A Coffee Table. A Dog Crate. The Top of the Empire State Building. Jacob Cohen on Quitting Investment Banking to Become the Internet's 5K Guy
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCASTShow Notes
Jacob Cohen has run a 5K in a dog crate, a port-a-potty, and on top of the Empire State Building–-and no, he is not stopping anytime soon.
Before he was the internet's favorite 5K guy, Cohen was an investment banker in Atlanta, overweight and grinding through a banking job while his content dream sat on the back burner.
Running, however, changed everything.
It helped him lose more than 40 pounds, and a run club of full-time creators convinced him to hit record. He posted for a year to 2,000 followers before a joke 5K around his coffee table in October 2025 lit the fuse: it led to 100,000 followers in 50 days and a full-blown escalation of the most absurd run locations imaginable.
In this conversation with Dominic, Cohen pulls back the curtain on the videos everyone's friends keep sending them. He addresses the skeptics head-on (yes, he really does the 5Ks; the watch accuracy is another story), reveals his most physically miserable run location, and explains why the World Cup crowd was in on the bit.
He also opens up about the deeper mission: rejecting the unattainable, chicken-and-rice version of fitness the internet sold him at his lowest, and proving working out can actually be fun.
Plus, his surprisingly generous take on David Goggins, celebrity collabs with Diplo, Bert Kreischer, Teddy Swims, and Casey Neistat, his dream Great Wall of China 5K, and why the biggest what-if of his life was simply pressing record.
Tap into the Jacob Cohen Special.
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