Team Teriyaki Donut in Seattle Night and Day 2008

Introduction

This year again in Night and Day, team Teriyaki Donut was me, Greg Barnes, competing as a solo male cyclist in the 7 hour event. The rest of my family did 3 hours on foot as Loves Ketchup. We have lived in Seattle continuously since 1998, and off and on for about 10 years before that.

Most of the checkpoints were in areas familiar to me; some I'd visited before, and one I even knew the answer to before I went there: it's a standing joke that the bust of Grieg in Grieg Garden looks like Mark Twain, and from that it's easy to deduce it has a moustache but no beard.

Summary

I had come close to sweeping the course in 7 hours last year in a monsoon, so I decided I would try to sweep the course this year in what promised to be much better weather. I brought my new, low-end road bike because it's faster than my mountain bike and, in a few long test rides, only had one mechanical problem. My road bike has no panniers, so I used an old fanny pack as a handlebar bag, looping the straps around the handlebars. My map cases were the usual plastic sleeves, attached to the bars with zip ties. These were somewhat more annoying than the 3-ring binder I usually use on the mountain bike's bars, but not too bad.

Not enough people signed up for the 16-hour event, so the organizers dropped a number of the outlying checkpoints, which made the road bike unnecessary. In fact, it turned into a liability, as I got 4 flat tires in the course of the event, 2 on each tire. I still swept the course (47 checkpoints) and returned early (around 9:45), helped no doubt by the fact that I had bought a handy new Topeak Roadmorph hand pump on Friday and two new tires, and used it to change both road bike tires as practice.

Route planning

While route planning, I largely ignored concerns about traversing unfamiliar areas in the dark, as I had at least ridden by most of the checkpoints before, and I suspected I would finish early, which meant most of my ride would be during daylight or dusk. Other timing information was more important: there was a Mariners game at 7:05, so I should try to avoid downtown at that time; the Bite of Seattle would likely make Seattle Center a zoo at dinnertime. And the locks closed at 9, but since they were going to be at the halfway point no matter which way I went, that didn't seem relevant.

As usual, I built my route incrementally, first by making the obvious connections (such as the 3 southern waterfront checkpoints and the 3 Magnolia checkpoints). The most interesting choices were:

• Where to descend and ascend Capitol Hill, which affected where I broke up the circle of outer checkpoints and how I swept the checkpoints on Capitol Hill itself. The distance between 82 [Grose Park] and 105 [Urban Peace Circle] is the farthest of the checkpoints around the hill, so that means you should break the circle there and either descend to 82 and ascend from 105, or vice versa. I chose the latter (actually descending to 74 [Jose Rizal Park], then 105), because I didn't want to go from 74 or 105 to a climb up First Hill, and because the climb from 82 up Pine to 63 [Madison Market] looked comparable to the climb two blocks south at Union, which I've done many times.
• Whether to take the shortest point between the NW checkpoints and the checkpoints near the zoo, and then pick up the Fremont/Wallingford checkpoints (or vice versa), or go from the NW to Fremont to the zoo (or vice versa). I decided climbing up Phinney Ridge from the west would either be very hard or I would have to go out of the way to the north end of the zoo, and furthermore that picking up all the checkpoints on 50th made more sense than deviating down the hill to Fremont and then going back up to 50th, so I chose NW-Fremont-Wallingford-zoo, which seemed doable forward or in reverse.
• When to get checkpoint 32 [Eastlake bench]. It seemed closer to 81 [Center for Wooden Boats] than 71 [Peace Park], so I chose to go out and back from 81.
• How to navigate around Seattle Center. I definitely wanted to minimize the distance on the Center grounds, and there was also the question of how to climb Queen Anne and whether to do so from the Center or from the Waterfront. I finally decided it made the most sense to go from 81 [Center for Wooden Boats] under Aurora on Broad, picking up the two eastern Seattle Center checkpoints without entering the Center, then down to the waterfront, then back up to 45 [P-I], 48 [fountain with cascades] and from there up the Counterbalance. This effectively avoided the Bite of Seattle crowds except for one small stretch around the Bagley-Wright Theater to get 48.

My route

Here is my route at Gmaps-pedometer. I visited the checkpoints in this order: 35 [Sisters of Jesus and Mary], 36 [Seward statue], 44 [Lakeview Cemetery], 34 [GAR Cemetery], 51 [Seattle Running Company], 72 [Chief Seattle statue], 47 [Jefferson Fountain], [flat #1], 74 [Jose Rizal Park], [flat #2], 106 [Urban Peace Circle], 64 [Firefighter statue], 38 [ferry dock fountain], 37 [Ivar statue], 42 [Columbus statue], 55 [Benaroya Memorial Wall], 57 [McGraw statue], 62 [Denny Park], 32 [Eastlake Bench], [flat #3], 81 [Center for Wooden Boats], 41 [Memorial Stadium], 65 [podium], 52 [waterfront lighthouse], 66 [rose garden], 45 [P-I fountain], 48 [fountain with cascades], 56 [Kerry Park], 84 [Parsons Gardens], 73 [Fisherman's Memorial], 86 [Magnolia mailbox], 104 [Lawton lighthouse], 102 [Leif Erikson statue], 85 [storage sign], 75 [Lenin statue], 83 [Wallingford arch], 76 [Woodland Park soldier statue], 39 [Phinney hydrant], 103 [Meridian Park], 54 [Sasquatch Statue], 71 [Peace Park], 46 [Corten Steel Sculpture], 43 [Grieg Garden], 31 [Jim Owens statue], [flat #4], 53 [MOHAI gun], 61 [Interlaken Park], 101 [Madison Park], 82 [Grose Park], 63 [Madison Market], 33 [Moonflower].

According to Gmaps, I rode a little under 45 miles. My bike computer says I had a 12.1 mph moving average; the bulk of the discrepancy is likely due to time spent fixing flats.

At 5pm, I was fixing flat #2 near the Urban Peace Circle. At 6pm I was fixing flat #3 near the Center for Wooden Boats. At 7pm I was heading off Queen Anne. At 8pm I was probably heading to the Lenin Statue, although I'm not sure. At 9pm I was fixing flat #4 near MOHAI. By 10pm I was done. So, by hour:

• 4-5pm: 360 points, 8 checkpoints
• 5-6pm: 450 points, 9 checkpoints
• 6-7pm: 500 points, 9 checkpoints
• 7-8pm: 430 points, 5 checkpoints
• 8-9pm: 580 points, 10 checkpoints
• 9-10pm: 380 points, 6 checkpoints

Rambling chronology

• My route from 34 [GAR cemetery] to 51 [Seattle Running Company] was my old standby of Federal Ave, just east of 10th/Broadway. Federal is actually a pretty awful street for the first few blocks, and I was afraid I'd get a flat on my road tires. Not yet. At 51 [Seattle Running Company], a bunch of us were crowded around trying to determine what the bronze trophy referred to in the clue was (actually a bronze horse).
• At 72 [Chief Seattle Statue], I chose to ride through campus and had to carry my bike up the stairs. Fortunately, the road bike is light.
• At 47 [Jefferson fountain], I met a solo woman on foot searching for the right fountain. I saw a few more teams just after getting this checkpoint (and while fixing my first flat), but I surmise most of the foot teams went down to Occidental Park from First Hill. The next time I saw a team was downtown near Benaroya Hall.
• Just after 47, approaching the construction site east of Harborview, I heard my front tire deflate. The problem was due to a cheap rim strip, the circular rubber or fabric strip that goes around the rim over all the spoke end holes to prevent the spoke ends from poking the tube. This one had failed before; it's pretty easy to spot because it creates large holes on the inside of the tube. Because it had failed before, I had brought along some electrical tape to cover up the hole in the strip where a spoke end was poking through, and was rolling again in 10 minutes. Still, this was not a good sign, and I now only had one spare tube left.
• Between Jose Rizal Park and the Urban Peace Circle, I mostly took the I-90 trail. While speeding down the section directly adjacent to the freeway, I hit a rather abrupt bump and thought this might cause a pinch flat (pinch flats are flats you get in just such circumstances; they are easier to get when your tires are underinflated or skinny). Sure enough, heading across Martin Luther King, I could feel my back tire was flat and settled down to fix it. Luckily, I actually found the pinch flat (it is a pair of small holes, sort of like the tire was bit by a tiny vampire), which meant I didn't have to search the tire for a thorn or a bit of glass. I had the presence of mind to circle the position of the flat, in case I got another flat and had to repair my damaged tubes. Again, the repair took about ten minutes. By this point I thought, while I still might sweep the course if I was careful enough to not get any more flats, someone else would probably finish ahead of me given my twenty wasted minutes.
• Leaving the Urban Peace Circle, I headed to the north side of the I-90 lid park and descended down to Rainier Ave. Taking Rainier to Dearborn to Occidental Square (checkpoint 64) was a better choice than reclimbing the shoulder of Beacon Hill and crossing the 12th Ave S bridge again. This worked great, except I ended up on the skinny sidewalk of Rainier, wincing at every small bump and crack.
• I was almost certain Ivar was feeding a french fry to the gull (37). I was right.
• We'd seen 42 [Columbus statue] before, at last year's holiday Street Scramble. From 42, I went up University to the base of the Harbor Steps, northwest a block on Western, and then up Union to Post Alley (the cobblestone street where we start the holiday Street Scrambles). This route avoided a lot of Pike Place Market traffic. Technically, Post Alley is one way the other way, but I reasoned I was going so slowly (uphill on cobblestones) that I was functionally a pedestrian.
• At 55 [Benaroya Memorial Wall], I saw another team (on foot). I didn't notice any others until I was fixing my next flat in front of the Center for Wooden Boats.
• Approaching the Center for Wooden Boats, I first noticed a large traffic jam, which I later surmised was due to the Bite of Seattle. Since I was going to pass by the Center in both directions, I visited 32 [Stockley bench] first so that I would hit 81 on the right side of the street. While heading back to 81, I jumped onto the Fairview Avenue sidewalk, and again got another pinch flat in the back tire on a sidewalk bump. Seattle sidewalks suck. At this point, I had no good spare tubes, so I took some extra time and patched all three of the tubes I'd damaged during the race. A team walked by and said something sympathetic; a random cyclist asked if I needed any help. I ate some trail mix while waiting for the patch glue to dry, then headed off again.
• Checkpoint 65 [podium] was neat. I'd never even noticed it was there.
• I found the rose garden (66) easily enough, but had to circle around a couple of times before I found the plaque with the answer. At the next checkpoint [P-I fountain], I went one building too far, and only noticed when I saw a reflection of the P-I globe in the glass windows of the neighboring building.
• I entered the Seattle Center just north of the Northwest Rooms to get to 48 [fountain with cascades]. I was pretty sure I knew where it was, and I was right, but I had to fight through a lot of people eating corn on the cob to get there with my bike. (Why are you going to the Bite to eat corn on the cob?) Once I was at the fountain, I could see a better exit to the west through the bushes, which spit me out on the access road between the Bagley-Wright and Intiman Theaters with no food vendors. It seems you could have completely avoided the crowds by heading in from the north.
• After the Seattle Center, I had to climb Queen Anne to Kerry Park. I tried to split the hill climbing somewhat by turning on 1st Ave N, but it ends at one of Queen Anne's split streets and I had to head over to the Counterbalance to puff up four steep blocks (my road bike gearing is not nearly as good for climbing hills as my mountain bike). At 84 [Parsons Gardens] I ran across another foot team (Serenity Now, perhaps?).
• I took the Queen Anne Boulevard route north from Parsons Gardens to the cemetery, then the signed route down toward Dravus from there. Then right on 14th Ave W, which abuts the flyover to Fisherman's Terminal. I started taking the sidewalk on the flyover, then discovered it turned into a staircase and had to hop a tall barrier to get back on the street. I was starting to feel hungry, so I stopped at 73 [Fisherman's Terminal], pulled out a sandwich, and looked for a drinking fountain to refill my water bottle. While wandering around, I decided I might as well walk my bike toward the next checkpoint while eating the sandwich. At this point, I met Team Nisqually heading the opposite way. Soon after, I was back on the bike at 86 [Magnolia mailbox], where Rubber Side Down caught up with me, wondering how many points I had. They seemed surprised that I knew (well, I knew approximately --- I was mostly keeping track of the number of checkpoints I'd visited, which was a lot easier). They were the first bike team I'd seen since the start.
• I'd never been to that section of Fort Lawton (104) before; it was refreshingly flat for Discovery Park. From there it was an easy descent to Commodore Park (where I refilled my water bottles). I jogged through the locks as best I could.
• After an uneventful stretch of Ballard and Fremont, I headed up from the transfer station to 83 [Wallingford Arch]. Up the hill on the same street I could see two cyclists in fluorescent yellow jackets, who I was almost sure was Enger Management. Since they were one of the stronger bicycle teams, this gave me some hope that I could still win, since perhaps I had nearly caught up to them (although, of course, it depended on where they were in the loop of outer checkpoints). I tried to pull even with them, but I had a little trouble finding the checkpoint, and I never caught sight of them again.
• To get to Woodland Park, I climbed straight up from 83, turning left on 47th (the street we took in the Wallingford Street Scramble) to cross Stone Way and Green Lake Way. 47th worked great again. At 50th, I turned left and climbed the not-so-imposing hill to the zoo.
• For 39 [Phinney hydrant], I spotted a green and yellow hydrant before I figured out I was one (steep downhill) block away from the checkpoint. So I went down the hill to find: a green and yellow hydrant. Oh well. On the way back east down 50th, I spotted the Whidbey Island Nerds jogging in the same direction.
• I would have guessed a Sasquatch did not have a tail (54) but I would have been wrong. My child's daycare goes to this park frequently, which they call Gorilla Park, because they think the Sasquatch is a Gorilla. To get out of this park heading south, I exited to the alley to the west.
• I overshot 46 [Corten Steel Sculpture], thinking the sculpture was down at Sakuma Viewpoint before I decided it was at NE Pacific instead. I never found a plaque naming this sculpture, but it was clear it was the one the clue was talking about. By the way, there are 15 bolt heads on the front of the sculpture, too.
• While heading east on Hamlin toward MOHAI, I was thinking I was doing pretty well avoiding flats. And then I noticed the bumpiness of the road was partly due to a flat front tire. This one was my fault, as a previous patch was not put on correctly, so I was slowly losing air, which led to an additional pinch flat. I swapped out tubes as the sun was setting at 9pm, with a swank party going on inside MOHAI. I also put on my front and rear blinking lights at this point.
• At 61 [Interlaken Park], I actually used the front light to read the kiosk. Under the thick trees here was probably as dark as it ever got for me.
• On the way down Madison, I saw what looked like another solo bicyclist looking for where to make a left turn (perhaps to get to 82 [Grose Park]). Down at Madison Park (101), I had a slight difficulty answering the clue, as there were two semicircular stone walls. Still, I was soon on my way to 82 myself. It was clear from the topo map that 32nd Ave E was the way to go (even 33rd one block away involved an unnecessary hill). 32nd turned out to be so great I took it farther than I intended, all the way to Denny (where it starts to really climb steeply, and takes you past 82 anyway). Unlike in the Central District Street Scramble a few years back, I had no trouble finding Grose Park this time.
• From 82, I went to MLK, jogged over to Pine, then began a slow climb up Capitol Hill. As I suspected, it wasn't too bad, although I turned onto Madison too early because I thought I was going to run into the radio towers. In Madison Market (63), the staff was not very helpful in answering the question, and I didn't really want to drag my bike around the store (I left my lock at home to save weight). Fortunately, I saw the answer on a bulletin board. I also spotted a friend from my ultimate team, who wondered why I was shopping at Madison Market since I didn't live nearby.
• I mistakenly went over to 15th to get to Group Health, when 16th would have done. In fact, I jogged over to 16th to avoid a red light at Denny. As I was leaving Group Health on 16th, I heard a huge crash as (I gather) a limb fell off a nearby tree. I was having trouble putting my answer sheet back in my map case, so at this point I just held onto it. Heading north on 19th, I was looking for a shorter way down to the finish line than going back up to Republican to reach the parking lot (in case someone else was finishing). I saw a likely path among the trees NW of the community center. At some point while travelling down the bumpy path (which didn't cause a flat this time), my map fell on the ground.
• When I got to the gym, there was no one waiting at the entrance, and no other contestants in sight, so I carefully reviewed all my answers to make sure I hadn't forgotten to mark any (and to see if I'd made any mistakes, although some answers I'd already forgotten). The finish line staff took my arrival as a cue to bring out the food, but I was looking for more substantial fare and had over an hour until the finish, so I walked over to Coastal Kitchen on 15th (picking up my map along the way) and ate some penne with boar bacon. This really hit the spot, but halfway through the meal I started to feel very cold, from a combination of a calorie deficit and drinking around five iced drinks. It was a chilly walk back to the event center.
• When I got back, I learned that two other bike teams had indeed swept the course, so it came down to whether I had made any errors. Apparently we all got perfect scores, so I ended up in first place overall, which earned me a chocolate bar and a free pass to City Chase, which I sold to Doug Beyerlein (we'll be out of town that weekend).
• My favorite checkpoints were 104 (in an area I'd never been before) and 65 (Al Rochester's podium).

Back to my home page.

gsbarnes [at] drizzle.com