Bill Doyle would say that after Malvern, the four years of college would be a blur. Lord knows my college years were not a blur, they were the most daunting and difficult ones of my life. But to each his own. I think Bill’s experience was probably more typical, and my life crises are more extreme than other people’s because I built up a higher tolerance when young so don’t swerve to escape obvious hazards.
I think of that because I realize my nruns experience has been something of a blur for me. I won’t write down the names of the races here, because I don’t wish to privatize the post or expose it unnecessarily to search engines, but my shifts this year were the following:
February 25th, 2024 Central Park
April 6th, 2024, Gov Is (drizzly, sleet)
April 14th, 2024, Prospect Park
April 23rd, 2024, Franklin Ave area, Bklyn, flyering for Bklyn HM, 1-5 p.m.
April 26th, 2024, Zerospace expo for HM
April 28th, 2024, Bklyn HM
May 11th, 2024, Gov Is
May 12th, 2024, Gov Is
June 18th, 2024, Prospect Park
June 29th, 2024, Gov Is
August 3rd, 2024, Gov Is
August 4th, 2024, Gov Is
August 24th, 2024 Prospect Park HM (raccoon in dumpster)
September 14th, 2024, Gov Is
September 26th, 2024, JC, flyering
September 28th, 2024, JC HM, fluid and marshaling
October 19th, 2024, Prospect Park HM
October 26th, 2024, Gov Is
October 27th, 2024, Gov Is
November 6th, 2024, Warehouse timing
November 16th, 2024, Gov Is
November 17th, 2024, Gov Is
December 7th, 2024, Prospect Park (split for NB)
December 14, 2024, Central Park HM (split at 5k)
I’m counting 24 shifts here, including training and flyering, not counting online meetings and preparation. The pay has been scanty all along, made more so by the fact that there’s scarcely two months’ worth of work here (I say two months rather than one because many of these were like two strenuous workdays). It has been in the front of my mind all along that I should expect some sort of little raise in the next couple of months as I round out my first year. And by that point I should have a real job, a solid source of income elsewhere.
I’m now looking ahead to nearly three weeks of no more grueling loading and unloading, kneeling and wiring. Followed of course by a couple of months of return to labors in the bitter cold, but at least nearby.
