Is the dream realistic? How many U.S. born men and women are making over $100,000/yr as professional distance runners?

Too many people, esp. young ones, forget how important connections are, even moreso than talent. Esp. on social media--it's a rat-race to become famous.

RE: what smaller groups get e.g. Hoka NAZ, Saucony Freedom TC, Brooks Beasts, Boston NB, Reebok Boston etc.

For obvious reasons won't give too much detail, but I know some non-US athletes getting offers from one or more of the above groups for $40-60K USD.

Compared to other countries that frankly is pretty good money. Frankly if you are a non-UK European or Canadian who isn't world class you're looking at a shoe deal. I know Commonwealth games medalists, World Champs finalists, who are getting free shoes, no base salary, and some hard to hit bonuses. It's my understanding it did not always used to be this way in smaller non-US markets but the strength of Nike has seen most other shoe companies become extremely frugal and judicious with their pro contracts.

At least in the US you can be average (e.g. not win a national title, not go to Worlds/Olympics, but still have okay times) and have a hope of not having to work a second job while you train.

David S wrote:

The brojos sort of did this already:

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/09/pro-runners-salaries-much-professional-runners-make-unveil-one-sports-biggest-secrets/

Some names in the link are missing from the list

This is the media, which has proven time and time again to be fake.

LackOfDepth wrote:

100K is a decent salary for college graduate getting a professional job in the first few years. But you need to earn that kind of money for 30 years to have a decent living and some hope of retirement.

Is living in San Francisco a requirement for this?

$100k/year as a college graduate after the first few years is WAY above average for college graduates.

Lots of pro runners make more from coaching than they do from shoe contracts or other sponsorships. I can think of several who make well into six figures just coaching online. $100 a month x 100 hobby joggers = $10k per month.

Get famous, be nice and work on your social media presence while you are resting from your last workout.

Do you think Leo Manzano is making some money?

Didn't he retire?

not my real name wrote:

umm, every heard of Jordan Hasay?

the fact that not a single person has mentioned her is hilarious. She's making bank, even with her recent injury, more than just about everyone short of Rupp. She also deserves every penny.

"Bank" Good try buddy.

Jordan was scraping by. Thankfully her debut marathon resurrected her career and salary.

I know I'm quite late to this thread but in reality very little high schoolers or young running stars will go on to actually make it professionally. Even less are the kids who didn't do very well in high school but still want to make it a profession to run. Just take a moment to think about what it takes to be a successful distance runner: living at altitude (I believe 95% of distance runners in the olympics lived or have trained at altitude), the time to train, stretch, weights, etc. (which can take multiple hours a day), a natural physiologically efficient body/form, and many other smaller things that many people just do not have. On top of this, you need the discipline, motivation, and drive to get out there on days when it is raining, snowing, windy and other bad weather conditions. Furthermore you will need to have the discipline to eat a very nutritious diet so that your body can efficiently recover and you will still need to train on days when you might be sore or just in general feeling like garbage. Despite all of this I still truly believe many people can become great distance runners in their life. Maybe not Olympic level but any able bodied person (that has the traits listed above at least) should be able to run very fast with many years of training. I mean when do distance runners and people in general hit their fitness peak in life? Usually at 25-30 years old which gives anybody many years to train and become their best. If you are not a fast runner at 16, 18 or even 20 years old you still have at least a decade to train until your fitness starts to decline. And who knows how fast you can become in just 5 years of training. Some people who are naturally talented will be faster in the beginning or will be able to get faster over the course of their life time but what you have to remember is that a very large portion of distance running is just adaptations to different stresses. Not getting faster? Just run more. Have you peaked and you're running over 100 miles a week? Add a structured workout plan. Peaked again with that workout plan? Add different workouts based on your weaknesses and areas that you need to improve. Again, adaptations to different stresses is what is going to get you to excel at any sport. Basically all I am trying to say is that I honestly believe that anyone can train themselves to become possibly national level runners. I mean you don't have to go to the Olympics or even be world class to make a living off of running. Many elite runners never made it to the Olympics for whatever reason and they still make a living off of the sport. You don't have to be the #1 Nike sponsored runner to make it. I mean just look at Yuki Kawauchi who still worked a full time job (I know he recently quit and is now only focused on running but for multiple years he was able to be a professional runner while still working a job) and he was able to be one of the fastest marathon runners in Japan. He wasn't even sponsored by any company. And I doubt that even 90% of professional distance runners make $100,000 a year. That's way more money than a basic living wage. But to answer the question in the title, no. A very large majority of people will not make it as a professional runner. Whether thats due to the factors listed above, life-long injury, or other uncontrollable factors, that is just the truth of life.

What constitutes "scraping by?" I don't remember her ever being poor.

She has never dipped under $100k per year.

Hard cold truth wrote:

Just wow... wrote:

How many kids who dream of running professionally in order to support themselves with a degree of comfort will make it? How many American born males in the U.S. who make over $100K/yr as pro runners? more than 20? 10? Less? How about females?

Newsflash, $100k a year isn’t comfortable when you know you have a shelf life and aren’t qualified to do anything else when you retire at 30, if you are really good.

Unless you are legitimately competing for Olympic medals, being a pro distance runner is a waste of time in America.

Yeah, thanks for the "newsflash". There's no way these guys could move on to have a career in coaching, personal training, an 8-5 job in an office, etc. Once they retire at 30 they are just living in a basement suffering for the rest of their life with no opportunity. Poor guys....

DIII Recruit wrote:

David S wrote:

The brojos sort of did this already:

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/09/pro-runners-salaries-much-professional-runners-make-unveil-one-sports-biggest-secrets/

Some names in the link are missing from the list

This is the media, which has proven time and time again to be fake.

Wow I wish I had god given speed talent given to me at birth. Then, when I work hard at improving (just as hard as most of the other kids trying to drop their PRs), I'll progress WAY faster than all the other kids and be cream of the crop. - Even though I didn't do anything different than them in training. Then, when I sign a big contract and get sponsors and 250k a year, I'll pretend like I'm struggling and that I should be paid as much as football players in the NFL. Because running intervals and doing lunges on the infield is so tough on me, I deserve to have a salary higher than 99% of the world. Man, life is so tough as a pro runner.

In the words of Lebron James after Colin Kaepernick (has made over 40$ million playing in NFL) sued the NFL - "I hope he gets a ton of money and sets his kids up" Because Kaepernick's family is definitely not set with $40 million. Getting a new pair of gucci slippers each month ain't cheap.

runn wrote:

Think how much it would help the sport if a high school kid knew that if he/she dedicated themselves they could make a little money for a while before settling down.

It wouldn't help one iota. This I know.

Affolder fan wrote:

Add Hunter to the list.

Hunter is well over $100K because he's a landlord to half the Tinman bums.