REACH Hi-Liters' Route

Here's our Google Maps route.

This was my 12th Street Scramble, and my 3rd in the U-District, so I guess I'm one of the more experienced Scramblers out there now. This experience definitely helped me out during the route-planning stage, because I had barely enough time to plan a route.

The Boeing REACH group had 27 members participate in this event, 70% of them first timers. Therefore, I spent most of my planning time distributing t-shirts, collecting money, trying to track down late team members, eating breakfast, and explaining to everyone what a Street Scramble was. I only used about 7 minutes (9:38 to 9:45) of the planning time for actually planning a route!

Let's go! We headed east to #21 first, where I chatted with Targo (overall winner on foot). He seemed to think that we were going to follow him, but we headed up to #44 and he headed south. We probably wasted about a minute at Ravenna Park looking for the right kiosk and making sure that we had the #28/44 swap correct. This is where we ran into Larry, the Ravenna Park "greeter"!

West to #17, and by this time I realized that I had forgotten to pack a PowerBar in my pocket... uh oh. I also realized that my rookie teammate wasn't as fit as he thought was. Over to #28 next, where there seemed to be a herd of Scramblers. And then up to #54 at Roosevelt High School. I remember having a checkpoint near there two years ago when it was still under renovations. We saw the REACH Bluepers up here.

Next was the long jog over to #52, which wasn't too bad. I live just four blocks from that checkpoint, so I knew exactly where it was and where to cut through the park to get there. Next up was #25, which in hindsight, was a long way to go for just 20 points. We found the question to be a little vague as the "single tree" was pretty wimpy, and there were some flowers there, too. Headed south to Wide World Books & Maps, where some window shoppers were amused with us and were watching us intently.

Headed east to #11, and then south to #38, where we saw our first competitors since Roosevelt High. Even though we weren't running anymore, we were still moving pretty good (my teammate was a Junior Olympian in race walking, believe it or not), so I decided that we should hop over the bridge to snag #32. We pretty much nailed that one flawlessly. While crossing the bridge, we ran into the two perennial rivals to the REACH Hi-Liters, the Whidbey Island Nerds and Swiss Miss.

Swung up to #14, where we didn't have to cross the street, then over to #19, and #34, where we ran into the REACH Bluepers again, as well as Vlad, running solo as REACH Orangeade. Due south down to #46, where we had to find a pretty subtle plaque... the "3m from water" clue saved the day.. found it right away.

#29 was on campus, where I spent way too many hours this winter designing orienteering courses. At this point, we had about an hour left, so I decided to take the risk of adding #24 and #45 to the route. There was a picnicking group at #24, and I was getting really hungry (no Powerbar, remember?). And #45 was a lot easier than the checkpoint that was near here last year.

Then it was back up to main campus, up a million-step staircase to #42. Ran into the REACH Happy Feet teams in the middle of the UW quad, where we coordinated our post-race meetup at Big Time Brewery. Up to #23, which created a little bit of a panic when the door was locked! But luckily the plaque was right there and barely visible.

We finished up with #36, #13, and #18. Bernice suggested a nifty little shortcut here, and then we lost a few minutes with a mob of people running around Tully's looking for something etched in the brick. Comical, to say the least. Then we finished with a couple of minutes to spare.

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600 points in 12.6 miles. Looking at those numbers, this is a higher ratio of points per mile than any of the previous 3-hour standard Scrambles that I've done. This was a pretty effiecient route. Usually, I find myself second-guessing a lot more after an event. But, I always second-guess a little bit, and here's what I've concluded.

* 43-38-11 would have saved us 1/10 mile (instead of 43-11-38).

* Removing #25 and adding #22 would have saved us 1/4 mile.

* I haven't checked, but replacing #52 with the 22-12-27 trio looks shorter.

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All in all, another fun event! I know that 26 of the 27 REACHers would want to come back for another one. Unfortunately, that other one was my teammate! But, at least he gave it a try!