You know when you’re out and about and you meet someone new (i.e. the bar, running clubs, the dating scene, etc), topics always come to what you do.

I always like to answer in a round about way.

So Whitney, what do you do?

-I hate that question. What do you mean ‘what do I do’? I sleep and eat and brush my teeth everyday. I do those things. Oh! What do I do for a living? Or what do I do for fun??

Well, both I guess. But what do you do for a living?

-What DON’T I do would be a better question?

(Awkward laugh) Uh…Alright…

-Let’s just say I have a lot of a jobs.

Maybe I should work on the sarcasm when I meet new people.

As I’ve continued this blog, it has become not just a running blog but more a lifestyle blog. Although, I still consider it a straight up running blog because my lifestyle is that of a runner.

I have noticed in a lot of the blogs I follow, you people seem to travel a lot and race a lot. What ever it is you’re doing to have all that free time AND the money to do it, can ya’ let me in on your little secret???!

Unfortunately, I need to pay bills and rent so I have to work. I haven’t had the luxury of getting to travel that much, although the few places I have traveled to have been really fun. (Travel is actually a huge passion of mine and I’m one of those people who would have tiny house if I could travel). The few times I’ve traveled to run a race out of state, it was usually coinciding with another event I had to do.

If you’ve been following me over the years, you’ve probably noticed I do a lot of random things to make money. I post about it on Facebook as well and people in my “real life” notice how busy I always am. A lot of people wonder exactly what it is I do (ya know, to make money).

Actually, I haven’t had the best of luck with careers and jobs in the recent years, so I have accumulated an odd assortment of jobs. When I was younger all I ever pictured myself doing was being a veterinarian. Then after working as a vet tech for a while, I realized that I didn’t want that at all. I loved animals, still do, but I wouldn’t be able to do surgeries or euthanasia. I stayed in the vet tech industry for about 3 or 4 years, but due to crazy, bi-polar bosses, catty coworkers and just plain bad, unethical vets, I switched careers.

I entered the personal training world but that still was a hard field to work full-time and pay all my so bills, so, I have picked up jobs that I never expected I would do…

No, I’m not a stripper! Just keep reading….

When they ask, I usually tell people I have a lot of jobs, but my main job/career I would say is Personal Training….

Job 1: I work as a Personal Trainer and Group Exercise Instructor at the City of Golden Community Center (our rec center). I have a bunch of clients and coach

four separate group fitness classes during the week. I do one that is an older adults strength training circuit and my other three classes are “bootcamp” but I don’t yell at people or make them flip tires, just strength and cardio group classes where I switch up the formats. I absolutely love this job and working there. I’ve worked at a couple different gyms and this is by far my favorite gym. It’s a great place, the people are nice and there’s a good “community/family” feel.

Job 2: Coaching.

2a. I coach Cross Country at Arvada High School

2b. I also coach the Jumps (long jump, triple jump and a little bit of high jump) and Assistant Coach Track and Field at Green Mountain High School.

2c. With coaching cross-country, we work the Bronco’s games to raise money for our team. I’m not sure if I would call that a job per-say, but I definitely do a lot of that. It’s not bad; I serve beer and I get to watch the 4th quarter!

Job 3: Substitute Teacher. I substitute teach at the area schools. I do mostly high schools but have done middle school and elementary schools (although, I probably wont do much more with the young kids – children are hard! Middle school is the worst). I started doing this to make extra money but also because I have thought about becoming a high school teacher. I figured being a sub would give me a look to see if I like it. So far I’m still undecided. I have heard being a sub is way harder than a real teacher because the kids don’t respect subs. I’m still definitely considering being a biology teacher (little known fact about me: I have a Zoology degree).

Job 4: Brand Ambassador/Promo Model/Demo Specialist. This is an interesting industry. These are the people who you see at festivals of all sorts working for a major brand, or at Whole Foods, Sam’s or King Soopers demoing some sort of food, drink or product. Some people work this industry for a living. Others, like me, work here and there for some extra cash. You can divide these types of jobs into three different categories: Ongoing, Short Term Ongoing and One time Events. I have worked all the different types. It’s an interesting industry and there are a lot of advantages and disadvantages.

On one hand you meet a ton of cool, interesting people, it’s flexible, sometimes fun, pays well and you get to travel a bit. On the other hand, you meet a ton of lazy, irresponsible people as well, sometimes the jobs are horribly boring, sometimes getting your paychecks is like pulling teeth and you have to do a lot of work searching for the next event to work.

4a: Ongoing – There is a few companies that I work ongoing with, doing a few jobs for them a month. I regularly work for ZumXr (a natural energy drink, geared towards endurance athletes), Wild Zora (a delicious beef and veggie bar), Two Mom’s in the Raw (organic, raw, granola company), and Premier Image Agency (the company that hires me for all of the liquor promos. I have done Jagermeister, Arta Tequila, Fireball, different wines, and many more) and have also gotten to go to some fun events this way like a firefighter calendar charity event.

4b. Short Term Ongoing – these are jobs that you get a bunch of hours with, but it’s usually only a short-term assignment about a month or two long. I just finished up working an “activation” as the call it for Bai5, an antioxidant drink.

4c: One time events – These are usually one day to a week-long and are associated with an event or conference. I have worked snowboarding festivals (promoting Bear Naked Granola), the Boulder Creek Festival (Morning Star Farms), I have been Mr. Peanut at a Walmart Convention, I have done Kashi at a yoga festival and a Greyhound Bus event at a mall. With these, you usually get into what ever events are going on. For example, with the Kashi gig, it was the Wanderlust festival and there was concerts every night we got to attend because we were working. Or with the Bear Naked Granola gig, I have gotten to meet some pretty famous olympic snowboarders!

Job-ish 5: I also do a lot of non paid work too.

5a: Running – sometimes I feel like training for a race is a job itself. I could say the same about dating….

5b: 3W Ambassador – volunteering at races, packet pick ups and run clubs.

5c: Warm Up trainer for All-Out Multisport’s events

Needless to say, yes, I am very busy and you’re probably wondering how I even have time to get to bars and other social events to have the “what do you do” conversation.

I am really good at time management!

Future plans/goals/dreams?

I’m still not quite sure what I want to be when I grow up. I do really like coaching and I really do like personal training. But coaching isn’t ever full-time and personal training is hard to make a full-time living at, especially with my horrible selling skills and my view on how I want to teach people how to be healthy on their own (that’s a topic for a whole separate blog). I have thought about owning a running store. Also, like I said before, I thought about teaching because I love biology, would get to use my major and I can still coach and personal train on the side and during the summers. Lots of options!

But for now, I have just accepted a new job that would allow me to keep coaching and personal training but I would get to get rid of ALLLLLL those other crazy, random, boring, annoying brand ambassador jobs. I would be down to just TWO jobs and more importantly, two jobs that I LOVE.

What is this new job, you’re asking. You have to wait! heheheheheheh Hint: It’s related to running!