2006 Street Scramble at The Market --; More Cowbell race report

The two-hour format was a nice challenge, as neither of us had a good idea of how much ground we'd be able to cover, especially since this was Shaine's first scramble. We decided to save the 130 points near the EC (in the Market) for the very end and start out with the CPs in the retail core before heading up to Capitol Hill and First Hill. We figured we'd then have plenty of time to get down to Safeco Field and along the waterfront and bck. Ideally we'd also get out to the Regrade and Seattle Center. CP 11 was never an option--too out-of-the-way and hilly for 10 points. We also assumed we wouldn't have time for CP 32. A perfect run would get us a maximum of 960 points.

Our goal was to be at Safeco Field 60 minutes into the event; in fact we were there at 65 minutes (time required to mark answers without destroying the sheet cost us here and there). We then slowed considerably and had to cut not only the Seattle Center but CP 36 (a total of 100 points).

We had no trouble finding any of the CPs and so lost no time wandering. There was some ambiguity in the answers to CP 28 and CP 55, but we went with what seemed most likely and pressed on.

Raw route:

Retail core: 28-15-44-21-56-13-42
Capitol/First Hills: 52-34-43-35
Public buildings: 53-33 (we saw no way to avoid this backtracking)
Safeco/Waterfront: 31-54-24-45-22-37-12-55

At this point we were cold, wet and slowing enough that it was clear heading to Seattle Center would jeopardize the 130 points at the Market, so we headed straight up Bell St.

Denny regrade: 23-41
Market: 47-25-46-26-14-EC

Thanks a lot--we had a great time!