When you walk through the storm ….

It was a relay executed through the most horrendous of Wellington storms – that relay I spoke of just yesterday…

Thousands have texted me. Tens of thousands have emailed. They want to see the team that won the great Ekiden walk relay and sealed the New Zealand Championships. It was, I must confess a glorious combination of youth and experience as you can plainly see. It was a team that combined all the greatest human attributes: speed, courage, tenacity, canniness, beauty , a common sense of decency and an enormous appetite for subway sandwiches:

The story of this glorious relay shall the good person teach his son or daughter;

And race walking shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,
… But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of walkers;

For he to-day that walks with me

Shall be my teammate, be he ne'er so vile,

This (relay) shall gentle his condition:

And gentle (persons) in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their (person)hoods cheap

whiles any speaks

That walked with us upon (the Ekiden relay).

So you see it is true after all!!