My back aches. I’m sweating. My bladder is sending out distress signals. I’ve been going full throttle for three hours, and have five hours to go, but I can’t slow down. Not when the stakes are so high: I’m representing my country among the best competitors on Earth, sandwiched between teams from Turkey and Bulgaria. I am competing in the equivalent of an Ironman triathlon for assembling little cardboard pieces. No, seriously. I’m representing Team USA at the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship.
A few months ago, I didn’t know such a competition existed. But it does, and these people are serious, and several hundred have gathered in a small town in Spain. Team USA consists of me, my wife and two teenage sons. We are at one of dozens of tables inside a hot dome. We’ve practised for a month, but nothing like the jigsaw masters, who have trained several hours a day for years.
