For some reason, I feel the need to talk about myself again.
Listen.
We all want attention. Some people want it in greater quantities than others, and some just get it by being outstanding in some way. The rest of us troll for it in blogs, facebook, etc. Sometimes that bothers me. The need to be considered. Sometimes (presently) I don't mind. LOOK AT ME.
So I have been thinking a lot about collars. An unnecessary part of a upper body covering that seems to mean a lot to many folks. The White/Blue/No collar thing at its most recognized. For some reason this is applied to a certain type of person. I won't explain that, because, we're all Americans here. We understand how to arbitrarily group ourselves so as not to have to think outside the box.
This is applied on Letsrun.com, which is also where all your dreams become reality. There is frequently a debate between "blue collar" and "white collar" runners and training groups. I don't think this is unfair for a second. Honestly, the debate is quite interesting, and really a lot of great conversations happen on letsrun, interspersed with narcissism, racism, misogyny and some latent homosexual comments.
Often, the Hansons training crew down in Michigan is the prototypical blue collar group. I'd agree with that. They all work at a running store and train in crappy weather in a crappy town. Occasionally a story comes along about the next blue collar tough guy who works full time and trains full time and kicks ass and also takes names.
The groups training in Oregon can be generalized as white collared - with the money flowing like a river from Nike. They might have a better financial situation and lots of equipment, but I don't see a real reason to bash them since they are the ones that always wind up on our olympic teams.
So what is the point of blogging about this???
I did start the post by pointing out that this is all about me-
So, where do I fit in?
What sort of collar am I running in? As a fully human person I'd really like to be able to classify myself. Type A/B, Myers Briggs, etc. I have to lean toward the blue collar side, obviously because of my lack of wealth, and the fact that 2 of the 3 places I've lived as a serious runner were freaking terrible training environments, weather-wise, and concerning access to good racing. (props to NC). But none of this is a choice of mine. Blue collar running gets the respect on forums, but white collar gets the medals.
I'm not really complaining. I kind of enjoy the minimalist, grungy running lifestyle. If running is my major pursuit though, I'd like to accomplish more. That is what I'd really like to figure out.
So, I haven't earned a collar yet. I train and race hard and occasionally have a small breakthrough. I also don't work that hard at anything else. My wife is a genius and will always be able to cover for the fact that I bring very little to the table financially or otherwise. Training hard saps my will to do much else, it always has, that's why it took me 5 years to get a mostly useless college degree. I'm not sure if I'm in pursuit of a particular collar color, or if there is a need for one at all. I mean, I'm wearing a permanently stinky race t-shirt right now. The collar is kind of a gross brownish-yellow.
