Blue Collar or Yuppie runner 2021: Mark Coogan says Heather Maclean is a blue-collar kid

Some of the people on this board never disappoint when it comes to exhibiting their jealousy and idiocy. Blue collar has traditionally meant not being born with a silver spoon in their mouth and having to work for what they get. The title doesn't require you to do a construction job. Mark Coogan is completely right when he classifies Heather in this manner. She didn't go to a private or prep school, her personal coach didn't send her around the country to chase times in invitational meets, and she didn't go to a Power 5 or Ivy university (she went to her state university because Julie LaFreniere saw something special and did a great job bringing it out of her). Heather has worked incredibly hard to get where she is, both athletically and academically. Having watched her run since Peabody high school, through her time at UMass, until now, she has been the same person.; friendly, easy-to-smile, yet incredibly competitive and determined. There should not be negative word about her ascent to stardom. She should be congratulated. and lauded. Only on LetsRun would earning a graduate degree while running at an ascending level would be labeled as a negative in making her not "blue collar".

Great job Heather. You make everybody in Boston proud.

To be a Blue Collar runner you don't need a literal blue collar job but you have to have a full time non-running job. It could be an accountant, doctor, or pharmacist just as much as a factory worker. They also had to grow up working or lower middle class. No legacy admission to Harvard.

Even if they are offered a contract to be a full time athlete they turn it down. If that means taking PTO to go win an Olympic medal and then returning to work the day after that is what it means.

Turning down a pro contract if it’s lucrative enough to work in the mill is dumb

Working a blue collar job right now and I’d much rather be getting paid to run around town and advertise shoes and some energy boosting shakes

No. Blue collar had a clear meaning for 100 years until very recently when young people starting using the term to mean hard working. Ask in the office on Monday and most people will telll you that white collar means office and blue collar means manual labor. I hate when people try to redefine words to their benefit.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/wealth-management/120215/blue-collar-vs-white-collar-different-social-classes.asp#:~:text=Blue%2Dcollar%20worker%20refers%20to,imply%20another%20physically%20exhausting%20task

.

Nope, WRONG.

hsiwhsidu wrote:

To be a Blue Collar runner you don't need a literal blue collar job but you have to have a full time non-running job. It could be an accountant, doctor, or pharmacist just as much as a factory worker. They also had to grow up working or lower middle class. No legacy admission to Harvard.

Even if they are offered a contract to be a full time athlete they turn it down. If that means taking PTO to go win an Olympic medal and then returning to work the day after that is what it means.

OldNECoach - You nailed it. Nothing surpasses the insecurities of so many Lets Run posters. I suspect many are really immature and put way too much emphasis on running with scarce recognition of life outside of the culture, but it is disappointing. Ms. McLean's story is outstanding, and one can only guess as to what she was thinking at the starting line at Monaco. It is a long way from Massachusetts, but a richly deserved status. My brother and I, both Power 5 scholarship athletes from real single mother poverty and homelessness with later being very lucky to have educations, professional accomplishments, careers, and family life which far exceed our running accomplishments, find much to cheer about with Heather McLean.

A long way from MA? How about runners from small town IA or WI or MN or MO? I don't understand your point.

rogermortimer wrote:

OldNECoach - You nailed it. Nothing surpasses the insecurities of so many Lets Run posters. I suspect many are really immature and put way too much emphasis on running with scarce recognition of life outside of the culture, but it is disappointing. Ms. McLean's story is outstanding, and one can only guess as to what she was thinking at the starting line at Monaco. It is a long way from Massachusetts, but a richly deserved status. My brother and I, both Power 5 scholarship athletes from real single mother poverty and homelessness with later being very lucky to have educations, professional accomplishments, careers, and family life which far exceed our running accomplishments, find much to cheer about with Heather McLean.

No one ever said her story wasn’t impressive, but that doesn’t make her a blue collar runner, and drinking Dunkin and Bud Light CERTAINLY doesn’t make her a blue collar runner.

The term blue collar runner has been bastardized by these boards

This isn't about jealousy, though. It's about definition.

She went to university, has a masters degree, was in sports her entire life, is a full time sponsored athlete with a coaching team at her disposal.

This isn't blue collar. And there's nothing wrong with her NOT being blue collar, she's still awesome, she's still an inspiration to a ton of girls and women runners, and amazing proof that hard work can take you far. NOT being blue collar doesn't take away from all of her hard work and all-around how incredible she is.

Her parents may have been blue collar, maybe even her childhood was, but she is not a blue collar runner right now. To call her 'blue collar' (especially for the silly reasons Coogan lists) is just not accurate. Being scrappy is not the same as being blue collar.

No one is saying she didn't work incredibly hard, though. No one is saying anything negative about her. She seems like a pretty popular runner on these boards. Being blue collar isn't some 'achievement.'

Blue collar usually means that they weren't among the best in the country in high school.

former Iowa Great wrote:

No. Blue collar had a clear meaning for 100 years until very recently when young people starting using the term to mean hard working. Ask in the office on Monday and most people will telll you that white collar means office and blue collar means manual labor. I hate when people try to redefine words to their benefit.

You are correct in the primary (original) context. But--and you are likely very traditional and can't deal with nuance without blowing a gasket and having one of your nuts fall to your concrete floor--the letsrun version is more figurative. The days of a Phil Coppes or Dick Beardsley are long gone, although the likes of Isaac Updike, 5th at the Trials steeple might be your closest throwback. Ran D2 and has had to make his own way as an unsponsored runner.

I think Brian Sell was considered one of prime blue collar runners (on letsrun) some 15-20 years back and he was in dental school. It's hard work along with working toward something else on your own, without a lot of support. The concept is not hard. Open your mind a bit.

And in McLean's case, as others here have pointed out, she came from a modest background, and worked her way up, running for a state school not known for producing top distance runners. In that context, I'd also put someone like Elle Purrier in that background--sure they probably had more money but you have to work your tail off in a dairy family and she also went to a less-than powerhouse program, working through the summers at the farm until she made it big at the end of her college career. In the end, it doesn't matter much so no need to get so wrapped around your concept of the definition.

former Iowa Great - of course you understand the point. You are being, well, consistent with Lets Run posters. It is indeed a long way from Peadbody high school to competing in Monaco, both literally and figuratively, just as it is with someone from Des Moines. But Ms. McLean is not from Iowa, you see. Can I ask, what is your level of education and professional achievement? Typically explains immature and obstinate behavior, especially if one cannot justify mindlessly running lots of miles to no tangible end.

QED

Some types would prefer to stubbornly believe they're right rather than understand the common currency and celebrate what is signified. No one said blue collar is an achievement (except to make a strawman argument), but it is the achievement from a blue collar background and grounding that many of us find laudable beyond the quotidian press space for the anointed golden boys and girls.

I have an MBA. I rose to a high level within an athletic department which allowed me to retire at a young age to get away from the stress. I also competed for a national championship team while in college. And I have always been a low mileage guy.

OldNECoach wrote:

Only on LetsRun would earning a graduate degree while running at an ascending level would be labeled as a negative in making her not "blue collar".

ehh what? no one is sayin she’s anything negative she just ain’t blue collar. why’s that such a big deal for y’all to claim? it ain’t an olympic medal or anything

I’m talking about parents of high schoolers spending money on private coaches, traveling cross country to invite/elite meets, paying for running camps, strength coaches, nutritionists, buying their kid $200 training shoes and spikes. Putting your 4 year old in soccer is hardly the same.

I am unaware of any individual on the US Olympic team who fits that description. Are you saying that every member is a blue collar runner?

Whole Cohan Clan is clueless. Those stereotypes are horrible. She is not blue collar. GTFO with that. Geez.