The Irish team at the World Athletics Championships…wow!
Yeah, they were all great!
We reached the women’s 4x400m relay final!
I know, I was watching!
Hey, weren’t YOU a promising athlete in your youth?
Well, I don’t like to boast…and you?
Ah, I never quite warmed to it! Not after THAT incident!
Huh?
I remember it well! A few metres from the finishing line, and I was powering towards victory!
Go on…
It was the schools athletics finals, I was in my prime!
Go on…
The bell had sounded – that head teacher was a stickler for rules – and I was in front of all my pals!
Brilliant!
Ten metres to go – actually I think they were yards in those days – and I’m clear of the field!
Sensational!
A gold medal beckoned!
THEN?
Then, disaster! I dropped it!
Oh dear, that’s the problem with the relay race. Any one of the team can just be unlucky, and drop the baton…
What baton? I dropped the egg, and the spoon too! It was the egg and spoon race!
Oh! So were you pipped at the line?
Yes! SO embarrassing! The class smartass passed me, and jeered as he did!
(They order two pints and approvingly compare the prices locally with those in certain urban areas)
Those Irish ladies finished 8th in the world, a super performance!
Yeah, and the relay race is so exciting!
Oh I dunno, it did trigger memories for me…
Huh?
Every time I saw one of the ladies passing the baton to a colleague, I feared it might fall on to the track. I had flashbacks about that moment in my youth…
Did you actually drop the egg – and spoon?
Even more embarrassing! As I closed in on the finishing line, I stooped – to gain an advantage – but somehow I bumped the egg off my forehead, and then dropped the spoon!
Oh dear! Well, I like the relay race! It reminds us of what life’s all about…
What? Running away from people?
No! What I like about the relay race concept is that it symbolises how we cannot make this journey through life without help from loved ones, friends.
Okay…
We can only make it by ‘passing the baton’ to one another at key moments! And if one of us drops that baton, we support that person…
Profound! Speaking of which…
Yeah?
Could you pass me a tenner please so I can order two pints, I’m running low on funds! No joke!
Marvellous! I can see it’s just like your school athletics experience all over again…
Huh?
You’ve egg on your face again!
