Not being famous, a local achiever or a ridiculously rich friend of the sponsors, I never dreamed I’d get my hand on the Olympic torch as it made its way through Leeds. It just shows how wrong you can be.
The Torch itself led the procession of early morning parkrunners at Hyde Park. The parkrun, uncapitalised in the style of ee cummings, is a national and now international phenomenon with thousands of runners of all ages, abilities, shapes and sizes tackling a 5km course each Saturday morning at 9am. It’s free and it’s wonderful, we’ve made lots of new friends, taken on new challenges and now, to put the tin hat on it as we say in Yorkshire, we got to see and to touch the torch itself. I had to shed a tear.
Naturally my friend Andy and I treated it with the solemn dignity it deserved. Naturally.
OOOh you’ve fuelled my excitement now! We’re going into Bradford to try and catch the torch relay tomorrow!
It was wonderful, Julie – just to get my hands on the torch! And of course I was wearing my ERR top!