REACH Hi-Liters Route & Report
http://connect.garmin.com/player/20436461
14.8 km, 29 checkpoints (all but #33).
I started the 2009 Street Scramble season by proposing to Gina at a checkpoint at the South Lake Union event. And I finished the season by teaming up with a newbie, my future father-in-law. On the home stretch of yesterday's event, he said that our run was a success because I managed not to kill him. Indeed.
I made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes early: went to the wrong fountain/staircase at #45, overran #32 by a block, overran #31 by half a block. Ugh. Chalk those up to a hectic morning of managing newbies (from REACH and Gina's family), and trying to do everything on the course while explaining on-the-fly just what the heck we were supposed to be doing out there. Once we got to #43, I think we were ok.
At which point I realized how far ahead of schedule we were. So I decided to push farther into First Hill & Capitol Hill once we hit #55. Undershot #41 by a block, but it worked out ok. Went through campus from #41 to #42, and found more buildings (in the way) that were mapped. Worked out ok, though. Took the long leg (#53 to #36) along Pine to save some climb. Picking up the extra checkpoints meant skipping #33.
#36 was hilarious, as I mentioned to John just before entering Pacific Place that our exit (from #36) was going to be across 6th (towards #22). I went into the building to snag the answer, and when I turned around, John wasn't there. I went outside the building. He wasn't there. I went back inside. Nope. I went back outside, and looked across 6th. There he was! He mistook my "exit strategy" as directions... and did just that. Haha!
No real troubles after that. Ran into the rest of the fam at the carousel. I thought we managed our end game well, heading downhill doing #34-12-11-23-24-finish (we picked up #13 and #14 first).
Finished 7 minutes early or so, plus lost about 3 minutes to early mistakes. With 10 extra minutes, we could have cleared the course, had we known from the beginning that we could have cleared the course. Always tough to predict these things with new teammates! Again, nobody got killed, so a success, right? :-)
As usual, the REACH crew (and Gina's fam) went to Pike Brewing afterward to eat and drink.