Teriyaki Donut is my son, Omar Barnes (age 6), and me, Greg Barnes. We normally ride bikes in Scrambles, but this Scramble was foot-only, so we walked. Except when we ran. This was my first time on foot since the Northshore Scramble in 2005, and Omar's first time walking in a Street Scramble (he rode in a stroller for one Scramble in 2004).
I know Fremont well enough. I brought a marked string, which conformed to the usual Street Scramble map scale, but the Fremont map had a different scale, so I had to recalibrate. I had originally planned on Omar walking three miles in 90 minutes. I asked him in the morning if he thought he could run sometimes, and he said yes, so I figured 3-4 miles. From the answer sheet, it was clear there would be high-value checkpoints at Wide World Books and Maps and Gasworks, so I provisionally thought those checkpoints should be our goal, and mapped out that route. But I realized this route had large sections where we picked up no checkpoints at all, and we got none of the relatively high-value checkpoints north and west of 44. I dropped 51, 34, and 53, and revised the route to pick up 45, 39, 37, 24, and 42 across the bridge. This was 30 points more for the same mileage, and if we had extra time, we could pick up 53 in Gas Works.
I realized crossing the Bridge was dicey, so I told Omar we'd go for that checkpoint first. If it was up, we could save it for a different time. After the Bridge, we swept up the cluster of checkpoints around downtown Fremont, headed on the trail out to 45, then climbed the hill for the relatively close by and high value checkpoints around N/NW 42nd St, dropping down by B.F. Day and Bridge Way. We originally planned to pick up 27 and 36 east of the bridge, but didn't have the time.
We visited 19 checkpoints and got 510 points: 42 [bridge gate], 13 [Saturn], 16 [directional sign], 25 [library], 46 [troll], 21 [church on 36th], 22 [rock fountain], 35 [Lenin], 12 [Fremont Coffee], 44 [Bold Hat], 26 [canal sign], 45 [silos next to trail], 39 [stained glass duck], 43 [sign on fence], 37 [airplane wind vane], 41 [B.F.Day], 32 [Bridge Way mural], 38 [fish on a tricycle], 11 [Oktoberfest sponsor].
You can view our route on Gmaps Pedometer, which says we went 3.88 miles.
We took first place by 40 points. Since Omar had never walked a Scramble before, I wasn't sure how we would do. I figured good route planning and navigation would allow us to do well against any other family team where the child had to walk, since Omar's a fairly good walker. But I didn't know if we could beat a fast adult pushing a child in a stroller. It turns out that we did, barely, which made me proud of Omar.
My wife, Elizabeth, and my other son, Emmett, formed a second family team with our friend Lauren Bricker (as We're Not Sisters). Unlike in the Everett Scramble, when Emmett mostly just screwed around, in Fremont he walked and ran the whole ninety minutes. They went 2.5 miles and got 310 points. Not bad for a 3-year old.
As in the 2004 Night and Day Challenge, I had a gastro-intestinal virus. Fortunately, I was able to escape most of its ill effects by avoiding eating fatty foods, but this meant my only snack food during the Scramble was Cheerios. Also, I not-very-cleverly strained my shoulder just before the Scramble hoisting Omar onto my shoulders to see the Brew-Ha-Ha 5K runners start. Elizabeth kindly gave me a massage, which helped somewhat.
For once, we started right on time, and a crowd of us headed across the bridge. I had told Omar there were only two times when I absolutely wanted him to run: at the end, if we were racing to finish in time, and when crossing the Fremont Bridge, since we didn't want to get stuck if it opened. Fortunately, I could see on the approach that there were no boats that would cause an opening on either side. Plus, as a bonus, the checkpoint was at the gate mechanism, so once we answered the question, we were already on the bridge side of the gate and didn't have to worry about the bridge opening. We walked back.
At the second checkpoint, we saw team Chocolate Cookies: Brian Crawford of the Cardinals pushing Corinne in a stroller. We learned the Cardinals had split into two teams, and that there was at least one family team with no walking child. So we had our work cut out for us. Brian and Corinne ended up coming in second, but sadly didn't get their ribbons on stage, since apparently the tabulators missed the fact they were a family team.
I knew the answer to 25 before we got there. In fact, I told Omar while reading the question sheet (before we got the maps) that the answer was probably Carnegie, since it was probably the Fremont Library.
I pointed out the Volkswagen under the Troll's hand, and told Omar it was a real car. "Is it a real troll, too?", he asked, half-joking.
We had passed by the Lenin statue on the way to the event, and Omar guessed it weighed over 7 tons when I read the question. He was right. He was wrong at 26, though, where he guessed the answer was 'No Jumping Or Diving.' You can't get them all.
At 45 [silos next to trail], Dave Enger caught up with us. Like us, he usually does Scrambles on a bike. He seemed to be taking roughly the same route as us, with a few additional checkpoints. Two checkpoints later, we decided we were done climbing the hill, but he pressed on to Woodland Park.
At 39 [duck window], I had originally planned to head east to 37 [airplane wind vane], but I decided we could risk going up the hill a little more to 43 [sign on fence]. Omar alternately showed signs of energy and fatigue on the way there, and I took advantage of the rule that says we have to stay within earshot to avoid having to drag him all the way up the hill to 43. If he had had more energy, it would have made a lot of sense to skip 37 and pick up 55 in Woodland Park, since 43 is almost at the top of the hill. But Omar was clearly reaching his limits, and we were running low on time, so instead we headed to 37.
On the way to 37, I asked Omar whether we should take the staircase up to Greenwood, and was surprised he said yes. He actually seemed to pick up some steam up the stairs, but then asked for a rest on the next block. We stopped for five minutes, while he admired the view. Then he said he needed to use the bathroom. I asked him if he could wait until we hit B.F. Day, where I guessed there would be a bathroom in the playfield. He said he could. I was debating whether to go for 24 as I originally planned, or skip it, since it meant descending and ascending a steep hill. I decided to cut it out so we could definitely hit the playfield (where there was, indeed, a portable toilet).
Near 37, I glimpsed Targo Tennisberg. Shortly after, Omar asked if I thought anybody would get all the checkpoints. I said there was one on Queen Anne Hill, and I doubt anyone would get that, but if anyone did, it would be Targo. It turns out I was right, he did go there (but he probably shouldn't have, since he ended up skipping Gasworks and Wide World Books and Maps).
By hitting B.F. Day, we managed to visit all the 40 point checkpoints, which made up for the fact that we got no 50 point checkpoints. The 40 pointers plus our five 30 pointers made up the bulk of our score. I had originally planned on needing around 300 points to win, based on the scores of winning 90 minute family foot teams in past Scrambles, but then I realized with no bikes and only a ninety minute option, the course would be shorter and scores inflated. Apparently I should have been looking at 3 hour women's foot teams; their scores were the closest match to the highest-scoring family teams in this Scramble.
After visiting 32 [Bridge Way mural], we had about ten minutes left, and I realized the best we could do is head back to start, perhaps picking up 38 and 11 near the start. I asked Omar if he could run downhill, and he said yes, so off we went. Omar noticed we passed by the troll again.
At N 34th St., we noticed that the ramp down to Oktoberfest that was supposedly closed was open. Still, we didn't really have time to go to 38 [fish on a tricycle]. Fortunately, I noticed another team was peering at the mural from the ramp, and realized we could figure out the answer from the ramp. Well, sort of. It's a good thing it was an orange fish, since that made it easy to pick out. Clearly he wasn't riding a unicycle, but was he perhaps on a tandem with the octopus? I decided they were riding different machines, which left the tricycle. We went down the ramp, passed by 11 (whose answer we already knew), and turned in our answer sheet one minute early.
After we turned in the sheet, we found Elizabeth and Lauren, and I said we probably got around 400 points. I didn't notice we'd picked up so many points after B.F. Day. After I figured out the real total, I told Omar we may have had enough to win, but I wasn't sure. We went to check out the festivities, and Omar set to work building a zucchini racer. He raced it once, then we headed over to the stage. As usual, Family awards were handed out first, and Omar got more and more excited as Terry read off the scores from 5th to 2nd. He was very excited when it was confirmed we won, and I was very happy as well. We each got dark chocolate bars, and the Oktoberfest photographer took our picture. Unfortunately, I had some work to do, so we had to leave immediately. But first Omar raced his zucchini again, and I bought him a Shiskaberry (since he's currently decided he doesn't like dark chocolate).
Emmett doesn't usually nap on weekends, but when we got home, he took a 3 hour nap.