Playing With Fire

It was one of those invitations you accept instantly, then wonder what happened to the connection between your brain and lips. When the sponsors of the Olympic torch relay called to ask if I'd like to take a turn as a torchbearer in Greece, I leaped at the offer, only to spend the next month wondering how on earth I was going to fake running 500 m, holding aloft the Olympic flame. Not being one of nature's athletes, I hadn't run that far since school.

It didn't help to know that there would be 10,999 other torchbearers between...