LOLZLetter 362 | Running Does Not Exist in a Bubble

Jan 31, 2026

Welcome,

Why does this have to be political.

Why are people bringing politics into running.

Can’t this just stay about the sport.

I don’t follow you for politics.

I’ve had my blog for 16 years, and for most of them, I was able to keep politics off the blog. But that’s not where we are now.

I understand the instinct behind that reaction, that running isn’t political, but I also think it depends heavily on whether the systems around you have ever made running feel unsafe, restricted, or conditional.

For a lot of people, running has always required navigating rules, surveillance, fear, or risk that had nothing to do with fitness. That didn’t start with the rise of influencers or people posting opinions. It has always been there.

Right now, we are watching people detained, deported, criminalized, and killed. We are watching laws change who gets medical care, who is protected at work, who is allowed to exist in public without being questioned or targeted. None of that disappears when someone puts on a pair of running shoes.

The simple act of running depends on public space, public safety, time, healthcare, and the assumption that your body moving will not be treated as a threat. Those are political conditions whether or not anyone wants to name them. A few months ago, I wrote an article about someone who trained but almost didn’t run the Chicago Marathon because they were afraid they would be pulled off course. Not everyone has to deal with that.

So when people say running should be apolitical, what they usually mean is that running has never felt political to them personally. That is not the same thing.

Should Influencers Speak Out?

At the same time, I want to be very clear about something that gets muddled online. Influencers are not required to speak out. Having a following does not make someone a journalist or an activist. Some people are not informed enough to speak responsibly. Some are just trying to survive their own lives. Some people could be reprimanded at work for speaking out.

Silence does not automatically tell you everything about a person’s beliefs. Does it usually tell you something? Yes. But it does not always, and that is something I have been working to remember.

It’s also worth naming that not everyone who stays quiet online is doing nothing. Some people are putting real time, money, and risk into work that doesn’t translate to posts or stories. This could be organizing locally, supporting legal funds or showing up in ways that don’t perform well on the internet. Those can be more important than posting on social media.

But following someone is still a choice.

When you follow, like, comment, and engage, you are supporting their platform. I’ve written before about how likes shape influencer culture. That is true even if they never post a single opinion and only share workouts or race photos. Attention is not neutral. It has consequences whether we want it to or not.

If speaking out is important to you, then you should consider who you are following. If that person hasn’t spoken out and you believe it matters, ask yourself this: are you really following someone for who they are, or for the ideal version you want to see?

So if speaking out matters to you, and you notice that someone you follow is consistently silent, you are allowed to decide that this no longer works for you. You can stop giving your attention to something that feels misaligned. You can unfollow, even if you’ve followed for years because when you give attention, whether through likes, follows, or comments, you are directly supporting them. You are supporting the metrics that can lead to brand deals and income.

Running doesn’t become political because someone posts about it. It becomes political when the systems around it decide who gets to move freely, who gets questioned, and who gets punished for existing in public. Ignoring that doesn’t make it go away. It just makes it easier for the people who have never had to think about it.

What is Keeping Me Entertained?

Diadora Cellula 2 Shoe Review

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LOLZLetter 361 | Why are so many influencers rich?

Hollie

Jan 24, 2026

Welcome,

I have been thinking about this for a while and it gets asked to me a lot.

Why does it feel like so many influencers are rich?

Not “doing okay” rich. Not “comfortable” rich.

I mean big houses that somehow never look cluttered. Endless destination races that require time off work but never seem to conflict with anything. Brand trips that happen midweek. Expensive gear that is photographed beautifully and then never seen again. A general sense that money is not a limiting factor in decision making.]

Now, you’ll notice I said “so many” and not “every” because of course there are outliers to almost every situation.

If running or content creation is your job, of course brand trips make sense. You are not paying for them. But when someone is flying every other weekend for a marathon in a different state or country, it starts to feel less like a job perk and more like a logistical mystery.

Not just why, but how. I’m not here to judge people’s lifestyles and how you choose to spend your money is just that...your choice. But the algorithm can feel like everyone is jet setting to a different race every weekend.

Here is the part that tends to make people (especially influencers) uncomfortable:

Influencing usually starts with privilege.

It looks different than traditional startup capital, but it functions the same way. In order to influence full time you need:

Time
Flexibility
Healthcare
A financial buffer

You need all of that long before you ever make money.

Can you do it on top of a full time job? Sure. People do. But it is a lot! More often than not, there is a spouse with stable income, or a flexible job, healthcare, or enough savings that one missed payment is not a problem.

A lot of influencing or freelance writing pays in what is called net30 or even net60. That means 30-60 days after you complete your work, you get paid out. And let tell you, you are lucky sometimes if you get that. Several years ago, the Rock”n”Roll running series owed me $100 for close to a year. I thought for sure I was never getting it, but out of principle I continued to pursue until I did. But that $100 was not make or breaking me…it would be a different story if the money was…

But do influencers deserve it? Is content creation even a real job?

So much of the conversation around influencers gets stuck on whether they deserve what they earn, whether content creation is a real job, or whether brand deals are ruining whatever niche you care about. That argument skips over something much simpler.

Most influencers were already financially comfortable before they ever posted consistently. The wealth did not come from influencing. Influencing just made it visible.

That matters, because visibility is not the same thing as effort or talent, and it is definitely not the same thing as value. Social media flattens all of that into one endless feed, which is why it is so effective at making normal lives feel like they are falling short.

Free time is the first giveaway. You cannot build a large online presence without time to film, edit, respond, travel, train, and post consistently. That kind of time usually comes from flexibility at work, financial support elsewhere, or a safety net. People without those things often disappear before anyone ever calls them an influencer. Not because they lacked insight or discipline, but because survival does not leave much energy for documentation.

I felt this recently while working through my first sponsored post in a while. The content came back late at night with an expectation that it would be turned around the next day. That moment was not about hustle. It was about whether I had enough daylight after work to spend time filming new content in a 24 hour period...you know what I did not.

The second giveaway is risk tolerance. Quitting a job, cutting back hours, pursuing unpaid or gifted opportunities, or saying yes to exposure makes sense if failure does not threaten your housing, healthcare, or basic stability.

That kind of risk looks brave online and reckless everywhere else. It is much easier to frame it as betting on yourself when the downside is embarrassment instead of not being able to eat.

In running, this shows up in different ways.

Training at altitude for weeks at a time.
Flying across the country for races that are not sponsored.
Running mid morning on a Tuesday.
Running all World Majors.
Owning multiple carbon plated shoes.

These things get framed as dedication or discipline, when a lot of the time they are simply access.

This is not a moral judgment. Plenty of wealthy people work hard, create good content, and provide real value. I am not saying they do not. What I am saying is that to even get started as an influencer, you usually need a certain amount of privilege already in place.

Algorithms do not reward context. They reward polish, consistency, and aspirational visuals. That naturally elevates people who already have the resources to meet those expectations without burning out.

Over time the feed starts to look the same, not necessarily because everyone is copying each other, but because the same types of lives are easiest to document and monetize.

Is this everyone. Of course not. Is it a lot of people. Yes.

What gets lost are the people who run in the dark at odd hours.

The people who squeeze training between shifts.

The people who cannot take pretty photos to document their training.

The people who cannot travel to majors because time off is limited.

The people who stretch one pair of shoes until the outsole is completely gone.

The solution is not to unfollow everyone with money or demand disclosures about family wealth in bios. In fact...please don’t do that. That is unrealistic and probably unhelpful. But it does help to remember that social media is not a random sample of reality.

It is a filtered slice that favors people with margin, flexibility, and financial cushioning, then reframes those things as personal virtue instead of starting conditions.

Once you notice that, it’s easier not to compare. Not because you lower your standards, but because you finally understand the playing field.

As always I love to hear YOUR thoughts.

Leave a comment

What is Keeping Me Entertained?

Reebok Floatzig Tread Shoe Review A brand new shoe from Reebok designed for the treadmill. You know I had to be excited for that.

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LOLZLetter 360 | Why Signing Up for Races Feels So Much Harder

Hollie

Jan 18, 2026

If you have tried to sign up for a road race lately and ended up staring at a closed registration page while wondering when it even opened, you are not imagining things and you are not suddenly bad at planning.

Races are selling out faster than they used to, sometimes the same day registration opens, sometimes before you even realize it went live. I have missed multiple January and February races this year because I assumed I had time, which still feels ridiculous considering I signed up for the Surf City Half Marathon at the expo in 2022. Now that race is sold out before race day.

This newsletter is inspired by my own issues the last two months. I didn’t want to sign up for anything in January post Marathon Project, because I had no idea how my body would feel. Sometimes after a marathon I could run a half a month later. Other times, I’ve taken a month or two completely off from running...so I decided to see how I would feel on December 21st...but December 21st was too late to sign up for many races in the early winter.

This is not about clicking faster or wanting to run the race more. The environment actually changed.

But what has changed?

There really are more people running now

For a few years, it sounded exaggerated to say that more people were running. Participation is back to pre-2019 levels and, in many places, past them, which matters because race infrastructure never expanded to match that growth. In 2022, a lot of race organizations were still hoping to get back to where they had been before the pandemic, and now we are clearly beyond that point.

What looks different this time is who is running and why. The growth is not only coming only from people chasing PRs or qualifying times. Running exists in a lot more lives in a casual, social way, and that still turns into races. People jog, join run clubs, sign up for a local 5K with friends, and eventually find themselves trying to get into the same half marathon you have been running for years. The top of the funnel is wider even though the number of bibs has not changed, and that is not a problem to solve so much as a reality. People have never all run for the same reasons, and now those reasons range from competitive goals to social connection to wanting to finish something hard.

This is not nostalgia or perception. Finishers are showing up...Ballots are filling...Lotteries are more competitive than they were a few years ago.

This running boom feels different because it is social, not just competitive

The current running boom does not resemble earlier ones, which is part of why it catches people off guard. Running right now is less about optimization and more about belonging. Run clubs are larger, races feel like social weekends instead of training checkpoints, and events are planned around shared experience rather than personal metrics. All of that is ok, even if that isn’t why you run.

That shift changes how people register. Runners are not signing up casually or waiting to see how training goes because they do not want to miss the chance to be there with their group. Social media amplifies that feeling by turning every race into a months-long buildup, so when registration opens the demand arrives all at once instead of trickling in over time.

When it feels like everything is selling out faster than it should, that is because the relationship to running shifted. There are more runners, more communities, more emotional investment, and the same number of roads, permits, and volunteers.

Registration happens during the workday, which is why it feels stacked against people

Modern race registration is effectively built for people who can be online during normal work hours. Data from recent race registration reports shows that a large portion of signups happen between mid-morning and early afternoon, with the heaviest activity before noon. Race registrations are not the only thing operating this way. Running apparel drops follow the same pattern, with releases scheduled during standard business hours.

When a race opens registration at ten o’clock on a random Tuesday, that decision favors people who can step away from their day without consequence. Anyone in a meeting, on a shift, teaching, traveling, working on a flight line, or simply unable to refresh a page repeatedly is at a disadvantage if the race fills quickly. That is why it often feels like you found out too late, because the entire registration rush happened while you were occupied with real life.

Pricing is being used to pull registrations earlier, and it works

Even when races do not sell out immediately, many organizers are intentionally pushing registrations earlier because late entries are expensive and unpredictable. Planned price increases and short-term promos encourage runners to commit sooner, and steep late-registration fees offset the added logistical burden of last-minute signups. That approach makes sense from an organizational standpoint, even if it is frustrating on the runner side.

Longer races feel especially intense because marathon registration skews early in a way shorter races do not. A significant portion of marathoners register months in advance, which compresses demand into a narrower window and raises the stakes for anyone who cannot commit early.

Add rising costs, stricter permitting, and early-registration incentives together, and you end up with the current reality where races either sell out quickly or feel like they are pricing you into committing earlier than you realistically want to.

The bucket-list effect is spilling everywhere

When major marathons and popular half marathons get flooded with lottery entries, the demand does not disappear. Everyone who does not get into those races still wants to race somewhere.

That pressure rolls straight into regional events, smaller races, and weekends that used to feel like safe backups. You may have to register for a backup before you register for your “main race”. Local half marathons with reasonable logistics and decent parking are selling out not because they suddenly became elite, but because runners learned that assuming availability is no longer a safe bet.

Race caps are not flexible, even when everyone wishes they were

This is the part people tend not to like hearing.

Race directors cannot simply add more bibs or transfer bib entries easily, without reopening permits, adjusting police coverage, changing medical plans, updating insurance, finding additional volunteers, and paying for all of it. Those decisions are made months in advance, and the costs attached to them are higher than they used to be. Cities are stricter, staffing is harder to secure, and expenses have risen across the board, which means many races are holding caps steady or even reducing them to avoid taking on financial risk.

Rising costs are changing how races sell entries

When costs increase, races are forced to move registrations earlier and make them more predictable. Prices go up over time. Registration opens sooner. Bibs are released in waves. More entries are routed through charity programs, partners, or travel packages.

None of this excuses confusing registration systems or poor communication, but it does explain why signing up for races feels more stressful than it did years ago.

What this means if you actually want to race

Casual registration is mostly gone for well-run events.

Cheaper tiers do not linger.

Waiting usually carries risk. (LOL have I learned this one lately)

Having one must-do race without a backup plan is increasingly unrealistic, even if that feels unfair.

A sellout does not automatically mean a race is better. Sometimes it reflects quality and other times it reflects limited capacity.

What it does reflect is a shift in road racing itself. Last-minute signups and easy availability are no longer the default. Feeling frustrated does not mean you are behind, it means you are adjusting to a landscape that no longer works the way it once did.

The adjustment for the current landscape is not particularly fun, but it is real.

As always, I love to hear YOUR thoughts. What races have you missed due to registration selling out early?

Leave a comment

What is Keeping Me Entertained?

ASICS Tri Noosa 16 Shoe Review Here’s a blast from the past type of running shoe. If you miss the lightweight trainer era, this one might be for you.

Zone 2 Running Without a Heart Rate Monitor

Zone 2 Running: What Is It And Why It Feels So Slow'

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LOLZLetter 359 | A recap of newsletter in 2025

Hollie

Jan 11, 2026

Welcome,

A little late this time around, but this week I’m going through all of the LOLZletter newsletters for the year.

It was the year that I decided to write about what I wanted to write about, not what I felt like I “needed” to. Topics I’ve noticed and explored versus things I’ve written about 20 other times. I’ve really enjoyed the conversations it’s created. I hope to continue this trend this year.

One thing to note: the newsletter is rarely about one person, more a collection of things or trends I’ve noticed.

Finally, it was also the year I added a “paid” portion on Substack. I don’t really promote it, but I got a lot of requests from people who wanted to support, and I do appreciate that. It does take time and energy to create the newsletters and content. In 2025, I really stopped taking a lot of sponsored posts on social media and in the newsletter.'

In fact, when doing my taxes, I realized it’s been a year since I’ve done a sponsored post, which interestingly enough I just accepted to create my first sponsored post with a brand I’ve been using for years.

If you want to upgrade your newsletter subscription, feel free. There is no amount you need or should.

Anyway, let’s get into the newsletter.

Where we started and where we went:

Running as you age and shift seasons
- Running as You Age series kickoff and follow-ups with athletes like Holly, Mira, and Paige.
Training mistakes and injury cycles
- Why You Keep Getting Injured
- You’re Probably Running Too Hard
Fueling and underfueling
- Most Runners Underfuel & why your marathon finish depends on it
Overconsumption and money in running
- Black Friday or Just Buying to Buy?
Influencer ethics and the blur between “sharing” and “selling”
- Wellness or Disordered? The dark side of influencing
- Are Hobby Runners Cheating? From using IV drips to other shortcuts. This was actually one of my most popular posts from the year.
- The Line Between Sharing and Selling
What social media is doing to running culture
- Your Likes Are Shaping Running Culture
Identity: who “counts” as a runner
- Runners Aren’t Defined by 26.2
- Not Every Runner Belongs at the Start Line. There has been a new trend of people running marathons without training...why it’s miserable.
Rest, guilt, and knowing when to back off
- The Guilt of Resting
- The hardest part of training: knowing when to back off
Big picture topics
- How Tariffs Could Affect Running Shoes
- What Faith Kipyegon’s 4:06 Really Means (hint: it is not only about running fast) . This and the post about Emily Infeld were too of the most popular posts of the year.

What were my favorite posts to write?

It’s interesting because not every favorite post was popular.

Does AI have a place in the running world? Perhaps I’m just around AI more than the average person, but whew am I tired of the content created solely in AI. It’s boring. This was actually one of my least popular posts of the year.
Your likes are shaping running culture: This one was popular and one of my favorites (rare). I’m currently writing a post about this but running is political and we would love to believe it’s not...but it is. I wrote about this on instagram a couple of days ago, but I was able to keep politics out of my blog for 15 years, but it’s next to impossible not too. Posts you like do shape who gets brand deals;
Body Image, thinness and who gets the mic: I’m just tired of people who are very thin preaching body positivity.

As always, I love hearing YOUR thoughts and favorite posts.

Leave a comment

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LOLZLetter 358 | The Problem Isn’t New People

New Years Resolution Thoughts

Hollie

Jan 01, 2026

Welcome,

First, happy New Year. This isn’t a New Year’s resolution post where I list goals and pretend I’m suddenly motivated because the it’s January 1st.

It’s also not a resolutions-are-fake rant. I don’t hate them. If they work for you, I genuinely love that for you. Some people like a reset.

Something that does feel lost, though, is that New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be about weight or fitness. A few months ago, I watched someone’s cat. (This is relevant, stay with me.) I hadn’t been in a true bachelor pad in probably ten years. This person didn’t have a lot of stuff. Enough to make the place comfortable, but not crowded or definitely not cluttered. It made me realize how much stuff I’ve accumulated that doesn’t actually add anything to my life.

Since then, my goal is to buy less and get rid of more. It’s not something I can truly measure, but I know I don’t need half of what I own. I didn’t agree to watch someone’s cat knowing it would motivate me to clean out my house...it just kind of happened. You never know what will stick with and motivate you and for some...maybe that is January 1st.

Anyway, back to the newsletter.

One of my biggest pet peeves every January is how people talk about New Year’s resolution–goers at the gym.

Every year, I hear the same conversations from friends who are thinking about getting back into running, joining a gym, or just moving their bodies. The interest is there. The curiosity is there and usually, the hesitation is there too. Trying something new is uncomfortable. There’s a vulnerability in admitting you’re starting from scratch. I recently made a Pilates Instagram account, and even that made me weirdly nervous. I caught myself wondering what people would think, which felt ridiculous and also very human.

What tends to follow in January is the predictable commentary. Complaints about the gym being crowded. Jokes about “resolution people.” Frustration over waiting for equipment or sharing space with someone who doesn’t look like they know what they’re doing yet. I’m a member of a Pilates studio with twelve reformers, and yes, classes fill up faster this time of year. It can be frustrating but it’s also proof that people are trying.'

Crowded gyms aren’t fun. Waiting for equipment isn’t fun. Missing a class you wanted isn’t fun. None of that is new, and none of it is surprising. What gets old is the way people talk about it, as if inconvenience gives permission to be unkind.

The tone is usually the same.
The gym is packed.
Everyone’s in the way.
They won’t last anyway.
Why do they even bother?

That isn’t observational. It’s just mean.

Everyone pays the same membership fee. No one earns priority access because they’ve been training longer or lifting heavier. If this bothers you so much, buy your own equipment and stay home. The idea that experience equals entitlement is one of the fastest ways to make fitness spaces feel unwelcoming. The truth is, I don’t think the fitness space is always welcoming for every one but that is a post for another day.

Yes, most resolutions don’t last. That’s always been true. Some people fall off after a few weeks. Some people keep going. There’s probably a million dollar industry in people failing. Both outcomes happen every year, and neither one needs commentary.

Everyone starts somewhere, even the people who now act like fitness has always come naturally to them. No one is born knowing how to pace a run or use every machine in the gym.

The first time I went to a gym alone was at a local YMCA. I was a teenager and completely nervous. The place was mostly filled with older adults who weren’t paying attention to me at all, but I still felt like I stuck out. I bounced between machines, stayed for a few minutes at a time, and left convinced I had done everything wrong. Nothing happened. No one cared. The world kept moving. That experience didn’t make me confident overnight, but it did teach me that most of the fear lives in our own heads and really…no one cares.

We live in a world where it’s easy to judge people, but judging someone for their fitness level is a strange flex. It doesn’t make you more disciplined, more serious, or more legitimate. It’s the same energy as judging someone for not having followers online.

Starting something new messes with your head. You become hyper-aware of everything around you. Every laugh feels personal. Every conversation sounds suspicious, even when it isn’t.

Are they talking about me?
Are they laughing at me?

So heading into the New Year, you don’t need to make a resolution, and you don’t need to believe in them either. But if someone else does, maybe don’t be the reason they second-guess showing up. For some people, walking through the door is the hardest part.

Some people will quit. Some people won’t. You can’t tell which is which just by looking at them, and it’s not your job to decide.

Think back to a time when you were new, or coming back from an injury, or trying again after falling off. The bar doesn’t need to be higher for beginners, and it doesn’t need to be guarded like a private or secret club.

Finally and maybe most importantly, don’t take photos or videos of people at the gym without their consent. Don’t turn someone else’s discomfort into content. That kind of behavior says far more about the person filming than the person being filmed.