Dear Letsrun,
Blue-collar running does not have anything to do with how hard you work, or whether or not you attend a top university or even necessarily where you work. I'm sure many blue-collar runners did attend schools with money, technology and other advantages, but that doesn't mean they do not become blue-collar after leaving school...in fact, I don't even think it is really possible to be considered blue-collar while still in college. Blue-collar also has nothing to do with training philosophy or personality type.
Blue-collaredness is about what you do aside from running, not what you do while running or training.
Blue-collar runners work full-time jobs in order to support something other than their running careers. Most have wives and kids as well, which makes them the purest form of blue-collar because this is just another aspect of their lives they must put before running.
If your job is to run, you do not qualify as a blue-collar runner, nor are you a blue-collar runner if you work to support your running career. Moving to California to work part-time and train seriously, even if you are living on food stamps and eating canned food for every meal does not qualify you as a blue-collar runner - it simply makes you a runner...a poor, struggling runner, but still a common runner.
I am a blue-collar runner and sometimes feel insulted when the term is tossed around so carelessly. I take pride in my achievements because I have earned them despite my other priorities in life, but they are not my greatest achievements. My greatest achievements are family and career and things that do not just gratify myself, and that is what makes me a true blue-collar.
