The Nashville Oyster Race, Passport 1

If the Lord delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm. Psalm 37:23

This verse was the "Words of Wisdom" card on my desk for Friday, and I held it in my heart this weekend as we competed in the Oyster Race.

The transition area (our headquarters for the race) opened at 6:30 am this morning, and we were there unloading at 6:45. We took our bikes in first and then went back for everything else. When we finished with the second load, we saw that Karen's back tire had gone completely flat! The race hadn't even begun yet! Some ladies from the hot pink team a couple stalls over came over and offered their pump and to help change the tire. We were so grateful for their help!

The race was scheduled to begin at 8:00, but at 7:30 they gathered all the teams together for welcome, race rules, recognition of top money-raisers, and further instructions. We were told to pick one member of our team who was a strong runner and give them a phone. The other two team members would be biking. We only had a couple minutes to get ready. While Karen and I grabbed our bikes, Isaac headed over to where the runners were supposed to go. When we got to the exit, they told us to wave goodbye to our teammates. They had blindfolded him and put him on a bus!

Karen and I were given our first passport, and we had a minute to look over it before the start of the race. It told us to head to Fort Negley before trying to find our teammate. Isaac called on our way over there, and said he was at the Nashville Cemetary. We told him where we were headed, and when we got there he was waiting for us. We had to leave our bikes at the entrance and run up the hill. At the top, we were given our next set of instructions. We were to head to Nashville Cemetary (I think Isaac was supposed to just wait for us there). Karen and I had to go back to where our bikes were parked, but Isaac was able to run down the hill, so he beat us to the cemetary. Karen asked me if the road felt rough. When we got to the cemetary, we looked at her back tire. There was a hole in the tire and the tube was pushing through the hole!

We had to find a tombstone that looked like a tree. Isaac found it and told us where to find him. We had to take a picture of our team to prove that we found it (Isaac has that picture, which I will try to get from him later). Now we had to make our way back to the transition area.

Isaac was still running, and Karen and I were biking. One of the race rules was that you had to stay within 100 yards of your team members, which is hard to do when you are using different modes of transportation. A team rode past us with two people on one bike, like you do when you are kids. Isaac thought that would be a great idea (who could blame him after all that running!). He couldn't share with Karen since she had a hole in her tire, so he hopped on my bike. It is a lot harder to ride with two people when:

1. You don't have a banana seat.
2. You are adults.
3. One of you is wearing a huge backpack!

After almost falling off a couple times, we finally got situated and rode the rest of the way to the transition area. I saw a couple of my friends from the Nashville Hiking Meetup who were volunteers at the check-in point. We were given our next passport: bike to Ted Rhodes Golf Course.