When I first started running again in 2009, I wrote a blog post entitled “If I had a career as a runner” which basically listed all of the running related things I would do if my career focused solely on running. Examples I came up with were to stretch before and after each run, eating healthy, icing and treating all minor and major injuries. I got to the point where I was running 6-7 days a week, which was tough since I was still working 40+ hours at the office. It definitely paid off though, my race times the first two years were very impressive: it’s when I PRed in all my race distances!
These days, I’ll be lucky if I can get two runs in a week. And that’s only if I’m not traveling or busy with work. Of course, one way to get closer to that career as a runner would to go into coaching. My high school cross country coach was still going to school at USC but was still able to dedicate the rest of his free time to coaching almost 100 runners. Another route would be to become a personal trainer and work with other fitness enthusiasts and helping meet their individual goals. There are a lot of websites available to get you started in the right direction.