How many US Marathoners retire now?

If they retire so what? They have families and lives outside of running. Not many runners can say that. Many runners pride themselves on running fast when they are like mid 30's but have no lady no kids nothing but running in their life, thats gotta suck when you look in the mirror and all you have is running and nothing exciting or brilliant about you life except running

suede-denim secret police wrote:

Carney is quits for everything after this year.

Carney had a nice PR at the trials. Any spring marathons on the agenda?

Does he even still have his Nike sponsorship?? I heard Nike drops people if they haven't performed in a short time.[/quote]

Two words: Evan Jaegar

Carney's performance might be encouraging enough for him to give the marathon one more shot. I think several of the people mentioned will go for at least one more payday, most notably Deena Kastor. Chicago would surely love to have her this fall.

Fu Man Shoe wrote:

Does he even still have his Nike sponsorship?? I heard Nike drops people if they haven't performed in a short time.

Two words: Evan Jaegar[/quote]

evan jaeger has not been dropped.

dont the shoe companies give multi year contracts? so if they have a 5 year contract and they run poorly for 3 years they still have 2 years to get it together?

i am asking, this is not a statement, i dont know the answer.

Fu Man Shoe wrote:

evan jaeger has not been dropped.

I think that was his point: that Evan hasn't done anything recently, and has yet to be dropped. Abdi is another example of someone who had a relatively long dry spell without being dropped.

What do runners do after they retire? Say they dedicated 4, maybe 8 or more years of their life to running, how do they enter the job marketplace while missing out on so many years of experience? Are they taking jobs like coaching and working at shoe stores? Can't imagine this is an easy transition... do any of the sponsors do anything to help with this?

lots of companies have a regression clause in the contracts. so if an athlete does not make a wc/oly team, run certain times, or achieve certain performance standards, their pay rate could drop significantly. so the years often remain the same, but the pay might go from 90k/year to 35k/year.

If you're Bob Kampainen or Dan Lincoln, you were in med/dental school the whole time and go into practice.

nikerunners wrote:

What do runners do after they retire? Say they dedicated 4, maybe 8 or more years of their life to running, how do they enter the job marketplace while missing out on so many years of experience? Are they taking jobs like coaching and working at shoe stores? Can't imagine this is an easy transition... do any of the sponsors do anything to help with this?

nikerunners wrote:

What do runners do after they retire? Say they dedicated 4, maybe 8 or more years of their life to running, how do they enter the job marketplace while missing out on so many years of experience? Are they taking jobs like coaching and working at shoe stores? Can't imagine this is an easy transition... do any of the sponsors do anything to help with this?

Some runners coach or work at shoe stores, but it's really kind of like asking what does a 30 year old (25 year old, etc) do when they have to look for a new line of work. They do all the same sorts of things everyone else does.

AFAIK, sponsors don't help with transition. A professional runner is an independent contractor, and when their contract is over, it's over.

rogers wrote:

Gotta imagine Deena is done in the marathon. Maybe a push for the 10000m at the trial, but I don't see her coming back in either event in 4 years.

If she would have finished 15th, I'd certainly agree. But 6th is still pretty solid.

Brothersport wrote:

rogers wrote:

Gotta imagine Deena is done in the marathon. Maybe a push for the 10000m at the trial, but I don't see her coming back in either event in 4 years.

If she would have finished 15th, I'd certainly agree. But 6th is still pretty solid.

But she was 5 minutes off of the leaders. Same as a 2:14 guy.

I'd Hartmann hadn't been dropped, why didn't his affiliation say Nike?

Curiosity wrote:

I'd Hartmann hadn't been dropped, why didn't his affiliation say Nike?

It looked like to me that the only affiliations they listed were registered clubs, not sponsors/shoe companies.

That not true.

Ive not seen it in the contracts I review.

Good question.

When looking at T & F's News mens world list , throw our Boston assisted times as they do and no americans in the top 50 worlds fastest for 2011 ?

Women ? Throw out Boston , its about the same.

Things got much faster this past year , its beyond tactics that got Meb and Deena medals in prior years.

Winning majors and now even 2nd level events has changed.

American women showed brave race efforts at LA and Boston , hats off to them.

I can see Deena being like Joan Samuelson- just keep going, she's popular, I'm sure she's wealthy enough to not worry about a job. She'll get some money as an Olympic medalist.

She obviously loves running and training.

regression wrote:

lots of companies have a regression clause in the contracts. so if an athlete does not make a wc/oly team, run certain times, or achieve certain performance standards, their pay rate could drop significantly. so the years often remain the same, but the pay might go from 90k/year to 35k/year.

Am I correct to assume that today non-U.S. Champs or Olympians like Jason Hartmann, Brent Vaughn, or Lemuhkle acutally get paid salaries to run? And $90,000 a year? Wow things have certainly gotten better for the middle rung of the elite distance runner. I recall Jim Spivey getting cut back to $45,000 a year after just missing the Olympic Team in 1988. And if you weren't a multiple NCAA Champ coming out of college you'd be lucky to get anything other than shoes and equipment and travel expense money.

$90,000 a year to finish 5th to 8th at U.S. Champs isn't a bad gig.