Team Teriyaki Donut in Seattle Night and Day 2009

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 skipped Night and Day to go to a farewell party for some friends. I have lived in Seattle continuously since 1998, and off and on for about 10 years before that. I'm very familiar with most areas from downtown north, so the route covered familiar (sometimes very familiar) territory.

Summary

I, along with two other bike teams, swept the course in 2008, but that was a shortened course where the 16-hour option was dropped and some checkpoints were removed. I wanted to try to sweep this year, when there was once again a 16-hour course with over 60 checkpoints. I came very close, and in fact visited all the checkpoint locations, but I miscalculated on the Locks and got there 15 minutes after they closed. So I ended up with 3530 out of a possible 3600. I rode around 68 miles and ran at least .4 miles (in Carkeek Park from checkpoint 61 to 71 and back again). I also carried the bike up and down stairs a number of times.

Like last year, I rode my road bike, with a large fanny pack clipped over the handlebars and my map cases ziptied above it. This year I made two improvements. First, I installed new rim strip tape on both tires a few weeks ago, to prevent the flats I kept getting with the cheap rim strips that came with the bike (4 flats on last year's course, although two were due to other causes). This year I got no flats, and didn't have many concerns about them either, even though I frequently went off-road onto gravel paths or grass, and also did a fair share of running off curbs (particularly after dark --- oops). Secondly, I hit on the idea of wrapping a bungee cord around the fanny pack and the handlebars, which made it much easier to ensure the pack didn't drop down and rub on the front tire. I'll have to do this again in the future.

Route planning

No one got an answer sheet until map handout, and I spent most of my time planning my route, which meant I didn't read the answer sheet beforehand as I usually do. This probably explains why I didn't key into the fact that the checkpoint at the Locks (74) was going to close at 9. I can remember looking at the checkpoint location, thinking it was on the south side, and just ignoring the fact that the Locks closed because I thought the checkpoint was in Commodore Park, and because I didn't plan on crossing using the Locks.

Besides, I was concentrating more on Carkeek Park. As usual, I built my route incrementally, first by making the obvious connections (such as the 2 Eastlake checkpoints) and linking them together as I went. In the end, it was clear that I would either do Carkeek near the beginning or near the end, and obviously it would be better to do it in full daylight, so I chose to take my route as it was and go clockwise. Had I thought about the Locks checkpoint, I would have played it safe and done a Carkeek loop and then headed counterclockwise, although how to do this best is not obvious. Finding the right trail up from Carkeek to end up at 41 is not a gimme, so probably best to go down at 41, lock up the bike at the bottom of the hill and run for 71, 61 and 51, then bike up the ravine trail or the road to 90.

In hindsight, the clockwise loop would have worked (assuming the locks closed on time and not early) if I had gone from Queen Anne immediately to the Locks, then picked up the south Magnolia checkpoint (105) and proceeded to Fisherman's Terminal (33). I made it to south Magnolia by 9pm, so presumably I could make it to the locks (without the hillclimb) as well, and turning my Magnolia route into a figure 8 adds less than a mile to the distance. But I would never have planned that I could accomplish this; this is just something I could have done had I noticed the problem say, on Queen Anne.

My route

Here is my route at Gmaps-pedometer. I visited the checkpoints in this order:

31 [Blue Ridge fire hydrant], 41 [12 Ave NW entrance], 90 [bus shelter], 51 [12 Ave NW trail log], 61 [NW 117th entrance], 71 [north meadow bench], 81 [Bitter Lake wading pool], 91 [Interurban Trail bridge], 72 [Northacres wading pool], 60 [Licton Springs], 62 [Thornton Place], 94 [Lake City library], 82 [Meadowbrook Pond], 92 [Matthews Beach], 101 [Magnuson Park], 63 [Burke Gilman Playground, 73 [Atlas Foods], 76 [Dahl Playfield], 83 [Cowen Park], 57 [Green Lake east beach], 65 [Kisaku], 44 [Woodland Park off-leash area], 34 [rose garden], 40 [Wallingford wading pool], 35 [Rain restaurant], 93 [street end near Ivar's], 54 [Drumheller Fountain], 46 [Montlake Community Center], 38 [Lynn Street end], 47 [Eastlake canoe sculpture], 85 [Volunteer Park], 103 [abstract sculpture], 56 [fountain near REI], 75 [Center for Wooden Boats], 37 [mural near Denny Park], 55 [Dahlia Lounge], 45 [Westlake Plaza], 36 [mural near waterfront], 104 [Aquarium], 66 [KIRO fountain], 58 [fish/whale sculpture], 49 [Fountain of Seseragi], 102 [Queen Anne High School condos], 48 [Kerry Viewpoint], 105 [South Magnolia], [Locks], 33 [Fisherman's Terminal], 39 [Ernst Park], 53 [BF Day], 84 [ship canal shelter], 67 [Gilman wading pool], 64 [Ballard sidewalk tiles], 43 [Ballard Commons], 52 [Ballard Community Center], 80 [Salmon Bay Park], 70 [Nordic Heritage Center], 50 [Sunset Hill Viewpoint], 42 [Leif Erikson], 32 [Golden Gardens off-leash area], 30 [Baker Park], 59 [Soundview Playfield], [finish]

My bike computer says I did 68 miles with a moving average of 12.4 mph. This doesn't include my jaunt through Carkeek Park on foot or the many times I lifted my bike up and down stairs (on the trail up Carkeek, down to the creek at Thornton Place, into Cowen Park from 15th Ave NE and up two blocks of Warren Ave N to the top of Queen Anne).

At 5pm, I was heading to checkpoint 72 [Northacres]. At 6pm I had just left Magnuson Park (101). At 7pm I was in the rose garden (34). At 8pm I was leaving 56 [fountain near REI]. At 9pm I was in nearing south Magnolia (105). At 10pm I was at Ballard Community Center [52]. By hour:

• 4-5pm: 510 points, 8 checkpoints
• 5-6pm: 550 points, 7 checkpoints
• 6-7pm: 460 points, 8 checkpoints
• 7-8pm: 550 points, 10 checkpoints
• 8-9pm: 610 points, 11 checkpoints
• 9-10pm: 500 points, 9 checkpoints
• 10-11pm: 350 points, 7 checkpoints

I came equipped with two large water bottles filled with half-Gatorade, half-water and ice; the ice had mostly melted by the time I got there. On the way to Crown Hill, I also bought 8 Gu packets at one of the Green Lake running stores. I figured I'd take one per hour, and that worked out well, although I shoved the spent packets in the pocket of my shorts and by the time I finished my pocket was pretty sticky. The water bottles were nearly empty by the time I got to Green Lake, but I filled them back up at the Wallingford playground and the weather got cooler after that, so I had plenty of water.

Before the race, I had been having problems with a pulled muscle on the side of my rib cage, but it turned out not to be a problem, even though I helped a little carrying heavy supplies into the events center (not such a great idea). My knees occasionally gave me a twinge of discomfort, but this was only transitory and apart from climbing Queen Anne, there really weren't any steep hillclimbs. All in all, I didn't have any physical problems, didn't get too hot or cold, and apart from feeling hunger pangs every time I smelled grilled food after 8pm, wasn't particularly thirsty or hungry.

Rambling chronology

• I reset my bike computer just in time at the start. Approaching 31 [Blue Ridge fire hydrant], I encountered a cycling couple (not participants, I don't believe), who warned me not to go any further down, as the hill was steep. I wasn't going to. I was originally going to go from 41 [12 Ave NE entrance] down into the park, but realized it was much easier to pick up 90 [bus shelter] with a slight deviation up 8th Ave NW before heading down the bikeable ravine trail. I don't know of anyone else who took this trail, although there were certainly a lot of families walking on it. My skinny tires had no problems with the gravel.

• One advantage of the ravine trail is that it had a trail map at the top which I consulted. After I (and a few other teams) found 51 [12 Ave NW trail log], I realized that, assuming the trail name was accurate, the 12th Ave NW Hillclimb Trail would take me straight to the north park exit I wanted. So I started walking, then, as I hit the stairs, carrying, my bike up to 12th Ave NW (site of a checkpoint two years ago during the Night and Day monsoon, if I'm not mistaken), where it was a short trip to the 117th St. entrance (checkpoint 61).

  Here I hit the first of many problematic questions: 'sign says what?' Well, there were many signs, one of which said (not exactly) 'don't ride your bike on the trail'. The other one said (again, not exactly) 'keep your pets on a leash'. These were both answers. I decided the bike answer was more literal, but wrote that the dog answer seemed valid to me as well. I also commiserated with a number of foot teams who were reaching this checkpoint at the same time.

• I made a plan to lock my bike at 61 and proceed on foot to 71 [north meadow bench], since the closest park exit from 71 was back at checkpoint 61, and there wasn't much point in dragging the bike the whole time. Unfortunately, I didn't really plan this out, as I had to dig for my bike lock. Then dig for my keys. Then decide that leaving my wallet in the bag wasn't a great idea, either. But eventually all was secure and off I jogged.

  I had been to this very bench a couple of years back while hiking around the park (there were ripe wild blueberries in the bush just in front of the bench then, but I didn't look this time), so I knew where to go. As I was making my way there, I saw Enger Management (walking their bikes the other way), and then caught up with a 3-hour women's team who didn't know the area (I had chatted briefly with them before the start). At a trail fork, I told them to head up; the bench is just about as 'up' as you can get in Carkeek. We found the bench easily, and I quite liked how Sturgeon was the name of a person.

• As I was leaving checkpoint 61, some local residents asked me what was going on, and mentioned that there had been a wedding in the north meadow earlier that day (hence the balloons on the trees near 61). This would not be the first wedding I came across. They also directed me to 118th to exit their neighborhood. On the way to the next checkpoint, I managed to catch the tail-end of a green light at Greenwood and pass Enger Management.
• Anyone who's taken kids to Seattle wading pools (like the one at 81 [Bitter Lake wading pool]) knew the answer to 81 in advance - 'No bare buns'. By the way, most of the city wading pools are closed this summer (as Bitter Lake's was) as they retrofit the drains with safety devices. Dahl's (76) has apparently been fixed.
• On the way to 91 [Interurban Trail bridge], I saw Bruce Bassett heading back down the Interurban from the checkpoint. It was clear once I descended from the bridge over N 155th St that the answer would be 'starfish', but I dutifully went to the bridge over Aurora in addition to verify that they had the same relief design. After 91, I hopped onto Aurora and tried to get onto Roosevelt Way, which north of Pinehurst is a conveniently diagonal street. I didn't quite cross Aurora before the Roosevelt intersection, but I was close. At 72 [Northacres wading pool, also closed], I was writing down my answer as Bruce Bassett arrived. At this point, I was ahead of schedule, points-wise, with 580 points in just over an hour.
• I haven't been to Thornton Place (62) since they took down the fences around the new condo/cinema/daylighted creek complex, so I missed the entrance that leads to the trail along the creek. I was somehow under the impression I wanted to approach it from the east, anyway, but it turns out I was wrong, and had to carry the bike down some stairs to the path by the creek for the answer. I had originally planned on getting onto Roosevelt Ave (which in Northgate, runs North-South), but when I saw a green light at 5th Ave NE across Northgate, I took it, and hooked up with another convenient diagonal street, Pinehurst Way. Incidentally, the route from Bitter Lake to Pinehurst was all rather conveniently flat, except for a short rise along the shoulder of Maple Leaf between Licton Springs (60) and Thornton Place (62). I finally dropped down a hill to Lake City (94).
• Getting across Aurora turned out to be a breeze compared to crossing Lake City Way. Ideally, I would have crossed at NE 117th for a slight diagonal along Thornton Creek, but I was just happy to get to the east side at NE 120th. I then made the mistake of turning down 31st Pl NE, a convenient-seeming little street on the other side of the creek with no outlet except back up a short hill. I stopped improvising and got onto 35th Ave NE for the extremely familiar-to-me trip through Meadowbrook Pond. I live in NE Seattle, so the next section through to Green Lake was very familiar ground.

• I hadn't seen any other teams since Northacres until I caught up with Team NRG at a very crowded Matthews Beach Park. They said they had gone on foot west to east, and now planned on taking the Burke-Gilman back; this seemed like a very reasonable strategy to me. I should have told them about the south route out of Matthews Beach Park, across a footbridge over Thornton Creek. It saves a lot of distance compared to the Burke-Gilman.

  And by the way, there's always one drinking fountain near the restrooms in Seattle Parks. Except when there's none (checkpoint 32).

• There's was a 5K finishing up when I got to Magnuson, so my route using the Cross Park Trail was going against the flow, but not too bad. I had just been out to the fin sculpture when dropping off our younger son at camp on Thursday, and remarked that (given the 'water creatures' theme), there could be a checkpoint at the fins.
• I caught up with Enger Management again at 63 [Burke Gilman Place]; they explained that they had skipped some of the checkpoints 'in the middle' (by which I gather they meant 60 and 62). My slowest going on the bike was shortly after this, following a University Village security jeep over the speed bumps at the mall. Then a short, steady climb up 25th Ave NE to the Dahl wading pool (filled with splashing children), and another restroom with only one drinking fountain.
• 83 [Cowen Park] is another very familiar place to me, so I knew there would be 2 tadpoles here. After another crowded beach at 57 [Green Lake east beach], I got slightly lost while navigating to Kisaku. There's a reason they call this area Tangletown. But I knew as long as I didn't go past 56th or 55th I could find it. Unfortunately, at this point it was approaching 3 hours in, I was lagging on my points average, and the upcoming checkpoints were all pretty low-valued.
• I had no trouble finding the off-leash area at 44 [Woodland Park off-leash area], but had to wander through the dog park to find the fire hydrant. I don't know why I didn't see it; maybe it was so dusty it blended in. By this point, I had taken my bike tires over gravel patches, bark and wood chips, so I didn't hesitate to take the gravel paths up to the pedestrian bridge over Aurora to the rose garden (34). The Rose Garden was crowded with what I gathered was another wedding party, this time for an East Asian couple --- even the kids had their best clothes on. I, however, was underdressed, sweating a lot, and concerned that I wasn't keeping up on points. At this point I switched my maps and answer sheets around, since I was heading into the south map, and that took some precious time as well. To cap it off, I chose to go to the light at N 50th and Stone Way, and had to wait an entire cycle. Arggh.
• I refilled my nearly empty water bottles at the Wallingford playground; their wading pool (40) was also closed. I was off by a street for 93 [street end near Ivar's], but of course had no trouble finding Drumheller Fountain (54). From what I'd read about the fountain in relation to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, I was guessing the answer was 1961, and I was right.
• I had never noticed the sculpture at 46 [Montlake Community Center] before, so that was neat. Just before I climbed the short hill on Delmar Dr., I ate another Gu packet. I like to pretend these give me short bursts of energy. Just before 47 [Eastlake canoe sculpture], I ran into the crowds on the sidewalk for Tako Truk, a new place (not a truck) that serves small fancy tacos (like octopus, lamb, etc.) on weekend nights. Just after 47, I had to climb the short, cobblestoned hill on E Louisa. I've got to remember to take the sidewalk instead of the cobblestones.
• Approaching 85 [Volunteer Park], I tried to take a shortcut to the Volunteer Park road using the pedestrian entrance at E Highland. I failed utterly, ended up on Prospect, and realized Prospect would have taken me right there. Still, with the many checkpoints since Woodland Park and the high-valued 103 coming up next, I could see I was making up for my former points deficit, so I was feeling better.
• But then I hit 103 [abstract sculpture] and was completely befuddled. I could see the sculpture, but I couldn't for the life of me see what animal the lower half 'most resembled'. It was like a Rorschach test where I could only see a black blob. I don't think questions like these are a particularly good idea at all; the human brain can make patterns where there are none, and if you tell someone what you see in these cases, they can usually figure out what you mean, but asking someone to see the same thing you do without telling them what you see is bound to fail. I ended up drawing the sculpture at the bottom of my answer sheet to prove I was there.
• Downtown and Belltown were a breeze. The hardest part was crossing Mercer heading for 75 [Center for Wooden Boats]. I did have to be careful on Westlake, lest my skinny tires get caught in the streetcar tracks. There still were a lot of people near 45 [Westlake Center], presumably enjoying the light rail grand opening.
• I had climbed up Queen Anne from the south the previous Sunday for a bike race where we visited all the water towers in the city. By this time I was clearly getting ahead of the pace on points, so instead of pushing all the way up the hill on my bike, I just took Warren up from the Seattle Center, and walked it up when I hit a set of stairs. The first set was easy. The second set was not, and the steep block after the second set of stairs was painful, but that finally put me at Queen Anne Boulevard, and it was relatively flat from there. From 48 [Kerry viewpoint], I took another route I'd remembered from a different bike race, picking my way down the west side of Queen Anne to end up on the diagonal Gilman Ave and a short stretch of Elliott Ave to Dravus.
• I was feeling very good about hitting 105 [South Magnolia] at around 9. At least, that is, until I read the next clue and realize I had already most likely missed the locks checkpoint. Still, I went there in hopes it was still open. At this point I also mounted and turned on my head and taillights. I had a flasher in front along with one mounted on my helmet so I could more easily read what I was looking at.
• Heading from 33 [Fisherman's terminal] to the flyway over Elliott Avenue, I was particularly cautious because I had gotten my bike tire caught in an expansion joint here during a race, and suffered a pinch flat as a result. For 39 [Ernst Park] I misread the Aurora Bridge as the Fremont Bridge and went looking for a circle near the PCC west of the Bridge. After I read the map and went to Ernst Park, it was easy to find the answer. This was also a neat checkpoint.
• At 84 [ship canal shelter] I was back on the Burke Gilman and ran into Team NRG again. They yelled out the answer loud enough for me to hear, but I looked myself. After 67 [Gilman wading pool], I caught up with Z-Squared, but they passed me while I was messing with my maps and answer sheets at 64 [Ballard sidewalk tiles]. I finally took everything out of the map cases, as the glare from the headlight was making it hard to read them inside the plastic cases.
• I was being rather slow and deliberate while answering questions in the dark in Ballard. Still, when I got to 70 [Nordic Heritage Center], I was stumped. The basketball court was easy to see, but the only obvious thing to the west was a wall of ivy, not a relief of a Viking ship. I finally found some reliefs to the NE of the court, but there were many ships, all of them looking like Viking ships to me, and I could see both a dragon and a warrior on the bows of two of them. I decided the dragon was the most obvious answer, but had to write another note on the answer sheet. This was, by the way, the second Ballard park I visited populated by teenagers after dark.
• To get from 50 [Sunset Hill viewpoint] down to the water, I used the lesser-known railroad underpass near NW 60th St., which I first used in the 2007 Ballard Street Scramble. I had a little trouble finding 42 [Leif Erikson statue]; it's a good thing the Port of Seattle building is there to help me pinpoint its position on the map. Before climbing the hill east of Golden Gardens, I had my 6th and final packet of GU for some extra energy. The hill wasn't that hard, and I still had plenty of time. I was slightly surprised to find no drinking fountains at the Golden Gardens checkpoint (32). I also noticed while climbing the rest of the way that they had installed a small concrete drainage channel on the east side of the road, presumably to direct the water that may have undermined the road and caused the sinkhole that closed it for much of 2008.
• Both of the final two checkpoints were also Ballard parks populated by teenagers. I was fortunate in that my children used to go to a dentist whose parking lot abuts Baker Park (30), so I knew I could just turn into his parking lot and ride into the park. The two teenagers here were clearly stoned, and wanted me to explain Night and Day to them in my remaining ten minutes. I moved on to my last checkpoint, 59 [Soundview Playfield], where I was pretty sure the answer was a red octopus, since I remembered a red octopus from the last time we were there. At Soundview the teenagers were more helpful, pointing me to the pillar with the octopus mosaic. I told them in a few minutes they would have the park to themselves.
• On the way back to the event center, I passed NRG again, and arrived at about the same time as Enger Management, who were discussing another problematic checkpoint, Kisaku (come to think of it, that baby did look like a sumo wrestler).
• I had an urge after I finished to go to the Teriyaki/Bento place at 85th and 15th, since it was the last grilled meat smell I remembered. They were probably closed already, though, so I settled for potato chips. In addition to the ribbon and the chocolate bar, I got a $50 gift card to Seattle Running Company, which we will definitely use.
• My favorite checkpoints were 71 [north meadow bench], which is a lovely location and a extra special because of the fishy connection, and 34 [rose garden], which was neat to find, and because the garden was just a happy place to be with all the people dressed in their finest and the kids running around having a good time.

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gsbarnes [at] drizzle.com