A Tiktok runner has recently gone viral after racing TfL buses across their route, and winning.
Jordan Izzett picked up running after university, having become bored by the traditional cardio options at the gym, and came upon BRKED-OFF run club on social media last year.
Fast forward to today he’s a central member of the club, who have just under 5000 followers on Instagram.
The first running video he posted was racing the 5 bus from Canning Town to Romford Market which has amassed over 65,000 views as of November 2024.
The popularity of running in the capital has skyrocketed in the last few years, cementing itself as the latest trendy hobby with the rise of running influencers and run clubs.
Organisers revealed over 840,000 people applied in the ballot for the 2025 TCS London Marathon, shattering the recorded 578,304 for 2024.
The 23-year-old said: “Funnily enough, now I’m a pacer in the group and I also play music as well to keep the vibe going.”
Like other clubs across the city, BRKED-OFF is centralized around creating a fun community environment.
Large scale events like The Big Half and the London Marathon offer up entries to community groups and England Athletics associated clubs, which allows some social run clubs to allocate a number of spots to their members.
Having completed the London marathon earlier this year, Izzett said: “I was a bit naive, I was like if I can do a half marathon, what’s a full marathon?
“But I got to about 35K in that race and I felt like I was going to die.
“I didn’t get the time I was expecting to get, it was awful.”
The fun runner said this was his turning point, and it was around that time when he started increasing the distances to the lengths he now shares on TikTok.
Izzett described it as ‘two birds one stone’ after the concept he began for fun starting blowing up on TikTok.
He said: “When the views started gaining traction, it took me by surprise because I was doing it anyway.”
In his most popular video, Izzett raced the bus 86 from Stratford to Romford Market, completing the 15.2km route in a pacey one hour seven minutes.
By amping up his mileage through thrilling challenge based content, Izzet has amassed over 6000 followers and 260,000 likes on the platform, saying: “I was like, oh wow, there’s an audience for this type of thing – it feels like there’s definitely not a lot of people doing a similar thing.”
Izzett has created authentic and engaging running videos in an online space where fitness content can be intimidating.
He said: “Just don’t overthink it, I know it can be hard thinking about doing something physically that you haven’t done before, but you’ve just got to understand that everyone else there is human as well.
“There’s a lot of people in the same boat as you, it’s a community thing.”
The 93 bus is amongst those next on his list, but for Izzet it’s about getting out and enjoying the runs, something he embodies in each of his videos.
BRKED-OFF hold organised runs every Wednesday and first Saturday of the month, or you can find you nearest run club here.
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