256. The Reality of Sponsorships in Running

[00:00:00] You're listening to episode 256 of the Marathon Running Podcast. In this episode, we're going to talk about the reality of running and sponsorships.

[00:00:16] This is the Marathon Running Podcast by Letty and Ryan from We Got The Runs. Join us in our running community for weekly content that is motivational, educational, and inspirational, and let the Marathon Running Podcast take you from the starting line to the finish line and beyond. Hey, runners, and welcome to the Marathon Running Podcast episode 256. My name is Ryan. My name is Lottie.

[00:00:42] And we are your hosts today and every day. Every day we have a podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. And we are here with another exciting episode. Today we're going to talk about something kind of, you know, reality check because we're going to talk about running and sponsorships when it comes to running. Reality check for anyone thinking of making a career out of running, I guess. Yes, Ryan, you're absolutely right with that.

[00:01:06] Yeah, I think, you know, it's hard to understand, I think, because some, you know, the mainstream sports, they make lots of lots of money. And in the other sports that maybe aren't so mainstream, then the money is less. And also the amount of money is kind of skewed towards the very top racers with sponsorships and other stuff, too. So, like, it goes down quite quickly to almost nothing or very little. Yeah, and we can see that already when it comes to prize money for marathons, how quickly they taper off.

[00:01:36] I don't recall right now how much these big major marathons pay for prize money, but it's like first, second, third. And then it just kind of comes down to pocket change, especially given that, you know, a marathon is not something that you can engage in every week. You're not going to run five marathons a year. You're going to run maybe two for most professional runners, maybe three now that we have better shoes and better recovery, but maybe two to three.

[00:02:02] And that is just to get a shot at coming in as a top level athlete. And how do you finance that, right? Because you have to pay for a run coach, you have to pay for your house, mortgage. If you have children, you have that. You have all this recovery stuff. You probably need some PT maybe. And none of that stuff is cheap. Yeah. And our guest today that we talked to is Jerini Rivera.

[00:02:27] She had actually gotten to the level where she had a sponsorship and she's telling us a little bit, giving us a little glimpse about how that goes and how the pressure is on for terms in your contract, including placing at a certain amount of races, etc. I can only imagine how stressful that would be. Yeah. You know, I mean, we were talking about prize money earlier, but also sponsorship money.

[00:02:54] I'm sure they have a lot of like stipulations on what you need to accomplish or what goals you need to meet. That could be really stressful, I would think. Yes. And on top of that, now a day is in the age of social media and everything being so out there. I've heard actually before that, you know, there's a running comedian.

[00:03:14] She's really funny, but I think her earning level with brands and everything is higher than most of these athletes that are actually performing fast marathons, which also makes you question what do brands really value? You know, does it matter that you're running in alpha flies? I'm just throwing something out there. And you're not the fastest or do they just really want to have the fastest athlete?

[00:03:40] And it almost seems like at this point in age, they don't care as much about people being so fast. Yeah. I mean, I think their primary goal is to probably sell shoes. So, yeah, whoever can get the most shoe sales would probably be who they go after. But I think now the importance of social media and people on there or the influence over others is pretty great and probably greater or just as great as some of the top athletes.

[00:04:07] In the past, it used to almost be just the top athletes like, oh, this person is the best soccer player. So let's get those shoes, those cleats, whatever, because then I can potentially be the best. But now there's so many more influences. Yeah, it would be like, oh, get the shoe because it makes you the fastest. And now it's like, get the shoe because it makes you the happiest and you'll feel like a happy, good athlete in them, which is great.

[00:04:31] But I feel like it's almost sad that it takes away so much from a high performing athlete, especially if it's someone that is not really into social media because they really want to focus on their athletic careers. You can kind of see that a lot with, you know, we've been to a camp in Kenya. And a lot of these athletes just for lack of knowing English and not really having the quote unquote skills to use social media to their advantage.

[00:05:00] You know, they're really fast. They're sub 205, yet they don't have a lot of following and they have one little contract. Whereas, you know, there's such a huge opportunity for them to monetize on that if they knew how to. Yeah. Additionally, I think shoe brands have all kind of jumped on the newest technology. They all kind of match each other. They all kind of innovate really quickly now when anything changes.

[00:05:26] So, you know, the difference between the top brands' shoes probably isn't as great as it was in the past. Maybe it was more important to like get a certain shoe because it was faster or whatever, sports equipment. But now it seems like all the brands kind of match pretty quickly and have their top level shoe or whatever. Yeah. They're all carbon plated. They're all lightweight. And now, you know, you can kind of figure out which one's the most comfortable for you and your lifestyle.

[00:05:51] Or which one you like the way it looks best because if they're all pretty good, then that's it. Yeah. On that note, you know, we have shoe reviews on our YouTube channel. So feel free to check that out. But anyway, so I guess with that, we should introduce Jerenie. We already kind of did. We've had her on the podcast before. She's amazing, very inspiring and very real. So we get into it. Yes. So without any further ado, we're now going to play our conversation with Jerenie Rivera. All right.

[00:06:21] So I am back on with Jerenie. Jerenie, thank you so much for coming back onto my podcast. Thank you for having me. Yes, of course. I'm super excited for you to come back. You're also at the same time coming back from injury. And with all that, we're going to have a great topic today. We're going to talk about everything, including the reality of sponsorship. But before we do that, maybe you can give us a little rundown of who you are, your PRs and what you do. Yes.

[00:06:46] So I am, I guess I would, well, I'm a runner, but I would classify myself as more of a marathon runner. That's my wheelhouse. I started running back in 2015 with no athletic background and decided to jump into a marathon. It was one of my major races for that year. From there, I ran a 525 on that marathon. And the running bug got me over the course of years. I wanted to get better and improve.

[00:07:15] Dealing with setbacks and injuries motivated that. So I fixed my diet. I got more into kind of the nerdy side of running. Got faster and went after BQ. Then a sub three and then wanted to go for Olympic trials qualifying time. But I fell short by 10 minutes on a hot and humid day in Houston. Also dealing with an injury at the time.

[00:07:43] But yeah, so that's kind of my background and what got me here. That's awesome. So you have pretty fast 5Ks. We were just talking about that. And with that, you know, with somebody of your caliber comes the dream of sponsorship. So maybe you can tell us a little bit about what the initial dream was and how you, and how your first sponsorship came about. Yeah. So my sponsorships actually, well, I guess if you want to, I don't know how we'll define this,

[00:08:11] but because they became more professional within the last two years. But before that, when I wasn't really running all that fast, I still had companies sending me stuff from time to time. As I'm sure a lot of people who share their running on Instagram do get approached by companies. So I kind of started back before I got totally fast. But as I started picking up traction, I actually met my, a coach that I switched to.

[00:08:38] I don't know if I'm wording this very well, but anyways, I switched to a private coach. I guess I kind of jumped over some things, but which was your coach, Ron Tab. And he got me insanely fast. I started getting attention on social media as a result and major companies like Advent Health, run Disney, started reaching out and asking me if I wanted to partner with them.

[00:09:03] And I said, absolutely, because where I was going in the amount of time that I was dedicating to my sport and my goal, you need that level of support. You need help. You're running 300 plus miles a month. Shoes are very expensive. And it's not just that. It's your medical care too. It's the PT that you have to invest in. It's the massages. So, you know, I was on board immediately and there was, and I'll say to you that I'm not,

[00:09:31] when we talk about the reality of sponsorship, I'm not ungrateful for anything that I've gotten. I'm very, very happy. But with the sponsorships come a level of expectation. They don't just want to give you free clothes and free shoes just because like you're a nice person and you run fast. No, they want like results. They want content. They want engagement. They want to see you placing at races.

[00:09:57] And so there's a level of pressure that comes along with that, that I think a lot of people, they see more of what you get and not what you're putting into it, which is fair. Someone can't be in the room with you 24 hours out of the day, seeing every single little thing that you go through. They can only see the bits and pieces of your life that you post on social media. So, you know, on the side that people did not get to see of my life was that I was dealing with chronic pain.

[00:10:26] And I was pushing through that, not only because I really wanted to see this goal, but because I had these other companies and identities backing me. And I felt like I had something that I had to basically, I had to pay for it. You know, I had to show in a way, I guess, through gratitude that I was willing to put in the work to accomplish a result, whether it was in my best interest or not.

[00:10:53] So, yeah. So that's some really interesting points, because obviously now with social media being what it is and everything, maybe we can talk a little bit about we can backtrack and talk about the differences between the sponsorship or our guest partnership as a running influencer,

[00:11:12] where you literally can just have a very popular account and run a five hour marathon versus somebody who also has the pressure of performance. You have both in a sense that you do have a huge account on Instagram, but at the same time, you're also getting sponsorships because you're a highly accomplished athlete. So maybe make that differentiation for us a little bit to better understand. Yeah. So there are sponsorships that I have that there are no expectations attached to them and I can be who I want to be.

[00:11:42] Like noon is one of those that you can technically be injured and still use noon and and they'll still work with you. But when you're in a contract to show up for a particular number of races to place within those races or pay back money, big money, if you don't place or if you miss a certain amount of races, like that's when things start to get kind of like scary and dicey. So I'm like, oh, my God, I'm going to cry right now.

[00:12:09] Just thinking about, you know, the pressure that comes with that and the pressure that I was putting myself through, because I feel like I accepted sponsorships that I was working for and not ones that were working for me. So those athletes contracts, those are athlete contracts where a company has those expectations. Maybe tell us a little bit more about because because all we know as lay people, I want to call us that just run for fun. We don't have any kind of expectation.

[00:12:36] So what we know is their social media partnerships and they send you free stuff. And maybe they say, hey, create one post of you looking happy with our product. So this is something completely different. You're talking about a contract here. Yes. Yeah. I'm talking about signing your life away. Not really. But, you know, they within those contracts, there's an expectation. There's 12 races lined up and you need to place. And it's really hard to promise that even, you know, even if you stay totally healthy.

[00:13:05] But yeah, that's a big amount of weight on top of your head. In addition to, oh yeah, you have to maintain the content and the engagement and the following. So yeah, I actually went through like, I don't know if this, you can cut this out if you want, if it's not monetizable. But I went through like almost like a breakdown at work out of nowhere two years ago when I was in the midst of this. And I did not understand why it had happened. Like I just broke down into tears, hyperventilating.

[00:13:34] And I was like, I cannot understand where this is coming from. And I got myself into therapy and my therapist was like, you have such a level, like a high level of expectation sitting on your head. Whether part of it is imagined, placed on myself or placed upon me that I just didn't realize. But anyways, yeah. I was not aware of it. Even myself at the time being in it. I was like, yeah, I can make this work. Like this is great.

[00:14:00] I'm appreciative of the support, but I didn't quite comprehend what it would take out of me to not only do that side, but hold a full-time job and do all of my duties at home. So it was just, it was a lot. So you're, so we're talking about a contract where you get financial gains and you get support by the brand. And in return, basically that's a lot. That's, I mean, 12 races is a lot for anyone. I don't care what distance they are. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to stay healthy for that.

[00:14:30] So with that, it feels like a job on top of a job that you already have. And, you know, it's, it's always interesting to see how something you love can shift into something that you don't love anymore. For example, when I was in high school, I wanted to be an art major and then I didn't want to do that in the end because I figured if I'm an artist, no matter what I do, there's going to be a timeline. And I feel like for something that's creative, you can't really put a time pressure or timeline on it. But I kept that for myself as in, you know, my outlet.

[00:14:59] I can't imagine for running to change that way because it's already, I think, pressure enough to do a one, one speed workout a week, but then having somebody that pressures you into time goals, be it because you're fast or not, that's gotta be super difficult. It was. And I will say that I had great support through it. Like our coach was like, let's make it happen. And he was supportive. We were not going to run all the races as true races.

[00:15:27] They were going to be, some of them were going to be workouts, but I knew like I'm racing in Orlando. So the competition is there. It's definitely there. And it's gotten more fierce in the last few years. But back then, even if it was a workout, like I knew I was probably going to place somewhere in the top. So it wasn't like, oh my goodness, I have to PR at every single, at all 12 races. That wasn't the case, but yeah, sorry. My mind is going in a million different places. No, no, no.

[00:15:57] This is exactly what I wanted to hear. So, so with that, tell us about how, how was your expectation? What were your thoughts of what a sponsorship was going to be versus what it ended up being? It was great in many ways. It was the best of times. I don't say the worst of times, but the times that did got, did get dark, you know, were dark for me. But, you know, I knew that I was going to have to put in a lot of work to make this happen. And every runner that has a big goal like this, that needs support.

[00:16:26] I mean, this is all that they dream for. So I, and I knew that I was very appreciative of it. At the same time, I think a lot of the perception, the outside perception can be like, oh, this influencer just gets free shoes and just gets to show up to races and just gets to, you know, go to running social events and have all this fun. But you really are on the clock, like you're filming things, you're, you're thinking like, how am I going to tell a story here? You're not really relaxing.

[00:16:54] And in between that, you're also managing the social aspect where you're like having to like interact with other people as well while you are working at these social events. So it's, it's that work knows no bounds or on the, on the hours that you're working as well. That's another aspect.

[00:17:13] And when you are doing, when you are accepting these sponsorships or accepting these brands, sometimes I feel like you're putting all of your time and like really breaking yourself to make this happen because you just don't know when the next one's going to come again. So you're just like, I have to make this work and I have to leave a really good impression.

[00:17:33] So I guess I think from the outside, I don't know that I would say I did have a feeling deep down inside that I would potentially lose myself accepting these things. And I do personally feel that I do my best when I don't have support as weird as that sounds and you do need it, but I do feel like I'm more authentically myself and I can be who I want to be. There's also that part too. Like you can't say things that brands don't want you to say. You can't totally be yourself.

[00:18:01] And I'm a very outspoken political person and not in, you know, a negative way, like in the kind of way that I understand science and like, I love humanity and I love diversity. So I just know, you know, there's restrictions that come with things that you can say. The work knows no bounds on the hours.

[00:18:24] And yeah, that's kind of the two things that I knew I would be sacrificing in order to accept these things. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like almost like a government job, right? Where that never leaves you and you're a constant representative of that entity, which, you know, is interesting. But I mean, to me, it just sounds like for someone, I mean, you also had a full-time job, but for somebody who's primarily, I can't say, primary, first job is to run fast.

[00:18:54] That's a lot of other stuff piled up because how are you going to focus mentally on your race when you are trying to think of how to create a story, right? Like I'm comparing myself to you, even though I only fun run, I don't have any kind of pressure. And I sometimes when I run races, I carry a little camera. And then while I'm running and I start getting tired, I'm like, I don't want to bring that little camera out.

[00:19:18] So I choose not to, and I don't have to, but having to focus on performance and every single mile that really counts down to the second, having to also have all that other noise in the back of your head. And then I guess with that, I'm wondering, without you having to tell me any kind of numbers, how sustainable is that for somebody living in the U.S.? Because we know, I just went to Kenya and Kenya, money goes a long way. But we're in the U.S. where, you know, eggs, if you buy pasture-raised eggs, they're like 10 bucks now.

[00:19:47] That's what we pay for eggs. So how does that pan out? Not great. It is definitely not a living that you can make just doing a sponsorship. I mean, not for me. Maybe there are other people who do have that opportunity and God bless them. Love that for them. But that was not me. I still have to work another job because this was beans. I mean, yeah, the shoes are nice and stuff like that. But do you count that as money? You know, like, what can you really do with that?

[00:20:17] The ones, the opportunities that do pay cash are kind of few and far in between. A lot of it is just going to be product. And then with some cash. So it's definitely not sustainable. And it's not worth giving everything up for it, for sure. Yeah. Don't quit your daytime job. Because we saw even with the Olympic teams for marathoning, I think I saw something on some platform where they were fundraising, right?

[00:20:43] Because they had to pay a lot of it themselves, which is kind of mind blowing because these people are representing the US for the marathon. Yes. And I saw a story of a woman who was homeless competing at Paris. She was a homeless Olympian and had given up. I mean, yeah, I won't say I don't want to be judgmental to the people who do give up everything because I get why when you have something that's so important to you, why you would be willing to do that.

[00:21:10] But it's not the sport, unfortunately, especially for the lore is for women. I haven't compared to my fellow male peers. It's kind of hard to do that. I feel on social media. But for women, the money is not good. So it's definitely while the accolades, the time, the glory are all good things. It's not something that like brings you closer to being economically more stable. Or mentally, right?

[00:21:37] Especially when you have a situation like maybe that happened to you, but maybe not. Or maybe you know something about it. But I know that you can lose sponsorships. We know that there was a company that before has terminated women when they were pregnant. Hopefully nobody does that anymore, but also with injuries. So tell us a little bit about what you know with that. Yeah, so the story isn't too long because as soon as I got injured, everything fizzled up. Everything. No one contacted me. It was just kind of like goodbye once I had a not so great race at CIM.

[00:22:06] So in addition to running that race, like breaking myself to make this happen, which is not really, it's not their fault. Like I chose to do that. But you know, it was there, there was nothing. So everything fizzled up. Even funny enough. Oh, I guess I'll share this on here. I lost followers. Like the moment that I posted myself in crutches, I lost a ton of views. Like people were like, ew, I do not want to see this.

[00:22:34] So it was, it was shocking on many levels. I'm strong. So like that I was going to overcome this and I was doing the work by myself. I have a lot of intrinsic motivation. You can start to get swept away once you start getting eyes on you. It could be luring to be extrinsically motivated by all the money or the, I mean, not all the money, but you know, the money and the views, the followers, all that stuff.

[00:22:59] I had the tools to keep myself going, but I could see how for many people, it leaves them feeling like discarded or I don't know, just kind of odd. Icky, I guess is the feeling. I've never fully really unpacked this. Before we started recording, I was sharing with you that I only spoke about this to one other runner. So this is my second time unpacking all of this and talking about it. We appreciate you sharing that because I mean, it's like most of us think it right.

[00:23:28] Most of us are aware of how running is not something that pays a lot of money and how bad social media is. I don't have many followers. I feel very lucky with that. And I also feel lucky that I didn't grow up with a cell phone in my hands. So I don't have that. But for future generations, I fear that this is a huge thing. Right. That your motivation comes from that quote unquote fame or I don't know, it's really hard.

[00:23:57] And I appreciate, like I said, you unpacking that here. Yeah. I am. Yeah. Thank you. I don't have much to add. So then where do you go from there? Right. Because to me, it's almost like a stab in the back. If I were to have run a race and all of a sudden I didn't perform as well as I should due to injury. And then you lose followers. I think I would just quit social media. I know. Listen, I went to therapy. I even talked to Chad.

[00:24:25] I have many conversations with Chad GPT. It knows all of my deepest, darkest secrets. So is mine. So I had to connect with the people that were closest to not care about seeing me in crutches. Actually, I had a friend. And I showed up to run club in crutches at week three of my surgery because I was just going stir crazy. And I was finally able to take off the back brace. So I was like, okay, I can go in public now.

[00:24:53] And I went to run club and I found a friend of mine who was in, she was walking with a cane and she was at run club. And so we were like, hey, here we both are mortally injured. And we went from, you know, crutching around in the parking lot together to doing like a half mile to a mile together, just walking and then eventually running together. So, you know, I found my people, which I think is really important. And I grounded myself.

[00:25:20] My medical team became kind of like, quote unquote, my friends because I was in physical therapy for so long and in constant communication with them. And this was like nine months going multiple times a week to physical therapy. So it was, it was very involved. And so, yeah, I just grounded myself with the people who believed in me and who didn't care to see me in that scene. There were people who I continued to create content. And I told myself along the way, whether the people are there or not, the right ones will find me.

[00:25:50] You know, I had previously, I, if you were following me from like 2016, which I think we were, maybe we were friends more around like 2019. But I used to share a lot of Buddhist type messages on my posts. And then I switched more to hype content because my life became so busy that I was like, I don't have the time to sit down and, and create anything worth of quality at this time and point. Like we are in survival mode.

[00:26:19] So it switched to that. And now I've kind of switched more back to what I want to do. And I just know that the right people in the right brands will find me. I have faith in that. I mean, that's how I developed my channel, my space to even begin with was like, I'm going to go to the beat of my own drum. And if, you know, if other people resonate, then we'll find each other and make community. I love this. And I think that's ultimately all that matters anyway, right?

[00:26:47] The people that'll be there when you're injured as well as not other ones, just like in real life, right, that that would be there for you and everyone else that doesn't believe in you no matter what. It's just not even worth it. And it's kind of a good riddance anyway. It is. I'm like, oh my God. I mean, I could identify like these people were clout goblins. I just think like, honestly, myself, I don't think I've ever unfollowed anyone. And I think that would take too much thinking. Like, I don't know who these people are.

[00:27:14] I don't like, unless you post something that is like totally against what I believe in, but like an injured runner probably wouldn't do it for me. Yes. I don't know. I agree with that sentiment. Like, it would not occur to me like going back. And like, recently I had checked up on this one girl that I was like, oh my God, I wonder what happened to her. And she unfollowed me. And I was like, oh my God. I did not know she felt that way about me, but I hope she's doing well. So she must be. She has enough time to unfollow people, right? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe that's my disconnect.

[00:27:44] I'm one of these people and this is like huge controversy, but deep down inside, I'm kind of happy TikTok doesn't exist anymore. Maybe it does, but I never used it. And I was just like, oh, you know, one last thing for my kids to get into. Yeah. I mean, who knows? But I'm very proud of you and I'm following you. I will never unfollow you. And we're very excited to watch the recovery because that's a story in itself, right? It's beautiful to see how something can develop out of basically nothing, right? It's like full surgery on crutches.

[00:28:12] And now I come back, no matter where you go with this is going to be amazing. And we're, we're behind you. And I guess so with that, maybe share with us how we can find you on Instagram and where else you are. So, oh, also thank you so much. And I am on Instagram at LOL space monkey. I think I've shared this on one of your previous podcasts. I am on TikTok solely as a lurker, but also under LOL space monkey, but I only have like

[00:28:42] two videos posted and they're very old and not, they're not doing well. So I am mostly someone who goes on and likes other people's stuff. But yeah, that's where you can find me. Perfect. Thank you, Jeremy, so much. Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy, so much for speaking with us and sharing everything that you unpacked today. We are really grateful that you did that.

[00:29:09] I think having that insight is really cool because I think a lot of us, even if we're just running for fun, we maybe not think about those aspects of the sport, especially in the higher level athletes. No, that's true. But it's knowledge is power and, you know, we are all runners. We have to support each other. And then if we see situations that need to be improved, we can all kind of call that out.

[00:29:33] I also think, Ryan, honestly, that in the near future, hopefully the rewarding system for athletics, I mean, for runners particularly, is going to get better just because it's becoming such a popular sport. If you just look at the numbers and statistics of how many people started running since 2020 and how big the marathon has become for everybody, I think there's more eyes on running.

[00:29:59] And so hopefully with that, the monetary reward for these top athletes will get better. Anyway. All right. So I guess that wraps up today's episode. So give Letty some feedback. Do you like her videos? She works hard trying to get them out to everyone. And she loves the positive reinforcement. So do I. Thank you. I sound like a puppy now. So stay tuned for next week. We'll have something great on that we're not revealing yet because we don't know yet. But we've got stuff in the works.

[00:30:27] As always, we'll never leave you content no matter what until our dying days. And with that, have a good week at running. Thanks for tuning in. For more information and marathon running news, please head to www.marathonrunningpodcast.com. And we'll be back next week.