The Wake

Long before the sun rises, before the coffee brews in the Courtside Deli, vacuum cleaners hum and Recreation Center staff mill about the empty gym, preparing for another day.

While many students are putting the finishing touches on term papers or cramming for tests, several University of Minnesota students and staff gather in the Rec Center lobby, eager to get at the gym equipment. When front-desk attendant Hanna Loberg unlocks the doors at 5:45 a.m., the early birds file in and begin their morning workouts.

Rosalyn Washington arrived at the Rec Center about 5:30 a.m. She waited in the lobby, stretching and preparing for her workout. A university employee and master’s degree student, Washington said she starts every weekday at the Rec Center, a schedule she has followed for five years.

“In the evening I’m tired,” she said. “(The workout) boosts my energy level for the whole day.”

On a chilly November morning, Washington waited with about 20 others while Rec Center workers turned on lights and put clean towels in dispensers. They would be the first of the approximately 4,000 people that pass through the gym doors each weekday. Along with university students and staff, several members of the Army ROTC gathered in the lobby, talking and joking with each other.

The ROTC students came to the Rec Center on this particular morning for physical therapy in the pool, said Kyle Lundequam, a junior studying aerospace engineering. The Army usually uses the field house for their training sessions, he said, but they have occasional water workouts.

ROTC students and university staff weren’t the only people waiting for the doors to open. Geoff Grant, a National Science Foundation administrator, stood in the lobby, dwarfed by the looming soldiers. Grant, in Minneapolis on business from Washington, D.C., came to the gym while staying at the nearby Radisson Metrodome.

Though he doesn’t always work out so early, Grant said he had meetings all day and could only find time to exercise at 5:45 a.m.

He didn’t think he would become a regular, however.

“I’m not really a morning person,” he said, eyes weary with sleep.

When Loberg started letting people in the gym at 5:45 a.m., the television sets in the Rec Center came to life. ESPN SportsCenter shattered the predawn silence with the latest basketball scores and highlight reels. Exercisers filed through the doors and into the empty fitness centers and locker rooms.

After the initial rush, Loberg settled back as patrons trickled in alone or in small groups. A sophomore working her second semester on the early shift, Loberg said she doesn’t mind the morning duties.

“I just love it because there’s nobody here,” she said. “At lunchtime, it’s terrible. It’s crazy, you can’t even get in (the gym).”

Mat Boatright, another student employee, also noticed the time difference.

“It’s an individualized gym in the morning and a standard, busier gym at night,” he said as he stood chatting with Loberg at the front desk.

While gym patrons streamed in the front doors as light brightened the dark sky, Rec Center employees Angela Coyne and Amanda Dassler shared a makeshift breakfast: dry Lucky Charms in a Ziploc bag. The girls snacked and joked in the Lower Fitness Center while people jogged on treadmills and hoisted dumbbells. Despite the early hour, the two seemed wide-eyed and alert.

“Once you get here it’s not bad,” said Dassler, a child psychology freshman. “It’s just getting up that’s rough.” Many employees feel the same way about the morning shift, Coyne said.

“Most workers are happy to be here - once they’re here,” she said.

Working early in the day has its advantages, though, Coyne added. An elementary education junior working her third semester on the early shift, Coyne gets done with work at 9 a.m., when many of her friends are crawling out of bed. But coming to work gets harder in the winter, Dassler said.

“Riding bike through the snow and cold is the worst part,” she said. “It’s getting tougher to get up as it gets darker out (in the morning).”

Downstairs at the Equipment Room desk, microbiology sophomore Rania Habib didn’t seem so eager about working at 5:30 a.m.

“It’s tough to get up and look at the stars as you’re walking to work,” she said, laughing. “It’s just not right!”

While she did volunteer for the time slot, Habib said her class schedule didn’t allow her much choice. Though she started working the early shift in October, Habib already knows the ins and outs of the morning hours.

“The people who are ridiculously chipper and try to get you riled up in the morning are the worst,” she said.

Since her Tuesday night class doesn’t end until 9:00 p.m., Habib said she has a hard time returning the pleasantries. She tries to treat her customers well, though, she said, and spends her shift handing out sports equipment and towels.

Back upstairs, Loberg remembered a time this fall when the Army ROTC responded after someone collapsed doing pushups. The commotion disrupted the usual morning tranquility, she said, but nobody was seriously hurt. Though the event was one of the more exciting things she remembered from the early shift, she couldn’t recall exactly when it happened.

“All these days just kind of blend together at 5:30,” she said.

As she talked, an Army ROTC student, late for training, hurried to the front desk. He thanked Loberg for letting him in and, before disappearing into the Rec Center, smiled and said, “It’s gonna be a fun morning.”