Significance of a blue-collar runner

It is definitely overused as a term by the Brojos.

It means the runner is proficient with woodworking, smokes prodigiously and wears blue jeans.

It means you have a real job; a real career; and you train when you can. And that you can compete with, and devastate, snowflake runners who are sponsored; have no real job; and have expensive coaches and training resources (e.g., TUEs).

RockyBalboa wrote:

It means you have a real job; a real career; and you train when you can. And that you can compete with, and devastate, snowflake runners who are sponsored; have no real job; and have expensive coaches and training resources (e.g., TUEs).

That still doesn't make sense to me.... Doesn't blue-collar imply manual labor/construction work? I imagine most runners don't have those kinds of jobs

Isn't yuki's .gov desk job considered white collar anyways?

Why is desi considered a blue collar runner, whatever that means?

How is she different from Flanagan, Cragg, etc.

I always thought it was someone who is less talented but works extra hard to make up for it by running lots of mileage. Desi is "blue collar" because she doesn't have the track speed but works her tail off at the marathon. Somehow, this definition has gotten blurred with having a full time job.

Im a forester, does that count?

Educate yourself

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=599824

I never really understood the term completely myself other than to be able to identify who someone might consider being placed in this category and those who would not be.

Does Des Linden have a job outside of running? Maybe she does, I don't know? Don't get me wrong, I could not be happier she took home the main prize. She showed herself to be completely unselfish during the race. A great story.

Hardloper wrote:

Educate yourself

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=599824

This would mean Desi isn't a blue collar runner, though.

So why is she labeled as such? I'm also at a loss for who is and who isn't.

The Brojos lack english skills. Both are never have been. Both are overweight too.

typically refers to a runner that does not have blue blood credentials, yet performs well against the thoroughbreds.

On LRC it has basically devolved to mean a non-NOP runner. The thought being that any training group that pampers its athletes with every possible advantage must be crossing the line into doping.

For me, I think of Brian Sell when people talk about a blue collar runner. Brian was a half decent HS runner, but went to a small school. He busted his butt training and transferred to a small Div I school and made the finals in NCAAA 10k. He joined a newly founded training group that wore funny looking singlets at races and trained in Michigan. He ended up representing the US in the Olympics. So, Sell was a guy who was not a natural talent, did not go to any powerhouse HS or college and ran as a pro for an unknown training group, but ended up an Olympian. The significance of guys like that is to hopefully give hope to runners who do not go to OU, Stanford, etc. and do not end up at NOP or BTC so that they will help build up US distance running. Otherwise, US distance running will be a very small group of hand selected runners with no depth.

Precious Roy wrote:

The significance of guys like that is to hopefully give hope to runners who do not go to OU, Stanford, etc. and do not end up at NOP or BTC so that they will help build up US distance running. Otherwise, US distance running will be a very small group of hand selected runners with no depth.

See, this I can understand for sure. What I find perplexing is why the term 'blue-collar.'

Blue-collar means:

blue-col·lar

ˌblo͞oˈkälər/Submit

adjectiveNORTH AMERICAN

relating to manual work or workers, particularly in industry.

Desi is definitely not a blue-collar, she's been professional for a number of years (and while she may not enjoy the benefits of an NOP runner, she definitely gets more attention than a lot of other pros.)

Even Yuki is not blue-collar. He has an office job.

This term sounds silly. It is an awful description that in actuality does not translate to these runners.

weird term wrote:

I always thought it was someone who is less talented but works extra hard to make up for it by running lots of mileage. Desi is "blue collar" because she doesn't have the track speed but works her tail off at the marathon. Somehow, this definition has gotten blurred with having a full time job.

This disqualifies Kawauchi, who runs only 80-90mpw.

Desi's not a blue-collar runner because she has no other job, and she has a coaching staff and a team and an agent (JOSH COX< JOSH COX< JOSH). She's just an underdog because of her consistent but not remarkably speedy times. She's also low-key and no drama.

Kawauchi's blue collar because he had no sponsorship, has a job and trains on his own.

Cornell boys think anyone without a trust fund is blue-collar.

On this site, “blue collar runner” can effectively be interpreted as “less talented and accomplished runner”. They allegedly have fewer training advantages because they aren’t fast enough or high profile enough to get big-time sponsorship resources. For some reason, here at LRC, this is seen as a virtue. If you looked at athletes in a similar situation in any other sport, fans would simply see this as an unfortunate disadvantage. Go figure.