good jobs for runners?

Planning your time for runs can be pretty hard, especially if you have an inflexible job schedule. If you want to keep training and not failing at work at the same time, it's recommended to find a balance between these two things or simply get a job that wouldn't ruin your running plans. The best kinds of jobs that would perfectly fit you in such a case are yoga instructor, trail-running blogger, race director, physical therapist, running coach, nurse, massage therapist, teacher, speciality running store employee, etc.

I would suspect that a public school teacher/professor that doesn't need to coach or take on a second job probably has the best setup for running. Working seven hours days 181 days a year, with a guaranteed paycheck and health benefits.

A local garbage guy literally runs from garbage tote to garbage tote for hours every weekday. He's in fantastic shape and crushes ultra marathons.

Nurse working 50% night shifts

Teaching was one of the jobs that was popular with runners who wanted to keep running out of college. You were on the same schedule as you'd run in high school and practiced at the end of the school day. And you have regular hours with no weekend work which frees you to race when ever you want.

I think anything where the hours are regular would be a good "running" job as would one where you can sort of control those hours. Bill Baillie decided to drive a taxi because it allowed him to choose when he wanted to work which allowed him to run when he wanted to.

Shepherd

Panhandler

Messager boy

I work remotely (web dev). The job isn't key; the remote assignment is. This allows quite a bit of flexibility because I can use a lunch hour to run any time it's quiet (not necessarily noon-ish, though usually it is). Track is a few blocks away and unused before 330 pm for the most part.

And it doesn't matter if I'm wearing my gear before or after a run. When it's quitting time, I am already home (so I can run if need be). It's really nice.

I agree with teacher. I don't want to underscore how difficult of a job it can be. Many are bringing work home each night and on the weekends but if you even start your day a little later you can run in the morning and/or in the afternoons plus you can race on the weekend knowing your boss won't call you up with something ridiculous to do. The summers are a huge help too for traveling to a big road race or laying down a big base for a fall marathon. You also get school vacations that you can use to put in a really good week of training or travel for another race. By the time school starts, you've already done most of the training for a September/October marathon.

College professor probably gives you even more time. I think if you can land a paid gig from coaching then that would work well or doing the running shoe store thing while chasing the dream.

badmemory wrote:

I work remotely (web dev). The job isn't key; the remote assignment is. This allows quite a bit of flexibility because I can use a lunch hour to run any time it's quiet (not necessarily noon-ish, though usually it is). Track is a few blocks away and unused before 330 pm for the most part.

And it doesn't matter if I'm wearing my gear before or after a run. When it's quitting time, I am already home (so I can run if need be). It's really nice.

+1

Same here. I home remotely in a home office. I’m worked from home for almost 20 years now. I used to have to travel weekly, but at least I was home when I wasn’t traveling and even when traveling the worst case was I had to run on a treadmill. Now I only travel about once a month.

If I had to go into an office my same job would not have much flexibility. But working remotely means there is also no wasted time commuting, doing my hair, putting on makeup, etc. I can finish a run and plop right down on a conference call and no one knows I’m still in running clothes or haven’t showered yet.