Race in Review: Part Two
As Victoria said in part one of Race in Review, last Saturday we took on Challenge Nation. Going into the race, I was a firm believer of the “just have fun” attitude–my goal was to finish the race, and to have fun doing it. I didn’t care what place we came in, as long as it wasn’t last. As Victoria and I gathered our team however, it became clear that my teammates were in it to win it.
Predictions on what place we finished? Anyone? Keep reading, I promise I’ll tell you how we did at the end of the post!
We started our journey downtown at Dick’s Last Resort, where we received our clues and set off on our trek. Not really knowing what to expect, we solved the first clue and headed off across the river, slightly flustered and unsure about the rest of the clues. About 10 minutes into our jog to a clue (teammate Collin insisted we run), we realized we should probably stop and figure out all of the clues before we continued on our way so that we could figure out the most efficient route to our destinations. Significantly more confident in our game plan, we continued down the list of clues, getting to each as fast as we could, with Victoria in tow (no offense to her–as she said in her post, she is super slow.) and me without my inhaler (I wasn’t expecting so much running…but I was still faster than Victoria.)
With two clues left, we were racing past TPAC towards the State Capitol when a sassy businessman told us where the time capsule we were looking for was located, and informed us of just how far behind the other teams we were. I should point out that you didn’t have to do the clues in order, and it’s possible that everyone went to this clue first since it was pretty close to where the race started, but regardless, we ran a little faster when we heard that.
About 3 minutes later, we raced to our last clue, a live music venue, and struggled for about three minutes to convey to a group of strangers that we needed them to be in our picture, and then raced back to Dick’s Last Resort, leaving George behind as he got a free CD from the band at the venue. Sprinting into the room that designated the finish line, we were surprised to see only a few people in the room. Our “team captain” Collin got a card with our time and place on it–one hour and eighteen minutes, and fifth place out of one hundred and fourteen teams!!!
I’d just like to point out that if it weren’t for Victoria’s slow running and George’s insistence on getting a free CD, we probably would have gotten at least third place. But considering I expected us to come in like 50th place, I’m happy.
All in all, it was a super fun day solving clues and exploring Nashville, and an unexpectedly awesome finish time led to much celebration!
