Kirkland
Early on Kirkland was listed as a location for a Sep 15th Scramble. It appears that it has since been removed from the schedule. I think this would be a great location for future consideration either starting in downtown where there is a park with a covered area and a lot of flat area with surrounding hills, or in the Juanita area which would be guaranteed to be hilly!
Steve E.
Bellevue / REACH
As far as attendance goes, I remember a ton of middle school track runners in Bellevue in 2005. That alone could have accounted for the high attendance that year. Over half of the decline from '06 to '07 was from REACH. We brought 13 last year and only 5 this year.
The decline in REACH attendance is likely due to the same reasons already mentioned. I'm only promoting four Street Scrambles to the REACH group this year, and Bellevue was not one of them. There's a lower saturation point with REACH folks, so I promote the ones that are the most interesting, like U-District, Fremont, Ballard, and Downtown. (Sorry, Bellevue).
Personally, I like exploring new places, and there are certain roads/parks/trails in Bellevue that I've covered in all three of the Scrambles there. However, I also like running around places I'm familar with, like North Seattle. As a Phinney Ridge resident, I can't complain with the lineup this year that includes U-District, Green Lake, Fremont, and Ballard!
As far as Seattle goes, I might like to see something in West Seattle or Queen Anne/Magnolia.
Eastside Street Scrambles
I'm sure there are multiple factors leading to declining turnout. I remember reading a write-up in the local Bellevue Reporter about the event a few weeks prior to it happening. Last year I think it was just listed in the calendar of events. This year I wasn't looking for it, and it didn't make itself apparent otherwise either. Although we can't trust the forecast in this area, for a week prior it was showing as a rainy day and the weather on Friday evening didn't hint towards anything otherwise. As it turned out, the weather was far superior to the sweltering heat of 2005 in my opinion! Also the previous two years it was held on Memorial Day Weekend, so there may be some factors both ways that could have affected turnout. It's really hard to say. As someone living in the area for only a few years, I like that it shows me new places in my neighborhood. So it's hard for me to get bored, but I can see possibility. Last year was my first year at U-district, and my route was almost as identical as it could be, considering the differing checkpoints and partner, which added a couple additional miles.
Another factor could just be the number of Scrambles. It's easier to miss one, knowing that there will be more to come. I think there will be a point of saturation, where there are just too many. I've seen it in another unrelated event I've participated in. Once the number of events expanded, it reached a point where individual event turnout decreased.
I could see rotating on the east side, especially since it's always exciting to explore a new area.
~Steve
Eastside Street Scrambles
Yes, we removed Kirkland because we didn't have anyone to serve as a local liaison.
We have had declining participation in Bellevue: 210 in 2005, about 180 in 2006, and about 165 last Saturday. We wonder if people are bored with Bellevue. Other explanations: we don't do publicity for the Eastside as well as we do for Seattle; our core participant base lives in Seattle and/or likes Seattle; competing events last weekend, and wet weather in 2006/07.
Eric and I are tossing around the idea of having regional rotations. For example, in the Eastside we could do Bellevue 2007, Kirkland 2008, and Redmond 2009. Then back to Bellevue. We could also have a Pierce County rotation: Puyallup/Tacoma/???. And Snohomish County as well.
The downside is that it doesn't allow community momentum to build, the way it seems to be building in Everett.
-- Terry