Waymaker: Track and Field Season

 

It looks like I’ve got a possible Saturday job for at least a few months.

 It’s yet another example of excellent timing from the Heavenly Father. On Friday a coworker informed me that one of our salesmen needed help at a track meet. He said he thought the job paid $100 for the day but wasn’t exactly sure. With the economy the way it is I need a little extra money during the week to ease the pain of the very obvious inflation crunch. I didn’t care how many hours it was. Nor was I going to be too picky about the kind of work it involved.

I called the salesman and he gave the basic details. You sit in front of a laptop and record the race in front of you. To be more accurate, you record the race as the kids cross the finish line. We have a camera on a tripod focused in on the finish. The recording makes it possible to enter each runner’s time by scrolling to the exact moment their torso intersects with the finish line. The race timer starts as the coordinator fires the starter pistol. It contains a sensor that trips off with the sound of the gun. That sensor starts the timer.

The timer and the camera both rely information to my computer as I watch the match and stop the video when the race is finished. Then I save each race under the description of the event, ‘7^th grade Boys 400 meter heat 2’ and so on. The only difficult thing I’ve discovered was making sure I remembered which event I recorded. I saved the wrong race under the wrong title for the first couple of heats. It turns out that my mistake was not recognizing how the software automatically loads the next heat once the current one is finished. I was making it more complex than I needed to. Thankfully my partner knew what he was doing. We backtracked a little but settled into a groove after a while.

I'm being descriptive here for people who aren't familiar. I didn't know how any of this worked either but I found it fascinating.

I’m unfamiliar with track and field. My high school didn’t offer it. I would’ve loved to participate in some running event though. Of course this is the older me talking. What’s difficult to know for sure is how much of my current interest in jogging would translate to my high school self. Watching those kids on the track running their hearts out gave me just a twinge of sadness. I played basketball and soccer. I was a decent athlete who struggled with self-confidence on the court. Always deferential, I was happy to pass when I should’ve have taken a shot or drove to the hoop.

Might some level of passiveness have taken over in a team relay or sprint? Probably so. It’s still fun to think that in another life I could’ve been great. Everyone is a champion in some alternate universe.

The guys that set up the recording system at the meet get paid well. At least that’s what Aaron, my counterpart, told me. My portion of the job is the easy part with one exception, you really need to pay attention. It sounds easy but it’s not. On a couple of occasions I found myself too focused on the screen and not the next race. I heard Mike, the coordinator, shouting green light and looking at me from across the track questioningly. The timer runs off a red light, green light system. If I’m ready for the next heat to start I’m supposed to push the green light and let him know he can set the kids in place and fire the pistol.

I left him sitting there a few times waiting. Mike does not like to wait. He runs a very quick event. He told me as much when I shook his hand at beginning of the race. He was cordial but clear “Stay on that green light”. And I meant too but you know…

I’m hoping this leads to more events and more money. Track and field season is short but should consume about 6 to 8 weekends I figured. Maybe by then I’ll have another gig. God always takes care of us when we have a need. My need was a job that I could do on Saturday to ease the strain. All the basic consumer goods are up right now, not to mention gas and food. Inflation is like a pay cut. But it doesn’t matter. Our Heavenly Father always creates a way.

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. Philippians 4:19