By the time the community torch celebrations for Kamloops were extinguished Wednesday night I was a nervous wreck.

The organization, the anticipation, the worry that something might go wrong weighs heavily on a person.

No, I was not on the community torch taskforce committee in charge of welcoming Vanoc's torch relay or in charge of putting on two celebratory shows.

I was co-ordinating The Daily News coverage from the start of the torch's arrival in Chase at 3 p.m. to the lighting of the cauldron by Mark Recchi at 7 p.m. in Hillside Stadium.

You may wonder what's the big deal with that. Well, let me tell you, it's pressure, man. Reporters and photographers are low folk on the totem pole when it comes to having any say at all in how an event progresses. We have one chance to get it right and then we are out of luck.

To add to the difficulty, we are a small daily with limited resources so every person must be strategically placed, which was my main job.

So here's how it went. Reporter Cam Fortems was sent to cover Chase and Pritchard. Photographer Murray Mitchell would handle the photos from Chase to First Avenue in Kamloops.

We had meetings. I sent out written memos. But at 1 p.m. Wednesday, I realized I hadn't spoken at all to Mitchell since his shift doesn't start until Wednesday. I called him at home. He thought the reporter was taking the photos in the rural communities. He was still charging photo equipment at home.

"Move it, baby," I said. "You're on."

He arrived in Chase just before 3 p.m. to discover the torch was early. He had to park, grab his gear and run as fast as he could to capture a shot of the final runner. Then he hightailed it back to his car and drove to beat the torch motorcade to Pritchard.

He got some terrific pictures there and then booted it to Valleyview for the torch arrival at Tanager. He ran and drove through Valleyview, coming up through back streets to diarize the event in photos.

Meanwhile, Fortems discovered he got the torchbearers who had little to say.

"It's like they thought they weren't allowed to talk to reporters," he said in frustration when he walked into the newsroom. "And by the way, the two minutes that you said Vanoc told us we'd have with the runners is 30 seconds at the most."

Ring, goes my telephone. It's reporter Jason Hewlett calling out of breath from his Valleyview station. "Just so you know, we're only getting about 20 seconds to grab a quote from the runners."

That was good information for me because I was on Victoria Street. I was ready to nab the runners whether or not there was family and friends wanting photos. I'll be in those photos. Besides they had 300 metres to take pictures.

The thing is when you talk to one torchbearer for 20 seconds, you have to then run hard to catch up to the next runner. Tearing down Victoria Street in high-heeled boots is not good advance planning.

Back to the newsroom I went to write up my portion of the relay and to fret about whether photographer Keith Anderson would be able to get the money shots of Mark Recchi. First, he had to be on the stands of the stadium to see the pass off from Nancy Greene Raine to Recchi. Then he had to charge off the stands to get in front of Recchi for his run across the field and to the stage. Finally, he had to battle the crowds to get into the media area for the lighting of the cauldron.

Could he do it?

He did it. There was never a doubt in my mind, although I did have reporter Robert Koopmans, who is also a fine photographer, and Mitchell at the stage as back-ups if anything should go wrong.

Koopmans also had to video the event for our first effort at getting video on our website as well as write up the stadium story. Reporter Mike Youds was also on site covering the entertainment and getting colour comments from the crowd, along with mugs.

It wasn't easy sitting back at the office, waiting for all this to happen, you know. 

Then it was up to associate news editor Catherine Litt to put it together in four pages of creative glory, and all by press time of 11 p.m.

Amazingly, it all worked. The reporters got their copy in quickly. Photographers managed to submit a ton of photos and Litt waded through it all to turn out a pretty stunning commemorative section, which, by the way, was the brainchild of news editor Mike Cornell.

Thank goodness for professionals.

Yup, it was a tough day for me.

And celebration organizers Tammy Campbell and Kathleen Biagioni thought they had the pressure.

All they had to do was organize a few hundred people, plan two stage shows, co-ordinate some dignitaries and follow all of Vanoc's instructions.

What a breeze.

Susan Duncan is city editor of The Daily News. Her column appears Fridays. Email her at sduncan@kamloopsnews.ca.