We were always told in college that we had to have a balance between all of our activities. Nothing took priority over other things, running was just as important as schoolwork or a job or your social life (note that this does not mean partying- this means developing social skills and having friends). I ran for a strong Division I team too.
I've been out of college for 6 years now and almost all of my teammates still run and race, a lot of us have coached or helped out at a high school, and all of us have gone on to very successful careers and lives. I really think this is because our coach stressed that running is only a PART of who you are-not all of it. He also stressed that a main benefit of running is to be HEALTHY- your running shouldn't be making you unhealthy and this goes for your physical health as well as mental health.
I have maintained my running for the most part after college. I took the summer off after graduating but then fall came and I missed XC so I started up again. My teammates and I meet up once in a while at various locations and we always take the time to run while we are together. A teammate was recently married and guess what we all did that morning? Got up at 6 am and ran together.
I went to a top 20 academic school and saw students who were obsessed with getting good or perfect grades, students who were obsessed with their organization, and students who were obsessed with their frat/sorority. We used to talk about how the athletes at our school were the most normal people because we had several interests and didn't spend our Saturdays in the library like most other kids on campus. Instead of looking at running as burden on our team it was viewed as just a part of your life and you were damn lucky to be on a team with a bunch of like-minded people.
After working in a job which required me to make conversation with several people a day, I realized something: everyone has their "thing". Whether its running, playing the piano, knitting, cars, disc golf, being the head of an organization, volunteering somewhere,etc....I'd say that 99% of people have something that they are absolutely passionate about and they devote much of their time to. I look at the person who spends an hour a day browsing the internet looking for disney collectibles in the same way as I look at someone who spends an hour a day running. It (should) make both of them happy so why not?