6 years ago....
I was fortunate enough to run with this thing.
The first question most people ask when they hear about this is, "How'd you do THAT?!" And they're right in their line of thinking, which is that when you hear about torch-bearers, they were people who saved puppies from fires or raised 20 orphans as their own.
Not me. :)
I was in the right place at the right time, working for a radio station. Truth is, many of the people who get to run with the torch are picked by corporations. But then again, I use the term "picked" loosely. For my story, a local Chevy dealer who was advertising with our station had somehow had a spot left to fill. My boss (who had first right of refusal and in retrospect was a bit shy) asked me if I wanted it. Right place, right time, right?
The enormity of being a part of this process was not lost on me. It was really one of the coolest things I've ever done. I was four months pregnant and ran for .2 miles.
Last night we watched the opening ceremonies. At the end, when the Chinese athlete ran around the stadium to light the big flame, Casey burst out, "You should go get your torch!" We laughed and thought about how funny it would if right at that very moment, I put on my official Salt Lake City torch-bearer jumpsuit, hoisted the torch, and ran around our block. I briefly toyed with idea of running it over to my neighbors house and making her laugh as the real flame was lit in Beijing, but then we realized we were watching the whole thing on Tivo, and they were probably asleep by now. I did get my torch out, though, and I started thinking again about the whole thing and how it's pretty darn surreal that I have this torch in my closet.
That day in 2002, we started on a bus on the south side of Santa Barbara after the flame had been transported up from Los Angeles. Basically, you would get out of the van, run for bit, pass off the flame, and get back in van. We were on the van for quite a while waiting for the flame to arrive, and we all began sharing our stories of how we got to be there. This is where I realized many of the runners were somehow connected to Coca Cola, or, like myself, Chevrolet. The only person's face and story I remember from that bus, though, was a pregnant woman. When the circle finally made it way to her to tell how she ended up there, she stood up, looking so big she could have given birth any minute, and simply said, "My husband was on flight 93." This being only a few months after 9/11, no one had to tell us, that was the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. It was then that I truly "Got it." I'd never grasped the enormity of the Olympic spirit before then. That this grand spectacle we go through every two years full of display and fanfare and ceremony was so much bigger than any of us, and so beautiful. When it was finally my turn and I stepped out of the van, I was sobbing. Thankfully, my sister was standing right there with a camera crying too, and we both started to laugh and cry together. There were cameras everywhere and people cheering, and I was a PART of it.
I look back and laugh now, because at the time, I was so afraid of not being able to run for 1/5 of a mile. Being four months pregnant and a complete couch potato, I thought I'd collapse! But it all went by so fast, in hindsight, with the adrenaline, I could have ran 4 miles!
Thankfully, I bought the torch. Oh yeah, that was another part of it, if you were more of a "place holder" torchbearer, Chevy wasn't picking up the tab for a torch. So, at a time when Casey and I could hardly afford our rent, I spent $350 on the torch I ran with. And although I couldn't afford/justify the wooden display that went with it, I pull the torch out of a broom closet every so often, dust it off, and remember that it was the best $350 I ever spent, and how lucky I am that I was in the right place, at the right time.
