one hand, they are showcasing what their own country has to offer; on the other, they are demonstrating the Irish experience in a global context. There are occasions whereby this Irishness becomes a clear distinguisher from others participating. During the Transgrancanaria race, Dave Barry indicates that he is dealing with adverse conditions better than more ‘local’ runners, who are not as used to running in wet weather as an Irish runner:

I have to say the muddy conditions going up there and down from the top of that peak there probably suited the Irish. There were people there really who didn’t have a clue how to run in mud and were slipping and sliding. (Barry 2022f)

What is evident here is the importance of national identity, even when one is on the international stage, through the ability of Irish people to adapt to distinctly ‘Irish’ weather. This links with the narratives these vloggers create about the Irish landscape and a mythical toughness and ruggedness, perhaps also reflected in the hardiness of those who run there.

Emotionality and storytelling

As the race in Gran Canaria unfolds, the weather conditions get progressively worse. By the time Dave gets to the midway distance after ten-and-a-half hours, numerous runners are dropping out. Speaking to the camera and dripping wet, he explains he has put some tea into a soft flask to use it as a temporary hot water bottle, while the foil blanket he has carried in his bag for years staves off potential hypothermia. Throughout his confessional monologue, he remains remarkably upbeat. It is as if the camera is keeping him in the race, holding him accountable while also providing him with an outlet for communication for the duration of the near 24 h endeavor. This interaction brings an audience of runners and non-runners into the world of ultra-trail running. Dave feels that any good story requires some element of drama. Documenting his story also gives him an insight into his own in-race experience, something he’d never been able to externally view before:

I’ve never witnessed my own deterioration through a race… I’m a pretty good runner, so normally I go into these races and I don’t have that much of a problem finishing them. And Transgrancanaria would have been the same, even with the bad weather, had I been fit and ready for it… I enjoyed watching that video back more than anyone else who has seen it because I lived it! They’re the stories I want to see. (Dave Barry, pers. comm., May 4, 2022)

Most stories contain some element of an obstacle that tries to prevent the hero reaching their destination. Central to the storytelling aspect of these works is frequently a narrative of suffering. Discussing fell runners and triathletes, Atkinson (2008, 2011) maintains that such a discourse is omnipresent, and even welcomed. This can seem paradoxical if post-sports are supposedly removed from the ultra-competitive, hyper masculine world of mainstream sports. Atkinson states that runners cannot escape some kind of suffering in the mountains, but that ‘fell runners often derive intense social and emotional stimulation through athletic “suffering”; and indeed, not knowing when or how one is going to hurt during a fell run is part of the allure’ (2011, 107). Runners talk about the emotional benefits of suffering – exhaustion, fear and danger are all part of the process.

Caillois’ (2001) classification of ilinx - this sense of vertigo-inducing play - is explored in many trail and mountain running videos. This can be amplified on occasion through post-production, and the very process of such editing can dampen the sense of unpredictability intrinsic to ilinx. John Kinsella has represented Ireland internationally at mountain running events, and runs the YouTube channel Limerickrunning. The channel is not trail or mountain specific but does feature races organized by IMRA and shot from Kinsella’s perspective, often at the front of the race. This is the case in a 2021 video from Bansha Woods in Tipperary (Kinsella 2021). Kinsella weaves through narrow trails in a sequence that has been sped up in post-production to look faster than it is. Any wrong turn or movement could result in Kinsella colliding with vegetation, falling over or injuring himself, but ultimately that does not happen and he wins the race. From the audience’s point-of-view, they follow these dizzying movements of the runner throughout, unsure as to where he will land or how he will stay upright.

In 2021, Aaron Shimmons ran the Ultra Trail Mount Blanc (UTMB), an event that is frequently described as the ‘Super Bowl of trail running’ (Milne 2022). Shimmons experiences severe knee pain from an early stage that hampers his ability to go quickly downhill and as the race progresses, he starts to feel the effects of sleep deprivation. Yet, the idea of quitting is never really explored in any great detail. After 110 km of the race, he tells the camera that ‘DNFs [Did Not Finish] are contagious and I don’t want one’ (Shimmons 2021b). We join his struggle until the finish, which takes almost forty hours. This notion of pushing yourself to the limits seems to appeal to his audience. One YouTube commenter adds ‘This video is killer! Wow, the shots and emotion throughout the race. Cheers for pushing through and finishing that tough race. You are an inspiration, dude!’ (Shimmons 2021b). Those who run such distances can empathize with him, while others can marvel at the achievement and experience. It was his second time completing the race, but on his previous attempt in 2018, he never once took the camera out of his bag, stating that he ‘couldn’t bring myself to record anything’ due to a ‘combination of difficulty and exhaustion’ (Aaron Shimmons, pers. comm., May 3, 2022). The sense of dizziness and delirium that the runner knowingly signed up to is captured.

There is also the question of just how much trail running vloggers can share. Aaron admits that there are times when it is very difficult to pull out the camera. When he did the Big Foot 200 – a 200-mile mountain race in Washington, USA - in 2019, he battled hallucinations and did not take out the camera for gaps of eight or ten hours, because he felt physically unable to. What the audience receives is a heavily edited version of a race that took Aaron over 72 h to complete. One could question whether a livestream of his entire race, however impractical, would be more authentic. Alternatively, it can be argued that the process of filming an entire race seems less natural as the vlogger is ‘performing’ throughout. Shimmons believe there needs to be some element of authenticity; vloggers must give a genuine account of what unfolds, and moments of struggle help progress the narrative. Nevertheless, there are occasions where he simply cannot bring himself to film, such as his aforementioned 2018 UTMB race. As in the case of the Limerickrunning video, there is a tension around such authenticity in the post-production stages, but Shimmons feels his videos can demonstrate the unpredictability associated with the sport:

All I could do was just exist and keep moving forward and put in some calories, and as a result of these three factors, I’ve now got enough energy to take out this camera and say something. When you can record those low moments, it’s golden. You have to show both sides of it. You don’t really have those low moments in a training run. You have to go deep to get there. (Aaron Shimmons, pers. comm., May 3, 2022)

Elias and Dunning (2008) note that leisure activities are an outlet for socially acceptable excitement, while Furedi (2004) suggests that contemporary culture is awash with emotional displays. Furedi expands that emotionality was once the preserve of the private sphere but is increasingly visible in public, using media engagement with political figures as one such example. Wahl-Jorgensen (2019) argues that emotions have always been a facet of social interaction but are more evident now due to numerous social media platforms that allow us to publish and react. It is not just professionals that are mediating public emotional performing, with amateurs increasingly publishing material online describing their emotional states. As Furedi (2004) posits, an ability to be confessional and vulnerable is welcomed by audiences. Participants in this study frequently referred to the emotionality of not just running in these locations and conditions, but also the emotionality intertwined in telling their own stories. Ellie Berry, along with her partner, has run the Tough Soles channel since 2017. Tough Soles is primarily a channel concerned with hiking, but like many other people, she took up running during the Covid-19 pandemic and has sparingly added trail running videos to the popular channel. While suffering is very much part of trail vlogging narratives, Ellie maintains that it should not be the central focus:

People only want to watch a certain amount of complaining… I think what the camera also reminds me that ‘yes, this is difficult’ but I’ve chosen to be here and do this so why be miserable about any of it? (Ellie Berry, pers. comm., May 16, 2022)

Like others, she points to the accountability the camera adds to running. Capturing the experiences of a training run or a race means that it is more likely that one is going to complete what they have set out to do. Her first race vlog was from the KWU Lite in 2021 (Tough Soles 2021) and differs from the other case studies in this research as it was not part of a predetermined publication. She took photos and videos along the route for personal use but discovered afterwards that there was a story there she wanted to tell. While her face appears on camera, her voice does not until the completion of the race where she films herself having a phone conversation with her partner while lying in the ‘child’s-pose’ position. Instead, she stitched together a narrative that included WhatsApp voice notes she had been exchanging during the race with her coach and partner, as well as some post-­production commentary:

Because I hadn’t intended on them being public, they had a rawness to them that inspired me to try and put them together as a video. I had an amazing time. It was quite an intense experience. (Ellie Berry, pers. comm., May 16, 2022)

By the end of the race, almost 60 km, Berry was walking into the finish visibly crying. She is cramping but also elated that her first trail race is coming to an end. The willingness of vloggers to expose themselves to their audience is crucial to the connections they make.

Sometimes, it is the viewer’s perspective that is face down in the mud, as the vlogger struggles to stay upright due to the terrain. Humor and the ability for self-mortification, found in abundance in these videos, can also contribute to a sense of ilinx. A sense of play is central to Stephen Reid’s output. He is self-effacing in his videos, capturing his own falls and struggles with a sense of humor. Exaggerated facial expressions are very much part of his ‘performance’ and the cheery theme tune he starts videos with ends with the presenter firing a slingshot, setting a cheeky, adolescent tone. In 2020, he ran the Antrim Hills Way, an almost 40-kilometer solo excursion in his locality:

Something I’m quite passionate about is exploring your own area, your own backyard which I think was justified during the lockdown when everybody suddenly was forced to go outside. The [Covid-19] pandemic was great for my channel [laughs] because people were able to go outside locally, to travel through some of the videos I was doing. (Stephen Reid, pers. comm., May 16, 2022)

There is a growing importance in digital sharing. This may seem like something of a contradiction within the field of post-sports like mountain running, but is manifested in even whimsical internet memes such as ‘if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen’, referring to the popular exercise tracking application. In other words, the sharing of one’s run – often an individual pursuit – is increasingly used for validation to run in the first place. In the case of this vlog, it is clear that the commitment to film plays a role in ensuring the run happens and is completed:

Four miles in, I wanted to stop… I got up there and realized I got to keep going for five hours on my own. That was misery. Had I not being doing a video, there was a possible chance I might have considered calling in a lift and quitting it… it did help that I did have my little friend, with the little GoPro. You do feel like you’ve a bit of company when you’re on your own. It kept me going. (Stephen Reid, pers. comm., May 16, 2022)

Facing difficulties during the run, Stephen listens to Pink Floyd’s ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ through his earphones and starts singing, out of tune, while navigating his way over wet, boggy land. As the sequence continues, his foot gets stuck in the ground and he works to get it back out without losing his shoe in the process. Escaping from the soft ground, he exclaims ‘I’m free… take that’, as he runs away before he is quickly upended and is lying on his back. Reid takes a chunk of muck that his hand has grasped as he fell and launches it at the camera (Reid 2020). Social media has provided users an opportunity to carefully curate their self-presentation. For many, embarrassment is avoided at all costs, and this extends to the arena of running. Smiling finish line photographs are posted to platforms like Facebook and Instagram that do not encapsulate the doubts and difficulties of the preceding kilometers. Content creators like Reid, however, actively embrace such embarrassment and recognize the importance of it in storytelling and maintaining an audience.

Sport can be designated as ‘an activity or as a spectacle’ (Bourdieu 1978, 820); the production of sports allows people to develop a taste for particular sport that they can participate in or consume through a range of media. In the case of trail and mountain running, both categorizations are accurate. The audience comments on the various YouTube channels tend to be a mix of those who are already participants in the sport, or may have an interest in the sport or geographical locations featured. Two-way communication happens, with the vloggers constantly responding to their viewers, playing into the idea of these videos forming part of participatory culture (Jenkins et al. 2009). In the video of the Antrim Hills Way, this is extended even further when Reid’s wife Louise, who appears in the video at the end, joins the comments section:

Viewer: Your wife’s reaction to your attempt to get into the car with those muddy shoes on is a real cherry on top! You guys are adorable! Thank you for sharing the realistic vision and struggle while running.

Louise: I brought the bin liner on the off chance his feet would be damp. Little did I know half his whole lower legs would be filthy too! (Reid 2020)

While the landscape and conditions showcase an Irish approach to mountain running, the commenters suggest an international audience. While it is difficult to ascertain where all viewers originate, there are comments from viewers in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States, congratulating Stephen on both the production and the run, with a Danish viewer writing that ‘the essence of running captured in an honest struggle with yourself. Great run and a beautiful insight in[to] the landscape’. (Reid 2020)

Reid feels that it is important that an audience can see the perspective of running races and believes that is something that in-race vlogs can do. They are not produced by a third party watching on where the focus might be on the elites battling it out at the front of the race. Instead, they can capture the mid to back of the pack runners struggling to get to the finish line: ‘95% of runners, possibly more, are not elites. For that group of people, when you’re training, you’re chatting, and that even happens on races… so it’s about capturing that’ (Stephen Reid, pers. comm., May 16, 2022). The addition of a camera has the potential to make the experience of running a more sociable one, and making the practice more of a post-sporting activity. It gives the content creator an excuse to talk to other runners who may be strangers, and intersperse these shots with their own monologues. The process of making videos also changes the runner’s relationship with running. On the plus side, it can increase accountability and sociability. However, as Reid admits, his keenness to film all races he participated in impacted his competitiveness. He went from a runner who would feature in the top 20-25% to one who would end up towards the back of the field as he would spend so much time on the course trying to capture quality content.

Conclusion

Aaron Shimmons feels he belongs to a global community of trail runners and trail running vloggers (Aaron Shimmons, pers. comm., May 3, 2022), and this is arguably the case for all participants in this study. Despite this, they all found different paths to vlogging, just as they had varied entries to the sport itself. Moreover, their motivations for sustaining these channels are not necessarily the same, even if a sense of accountability and sociability plays a significant role for all. For the content creators, running and vlogging co-exist as intertwined activities and this has changed their relationship with the sport. Some runners like Dave Barry maintain a competitive edge while others lose it as indicated in Stephen Reid’s previous comments. This can be considered an interesting aspect of post-sport, where there is a clash between more orthodox ways of thinking about sport in more competitive (or agonistic) ways based on performance, result, time, etc., versus a preference to share the experience of running in the wilderness. Post-sports have potential to retain a sense of nonconformity in comparison to mainstream sporting activity, yet are often still bound by similar manners of organization and technological monitoring.

Irish trail and mountain running vlogs feature universal storytelling tropes such as suffering. They simultaneously attempt to distinguish themselves from an unspecified ‘other’, through their references to Irish idiosyncrasies and their representations of Irish landscape. These videos contain some elements of ilinx (Caillois 2001). There is an unpredictability and disorder to the act of mountain running, and this is captured in the video productions also. Rolling descents can seem delightfully vertiginous to the viewer, just as they were in the original experience of the runner. However, there are some tensions at play. Videos are planned and edited, giving carefully curated re-presentations of the content creators’ experiences in the outdoors.

Despite this, the perspectives of the producers are quite distinct from other forms of sports media, which tend to privilege narratives of winners or losers. There is limited space for other stories, especially those involving amateurs. YouTube vlogs can provide a textually different outlet for sharing of stories that do not feature in the sports pages. While it is still a relatively niche sporting activity and niche method of sports commentary, the uniqueness of the participant as reporter appears to be part of the attraction for audiences. In doing so, it showcases the practice of off-road running, the landscape, and the stories of relatively ordinary athletes often pursuing the extraordinary.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The International Trail Running Association (ITRA) specifies that in order for a race to be determined a trail race, no more than 20% of the route can consist of paved roads.

2 Many mountain races in Ireland do not feature marked/signposted courses, and the use of GPS technology is prohibited. Instead, the runner is reliant on a mixture of local knowledge and navigational skills through the usage of map and compass.

3 While listenership numbers tend to fluctuate, Liveline remains one of the most popular radio shows in Ireland, with the most recent figures indicating that the programme has 321,000 daily listeners (De Brun 2022).

4 The Wicklow Round is a 24-hour mountain challenge whereby runners must reach 26 different mountain peaks in the Wicklow Mountains. Atkinson describes rounds as events that “place people in the ‘raw’ contexts of culturally undetermined terrain” (Atkinson 2011, 103).