Your longest work "shift" awake?

I'm going on 22 hours now thanks to covering National Signing Day yesterday pretty much on my own and doing some Web design aspects for our Rivals site, then came the TV interview to break down the class and then I had to cover the Colorado State vs. SDSU basketball game last night, too.

Past 72 hours have been hell gearing up for NSD, but fun in their own way since this is what I love.

It's 8 a.m. and time for finally bed. Yes, I am kind of griping right now, but anyone else had any crazy shifts like this in their career?

 

I'm sure I have the same answer as many on this board...

Too many to list...

 

I'd say off the top of my head I did some special sections that almost ran around the clock when it got up against deadline.

 

It wasn't all one continuous shift, but I pulled a double at RIC that started with opening the ticket counter at 4 a.m. Finished that shift at 12:30 p.m. then took over in baggage at 1 p.m. Supposed to work until the last flight arrived that night, which was scheduled for 11 p.m. or something. Didn't touchdown in RIC until 2:30 a.m. I had to open the ticket counter that morning at 4 a.m. again. I had just enough time to go home, take a shower and change clothes. Back again until 12:30 p.m. and had to cover the gates after that until 3 p.m. So that was 36 hours with no sleep.

 

Longest single shift was Atlanta Olympic bombing. Worked previous day, and it began before I went to bed, so I did not sleep until following night, or roughly 36-40 hours straight.

 

I've had a couple ridiculous shifts, but they probably seem tame on this board.

-16 hours while I was working in the news department during the 2008 presidential election.

-Also once worked from 7 am to 4 am, a 21-hour shift. It was last November and we were hosting all of the corporate managers and vice presidents at some big event at work. I had to be at work at 7 am to help hand people agendas and walk them to the breakfast area. The bus ended up breaking down and they didn't show up until 8:30. Everything was pushed back. So I was in the office until about 6:30 that night. Then I had to go sit through a reception dinner that went until at least 11 p.m. I had to tear down at the event, then had to head to the hotel for the hospitality suite. Had to close that one down too which wasn't bad because I had plenty of free alcohol.

I had to be up the next morning at 7 though. Stayed on site and was on the clock until 5. I had a 1 hour break and then worked until 4 am closing down the hospitality room again. On the third day, (Saturday) I was up at 7 again and worked until about 3:30. Got off just in time to catch the overtimes in the Michigan/Illinois game. In all, I worked 67 hours that week.

 

You need to prioritize if your longest shift comes on signing day.

 

That pretty much echoes mine.

 

Worked special events for an arena while I was in college. One week we had four events, all pretty big shows. Worked just north of 102 hours in six days. Loading out that last show was really rough.

 

To be honest, I assume anything between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. - even if all in one continual heave - is not worthy of consideration here. The day in a life, etc.

So, that being said, I have no stories that can rival the ones posted or the ones that will follow. The only thing that comes close to me are the days of laying out special sections in college where we'd start at around 4 p.m., finish at around 7 a.m. and then send the thing to press. One of those years I recall having a quiz or exam in my 8 a.m. class. Don't recall the outcome of it, though.

 

When I worked at two papers, every Wednesday-Thursday for years I work at my full-time gig from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., then work at the part-time gig from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. It was a 30-mile drive home from the part-time job, which always was fun. Nothing like being light-headed and woozy.

I had Thursdays off from my full-time job, thank God.