Teriyaki Donut at the Market Street Scramble

My route. 9.6 miles in 1:41 (by my watch).

My kids had something to do in the late morning, so it was just me, competing for the first time in the men's division on foot. From what I'd heard from past year's, I assumed I should aim to sweep the course, which I ended up doing, finishing roughly 20 minutes before the end.

All the Market Scrambles so far have seemed to have the same general layout, and I've found that approaching Capitol Hill/First Hill from South Lake Union seems to yield the best results, so I took the checkpoints roughly clockwise. I didn't run up even slightly steep hills (except at the beginning) and otherwise took walking breaks (to enter answers, to read questions, to take off layers, etc.). I was also happy to take red lights as an excuse to rest, although I often also ran up to red lights to try to get there as they turned green. I started off with 3 layers on top and a hat, then added a glove on the hand that was carrying the map, then eventually took off the glove and hat as I got warmed up. When my energy was flagging, I ate a goo packet (I only had time for 2 before I finished).

At the start I positioned myself near the north end of the alley to avoid the crush at Rachel the pig, then was able to relax after that. The only clever bit of navigating I did was to start off 14-13-12, then down to Victor Steinbrueck Park and backtrack for 23 [Market Heritage Center]. I figured trying to find 23 from the maze inside the Market was more trouble than it was worth, and this minimized the ups and downs.

I encountered many teams heading north on 2nd Avenue to the Olympic Sculpture Park, and, after a slight overshoot between the Sculpture Park and the Seattle Center (I perhaps should have taken the path in the park to the skybridge over Elliott) I ran with more teams through Seattle Center. After that I made my major navigational error, trying to head east from the Space Needle (47) to checkpoint 51 on 9th Avenue N. Of course, Aurora makes this impossible, but I only realized that when I got up by the EMP, by which point I had to follow Broad under Aurora a few blocks out of the way.

37 [fountain spigot] and 46 [2301 5th Ave] may have been the most difficult clues, 37 because you had to get up close to see the answer, 46 because there are so many windows at 2301 5th Ave --- but once I realized the circle indicated I should head up the block to the main entrance, the answer was easy.

Back near Westlake Center (22), the traffic lights started getting annoying again, and I was happy I would soon be heading up First Hill. I had lost track of my points by Seattle Center, but I thought I was well ahead of the 250 points per half hour pace I needed to sweep the course. I think I hit the half hour mark heading south on 9th Avenue N, and the hour mark near Seattle University.

The Pacific Place nutcracker was not a problem, since I had been there last weekend with my kids, and they obsessively visited all the nutcrackers they could see. I was also familiar with the next checkpoint (33, the Women's University Club), as Elizabeth and I had attended a wedding reception there about ten years ago. Just before 33, I saw a family team that was snacking on the steps of the church just north on 6th Ave.

From 33, I went straight up Spring to Seattle U, a long stretch without a checkpoint. But once I climbed the one, steep block next to Virginia Mason, I realized most of the climbing for the day was done and I could relax. I actually went even farther without a checkpoint, as I missed 42 [reflecting pool] on the way to the easternmost checkpoint (53). This is also where I saw Nikolay Nachev. I was thinking perhaps I might win the overall prize before I saw Nikolay, but after I did I figured he would beat me, since he is a much stronger runner.

42 was easy to pick up on the way back, but that meant I had to cut through Seattle University instead of take 12th Avenue as I had planned. Luckily I didn't get trapped in any deadends, and even more luckily, I was able to cross Broadway easily and head to the steep downhill on James into downtown. Shortly after was my second navigational error, as I ran on 5th under Yesler, and realized there was no way to get to 43 [Old Public Safety Building] without going completely around the block to 4th. Once I had this checkpoint, I was determined not to backtrack for the next one (56 in Hing Hay Park), even though that meant an extra steep uphill on Yesler to 6th. At least from there I knew the way, since I drive down 6th to get to the International District a few times a year.

I liked checkpoint 31 the most. From a distance I saw the two boys, and thought the answer had to be bats because it was meant to look like an early 20th-century cameo, but was very surprised when I saw the anachronistic skateboards. After 57 I noticed I had one each of the 20, 30, 40, and 50 point checkpoints left, and mentally checked them off as I got them -- I had to backtrack a bit because I passed up the clock at 54, but was happy to see the mouse's tail to get that answer. I jogged down the Harbor Steps for my last checkpoint (24 in Waterfront Park), could see the answer was 'train', then climbed the stairs and the steep hill back up to Post Alley. As I couldn't see anyone else approaching the finish, I walked slowly and made sure I'd marked all my answers and that the answers seemed right.

I was surprised not to see Nikolay or any of the other very fast orienteers at the event center when I finished, and only found out at the awards ceremony that I had (apparently) finished first overall (I'll have to wait for the official results to see if any of the teams in other classes finished earlier). I was not so surprised to win 2 prizes in the raffle. I've learned through the years that buying a bunch of raffle tickets usually pays off. Anna Urbanova graciously traded a pound of coffee she won for a DVD I won, so now we have more than enough coffee. I made sure to keep the gift certificate for a dozen doughnuts.

Update: I was actually 3rd overall; Fit Body Boot Camp and Nikolay came in early after sweeping the course; I was wrongly given first ahead of Nikolay because they missed a couple of his checkpoint answers (his score was subsequently corrected).