Different type of timing, 5k premium, 6 in a row

For the second day in a row I left work early.  This time it was to help Chris with timing a county championship track meet.  I had been to a couple other meets to get some familiarity with the hardware and software used for the meets.  This was the first time I was being counted on to be there for the entire meet.

My primary role was to work the computer used to import times for track events into the scoring software.  I also manually entered all of the field results into the meet software as well.  This can be rather tedious when you have to figure out tie breakers when kids finish with the same height or distance.  Chris was primarily working the system that runs the finish line camera, the job that carries more responsibility.

The flow of stress in timing a track meet is definitively different than what I encountered in roughly 8 years of chip timing road races.  In a chip event there is a lot more pre-race work that needs to be completed ahead of time.  On race day once runners start crossing the finish line and times are posting correctly you are just hitting a couple buttons on a regular basis but for the most part things are on cruise control, unless a problem arises.

With a track meet you constantly have your hands on the sticks, timing is very much a manual process.  When the finish image processes you are manually placing a line on the chest of each finisher and making sure that line is associated with the correct lane.  You also need to be able to quickly determine DNS (did not start) lanes when kids don’t run for whatever reason which happens often.

The distance events get really stressful since they all finish in one lane.  As kids came in I was trying to write down their assigned number in finishing position.  Sometimes they were bunched so tight it was too hard to tell and in some cases the hip bib number the kids were wearing either fell off or was folded over and not clearly visible.  In those cases you need to be able to identify kids by uniform from the image.  Chris has been involved with high school running for years and knows the uniforms like the back of his hand.  If I was doing it solo I would have struggled a lot more.

During the prelims I ran the camera system for a few heats and did ok with it.  I have a decent general understanding of how the stuff works but there is still a ton of stuff I am clueless about like meet logistics, various rules, and just how things are supposed to interact and flow.  Despite my being new to the scene we did well time-wise, finishing the meet sooner than expected.  However finishing “early” meant around 9PM which still meant I put in close to 7 hours.  Although it is interesting learning how camera based timing works, when I factor in what the school pays for track timing I don’t think it is going to be something I will be doing long term.  My free time is more valuable to me at this point in my life.

Yesterday I contacted our local Toyota dealership, hoping they would be helpful in finding a Tacoma with the specs I am looking for. I was hesitant to even involve them since they have a reputation for having poor inventory and big fat addendum stickers. I supplied a sales guy with the VIN number I found on the Toyota web site of a truck very close to my specs that was supposed to be available at the end of April.  When he called me he said could not find that VIN in his inventory system. He said it could just be “something weird”.  Uh ok.

So I again tell the guy what I am looking for.  He said he would talk to his sales manager and call me back.  He does call back as promised but tells me that his manager said he didn’t have anything available with those specs for a couple months and if they get it, it will have “premium pricing”.  I asked what that meant.  He said $5000 mark up.  I laughed out loud and asked him if he was serious? I told him there was no way that was something I would go for.  He said he had no input with pricing and was just letting me know what his manager said.

I told him it sounded like they weren’t very interested in selling me a vehicle.  I told him I guess I would just contact other Toyota dealerships and see if they were more interested in doing some legwork for me.  It was a real turn off.  It was like if I didn’t have an easy sale to throw on their lap on an in stock vehicle they didn’t want to be bothered.  Oh well, fck them.

I saw last night the good news that Bernie won Wisconsin, his 6th consecutive primary win.  Even though his win streak has been putting cracks into the Hilary battleship, the reality is because of the ridiculous super delegate system, Bernie not only has to win states but he has to win them by large margins.  His refusal to participate in the traditional corrupt campaign finance system means he doesn’t have the huge super delegate ace in his pocket, which seems to be owned by the highest bidder.  So despite his win streak, the reality is Bernie still faces a steep uphill battle.   If he manages to win New York, the state Hilary was a senator for for eight years, a lot of people might start taking notice that maybe Hilary is not necessarily the de facto democratic nominee.