2006 Seattle Night & Day Challenge, Kerie Raymond and Terry Farrah, 7-hour duathlon division, women's team
Report by Terry Farrah
For both loops we stuck pretty closel to our plan. The CPs we actually visited are as follows:
1180 points (after 50 point late penalty)
I, Terry, have been organizing these races since they began in 2003. This year, Eric agreed to direct the event so that I could compete. I partnered with Kerie Raymond, whom I'd met a year ago when she volunteered to vet the 2005 course. We'd raced together in the 2005 BEAST race at Rattlesnake Lake, and again, together with Linda Noble, in the 2006 BEAST race at Union Bay. It was at that BEAST race that we took on the name Ducks in Distress. This is a name that I'd wanted to use since 1985, when I saw some ducks that were stuck in the ice that had formed overnight on Green Lake.
Kerie and I trained for Night & Day using maps from 2003, which also had a Capitol Hill event center. We did a 3-1/2 hour foot loop one night, and a 3 hour bike loop another night. During these trainings we tested the strategy of planning a bike loop that stayed mostly on level ground, then forming a foot loop out of the remaining controls, still trying to minimize climb. During these trainings we covered 12 miles on foot and 20 miles on bike, so we decided to plan another 12 mile foot loop and a 25 mile bike loop for the actual race (our training bike loop had included a lot of futzing around with our equipment so we figured we'd go faster on race day.) On the advice of veteran urban orienteer Eileen Breseman, we cut pieces of string to these lengths at 1:35,000 (standard Night & Day map scale) and marked them off in mile increments.
The 90 minute planning period was hectic. We were both on the event staff, so it was hard to get away, and we hadn't had time to confer or to go over our gear in the morning. We sat down under a tree where Kerie planned a bike route and I planned a foot route. I had wanted to keep the bike as level as possible but Kerie talked me into climbing Magnolia hill, since 107 and 87 were so tempting there, plus there was 66 and 88 just across the locks. I told her she'd seen how slow I was on the hills and that if she still wanted to try it, I was game. We'd have to make the locks before 9:00, though. My proposed foot loop took us south since there weren't many high-pointers to the north once you subtracted our bike route.
We loaded up on water and sport beverage and made it out of the park only 3.5 minutes after start was called.
I was the primary navigator for this loop.
53: A fountain on the Seattle U campus. It was fun seeing the clusters of Night & Day participants wearing their orange or yellow bandanas and vests.
47: A fountain near the Keiro (?) building. We hit it spot on even though other teams seemed to be heading a block east to the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. We also took the route with the least climb. It helped that I'd ordered large scale maps and highlighted the exact route I wanted to take before the start. Kerie kept jogging even though (a) we'd mostly walked during our training, and (b) it was 20 degrees hotter than during our training. Was I seeing Kerie's competitive juices flowing? I suggested the rule, "jogging only on downhills in the shade". Kerie did not object.
54: A little park in the International District. Hit it spot on again, saving a few second by cutting across the block from the east. I congratulated myself on my excellent navigation. On Jackson Street we saw team Enger Management, whom we knew were trying for all CPs on bikes.
31: We did not make it to #31. So much for my excellent navigation. We'd tried to get to 12th Ave. via Jackson, but when we reached the intersection we found that Jackson was 100 feet over our heads. Rather than detour another 1/2 mile or so to get it, we changed our plan entirely and decided to omit both 31 and 85 in favor of 102. That was probably a better plan, anyway, because it was only 10 fewer points but a lot less climb.
84: I was feeling demoralized from my mistake, and it didn't help that we were now on that most dismal of pedestrian byways, Rainier Avenue, with little shade. I began to feel tired from the heat and possibly because I'd not slept the night before. It was refreshing to get on the path over the I-90 lid: thanks to Eric for drawing it on the map. Approaching 84 we saw Enger Management again, fixing a flat.
102: Cut directly east, hoping to be able to get through Mt. Baker Park, but found that private property blocked the way. Meandered south to the CP.
63: Pleasant walking along the lake. Were passed by Whidbey Island Nerds who were jogging at a good pace, following their Night & Day strategy of "5 hours running, 3 hours rest, 8 hours walking". Still, it was hard to imagine having the energy to jog continuously in that heat. At Mt. Baker Beach we saw an ice cream truck and wanted to stop for ice cream bars, but the truck was crowded with kids. A second truck pulled up right behind and Kerie got us a spot near the front of the line for that truck. She got some kind of fudge bar and I got a Reese's ice cream bar.
64: I'd planned a route near the water but Kerie convinced me it would be better to stay high. Walking north a large rounded green hill loomed in front of us. I looked at my map and realized that #64 was at the top of that hill (Madrona Hill). We passed a 7-hour foot team along the way. Kerie found us a trail cutting through Frink Park.
We could have gotten 12 and/or 14 on the way back, but we decided to go directly back to maximize our time on the bikes. We were back at Cal Anderson just a few seconds before 7:30.
We had the world's slowest transition as we fussed with our gear, changed clothes, ate, and drank. All told we probably took about 35 minutes, between time spent at Cal Anderson and time spent at Kerie's car. If we'd made more time to prepare before the race, we could certainly have cut this in half. So we ended up having less than 3 hours on our bikes.
68-101-34-16: We hit these bang-bang-bang-bang with Kerie leading me on an all-downhill route through downtown. It helped a lot that Kerie had written down all the street names for our route.
107: Very pleasant ride through Myrtle Edwards Park and the Interbay Bike Trail, then a gradual climb up Magnolia Hill. I let Kerie do all the map reading as I was working hard just to keep up with her physically. I think we had a little inefficiency in the last bit of our route. Saw Enger Management again. It was fun counting the puppets in the public art at the fire station. Dave and Will warned us against trying to make the locks by 9:00.
87: Elaborate windmill in someone's yard. We encountered another team here who had decided not to try for the locks. It was nearly 9:00. Kerie was optimistic. Maybe there would be a nice person at the locks who would let us through a few minutes late, right?
66 and 88: Heartbreaker–we did not, alas, make the locks, so we decided to cross on the Ballard Bridge and skip these two high-pointers.
65: I did not like crossing the Ballard Bridge on bike, and acquired a crankiness and unhappiness during the crossing that remained with me for the rest of the race. We had a little inefficiency getting to 65, a little park in Ballard.
45-25-81: Saw Jake Reeder along this bit. He was cranky about not having found 47 and about having gotten a flat 10 minutes into the race. Jake does very well at urban bike orienteering and I was surprised to see that he was as inefficient at the CPs as I was. I think Ben Hall's secret is his question sheet roller board. It was nice being on the Burke Gilman, away from noise and traffic. (Ben Hall wins every Street Scramble he enters on bike, usually getting all CPs.)
33: Awesome lighted spires in the new Nordheim apartment (or condo?) complex near the UW. They looked great right at dusk.
81: Ronald McDonald House. I'd never been there before. After this one, we turned around and sped back along the B-G trail to the Montlake Bridge. Although the B-G trail was pleasant, I was still very cranky and tired, and I was dreading the final stretch which I knew would include a long, grueling climb up 24th Ave E.
61: Bell near MOHAI. So cranky. I told Kerie I did not want to go for any more CPs. I knew that it would stretch my abilities just to make it back to the Event Center on time, and I didn't want to push myself any more.
21: The slog up 24th was as grueling as it had been during training the week before. It reminded me of every difficult and seemingly never-ending task I'd suffered through in my entire life. We rode through Miller Park and I was ready to kill Kerie when she stopped and asked, "What is the clue for #21?" "I don't want to do any more checkpoints!" I cried. "We're right here! It's right here! It's right on the way!" Kerie replied. Unhappily I turned my headlamp on and dug our crumpled question sheet out of my map case. It seemed likely we were going to be late.
Finish: We were 5 minutes late back to Seattle Running Company. I was not surprised that we had won our class–we were the only women's team to enter in the 7-hour duathlon– but I was pleasantly surprised to see that our score compared quite favorably with those of the other 7-hour teams.
Postscript: The next morning, Eric and I returned to Miller Park to return some event equipment. CP #21, which had upset me so the night before, was now delightful, and we played in the fountain to cool down and relax.
Thanks, Kerie, for racing with me, and thanks, Eric, for going solo as event director so that I could have this experience!