Elite marathoners who WORK full time?

Some excellent examples. are there many athletes today doing it?

Anything over 2:08 is not elite.

I think Ian Burrell is working full time as a lawyer or he was going to law school when he ran 1:02 and 2:12.

Operative word wrote:

Many did wrote:

Brandan Foster was a teacher when he was at his best.

We said WORK FULL TIME, not babysit for cushy pensions and summers off.

So get a teaching job if you want to have plenty of time to train and piles of spending money while you tour the road racing circuit winning everything in sight.

Then you can continue on with your cushy pension while you put Clive Davies and the like to shame in your golden years.

M.I.A. wrote:

Unless the RAF gave him special treatment, Jones wins this category hands down. No one mentioned Clayton and he worked full time and ran twice as much as Jones, FWIW

They did not which is why he bought himself out.

nnt wrote:

Anything over 2:08 is not elite.

Dennis Kimetto could probably run 2:08 when he worked full time as a farmer before he was "discovered" by Geoffrey Mutai. (And yes, he was running a lot, but no "formal" running as the Africans and Renato define it.)

Paul Ballinger was a chicken farmer throughout his running career and won Fukuoka in 2:10:15

Barrister II wrote:

Well, former 2:13 marathoner Joe LeMay did. He would run before and after work. He kept an online training log as well (not sure if it is still up). It was associated with Bob Hodge's site.

I remember him during an unusually snowy year in the mid 90's running in the parking lots at night at the Danbury Fair Mall in Connecticut. He was dedicated.

nnt wrote:

Anything over 2:08 is not elite.

Depends on the decade

Steve Way(UK)2hrs 15 minutes last years Commanwealth marathon.He works full time.Only started running at age 33 at 16 stone,incredible story.

Nate Jenkins - 7th at the 08 Olympic Trials, 2:14 PR, full time teacher.

Once a Worker wrote:

Nate Jenkins - 7th at the 08 Olympic Trials, 2:14 PR, full time teacher.

Not when he ran that race he wasn't. He was a part time assistant coach and got paid to shave every morning.

um nooo wrote:

nnt wrote:

Anything over 2:08 is not elite.

Depends on the decade

No way 2:08 is elite. That would mean that this slow poke that won the London Olympics ran an elite time that day... Haha... No way... Elite is more like... sub 2 hrs. And Meb of course never was elite. Neverrrrrrrrr! xD

Ian Burrell is a Lawyer.

otter wrote:

Barrister II wrote:

Well, former 2:13 marathoner Joe LeMay did. He would run before and after work. He kept an online training log as well (not sure if it is still up). It was associated with Bob Hodge's site.

I remember him during an unusually snowy year in the mid 90's running in the parking lots at night at the Danbury Fair Mall in Connecticut. He was dedicated.

I remember him running from Danbury to Brewster train station. Dude was legit and that site was funny. Also he got screwed at the trials.

There is a 2:17 (1:03 low half) guy in my area who works full time. He is an elementary school phys ed teacher though. I think that counts as elite but I'm not sure it could be called "long hours at work." If you are asking whether you can achieve elite status while working full time, the real answer is that you have no other choice if you are not already wealthy. You have to become elite before anyone will pay you to train and race. i do think that if you can run 2:30 or 1:10 you can cherry pick races and make maybe 10-15k per year in prize money. It is not alot, but it can supplement your income a bit.

Teaching is a part time job. 9 months a year, 6-7hours a day, 5 days a week with lots of teacher planning days, every holiday imaginable including 2 weeks at Christmas. A full time job is 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year with 2 weeks vacation.

It is a very rare individual who can hold down a real full time job and run under 2:30 for a Marathon.

PartTime wrote:

Teaching is a part time job. 9 months a year, 6-7hours a day, 5 days a week with lots of teacher planning days, every holiday imaginable including 2 weeks at Christmas. A full time job is 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year with 2 weeks vacation.

It is a very rare individual who can hold down a real full time job and run under 2:30 for a Marathon.

Go for it.

There were more sub 2:30 marathoners in the US when the sport was amateur and almost everyone worked full time than there are now.