At 8 a.m. on any given weekday, just around the corner from the Foggy Bottom Metro station you’ll likely spot four or five bike messengers huddled around a red Ford Econoline van. Each morning they meet with groggy eyes to rummage through wrapped packages like slightly under-enthusiastic children on Christmas morning. Brought in via Dulles International Airport, the packages are addressed to locations all over the District. This is the first run of many for these couriers.

Blink and you’ll miss them. Manifests are quickly stamped, packages disappear into oversized messenger bags, and everyone moves out in a matter of seconds. I’m trailing William Lorsen (who goes by Ian) to see what its like to be a bike messenger for a day. Zipping by the White House, down Pennsylvania Avenue and into Chinatown, we make three quick drops before heading to the World Bank to start visa work at 9 a.m. When a World Bank employee needs a visa to travel abroad quickly, the documentation is shuffled between the H Street office and the many embassies in the downtown area, all on the back of Ian’s custom built Soma fixie. Running visas represents one of the niches in courier employment, which also includes legal filings, architectural drawings, and Hill work.