Taxonomy of marathon runners

These are the training groups I remember from my first two marathons which I trained for with Club Run at what was then called Northwest Fitness. I discovered that running in the winter was the only way to survive the 11 months without sun here and Club Run marathon training -- especially with my friends there, Ed Fisher and Annie Bianco -- was the only way to run at night and feel safe in the nitty gritty city. These were the groups:

Gold (very, very, very fast)

Silver (very, very fast)

Bronze (quite speedy if you ask me)

There were a bunch of groups named according to wavelengths of light and sound. They were all pretty damn fast but I can't remember the names. Sine? Cosine?

Then there were the fruits.

Kiwi (It was my dream to run with Kiwi and finish a marathon in 4 hours.)

Runnin' Raspberries (You know you're getting to the slower groups when they have to go the alliteration route to make it sound all peppy.)

Some very lame fruit which I can't recall whose goal was to finish. A worthy goal, I might add!

A friend mentioned that there should be a vegetable category below the fruits. Probably should.

This Sunday's Minneapolis Marathon will be number 11 for me and number 142 (I lost count) for my best friend, Arnold. Our goal is to 1) refrain from crying during the marathon; 2) avoid snow; and 3) have a freakin' fun time!! (And not die.)

That said, my friend Mary and her running team are going to qualify for Boston on Sunday! (Yes, you are! You ARE!)

:-)