I'm in some kind of a team race with various "legs" and things you have to do. We're behind. It's close to the end, and we've finished a leg. There's a break while we go see what we're supposed to do at the finish, which is inside something, as if you go down a wide-open hallway, make a turn, and then you're in a big room/auditorium-like, and there's a bit of an audience. It's lit only in places, as if for a show, open and blank between the audience "bleachers", up to a wall. We're supposed to run up to the wall to finish. Back at the last stop, we get back in gear, I think we're running but I'm not sure, and one of us is missing or falters or fucks around or something, so there's no real chance of us winning. We get to the line in the middle of the room, where [I think] we all stop and just one of us runs to the end. But the person who's supposed to do that has bugged out. We (the rest of us) stand around in confusion for a minute while the other team runs on and wins, but I'm real anxious that we should finish and I fervently call out stuff like "But where is he? We've got to finish! Come on!" And get all worked up. I make a sort of false start to run myself, and the others just stand there, having thrown in the towel, it's all over anyway, there's no point, and so on. We stand there looking glum. I'm terribly embarrassed. I know we've lost, but I feel awkward, unfinished, terribly self-conscious. We should finish the race, but now we'd only be drawing a bunch of pity if we did.
There's this flamboyant woman (middleaged, lots of dark curly hair, jewellery, rather Gypsy-like but with bread) who's part of the staff who put this on, and she comes forward (she's not the emcee, but does things to draw attention to herself anyway) and offers, flamboyantly of course, to run the last bit for us. But it's all over now, it would just be one more awkward thing, we'd just like to become invisible, even the audience is ill at ease. So she comes off it, and even says, No, I guess that sounds a little patronizing, doesn't it? And she quickly trots off, mumbling something about going to the bathroom.